Let’s Stand Up and Be Heard: Call For Gun Control

Another day, another shooting. Or several shootings. I’ve had enough talk where politicians wring there hands and say nothing can be done about guns. Or let’s look at mental health. It’s time Americans stood up and said, “Enough talk. Let’s see some action. Take their guns away.”

And it is an American phenomenon. Because we are a country of guns. Elisabeth Rosenthal eloquently and factually explained, More Guns = More Killing. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/06/sunday-review/more-guns-more-killing.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130106&_r=0

Below, I am re-posting an essay I wrote back in 2012. The location of the shooting is different. The victims this time are college-aged rather than elementary age. But three years later and we are still dealing with the same problems, the lack of will by elected politicians to do something that actually will make a difference. That is, take away the military-style weapons from the general populace.

Enough with blaming mental health professionals for not identifying which particular young or middle-aged or old male will be the next mass shooter. Most of these mass killers are male—that is probably the best demographic in identifying the next shooter. Women tend not to kill a whole group of strangers first if they decide to end their lives. We do not have the ability to identify who is going to suddenly decide to take out a bunch of other innocents as he ends his life is a news-worthy fashion. But we do have the ability to prevent every-day folks from acquiring an arsenal.

Mental health professionals, even the best of them, and I’m married to one of them, cannot predict which loner, which disaffected person, which otherwise normal person is going to be that one. This latest shooter, like a lot of the other mass-shooters, while perhaps a little strange, or someone who kept to himself, did not do or say anything that under current laws would have given a clear clue he needed to be committed or kept from having access to the ridiculous, military-style, deadly weapons legally available in so many places.

Let’s stop giving a pass to politicians too cowardly to stand up and do what’s right. “Stuff happens.” That’s what Jeb Bush said of the most recent mass shooting. He used the cleaned-up version of “Shit happens.” Is that what he would have said if he had known one of the victims? I think not.

The demi-god Trump said something like, “It’s too terrible to talk about.” He who talks about everything and is not afraid to go anywhere. Another coward.

Hillary is not a god, or even a demi-goddess. But she has mustered, even before this latest tragedy, the courage to come forward and argue for sensible gun control. Good for her and for anyone else who has the courage to make themselves a target of the NRA and do something to stop the next tragedy before it happens.

That is my litmus test for a politician who will get my vote. They must be willing to take on the NRA. They must be willing to talk about sensible gun control.

These latest shooting victims could have been my children. My grandchildren. My husband. Me or my friends. Or they could have been you or yours. Do you think the families of the latest victims suffer any less than you or I would if it had been our family’s loss? Does each and every one of us have to lose someone before we put an end to the madness?

Join me and shout “Enough”. I will not support any candidate who does not speak out and stand up for sensible gun control.

CALL THE PONY EXPRESS—ANOTHER “INDIAN” MASSACRE

Written December 2012

I promised myself I would write more upbeat, happy essays. After all, life is too short to wallow in sadness. And I did claim this blog was mostly about the amusing things in life with only an occasional dose of seriosity.

But then I turn on the news and see the funerals of little children.

Local news is no better. If they are not covering the national tragedy in Connecticut, they are reporting on local violence and threats to schools in Jefferson and other counties in Kentucky.

Meanwhile, the front page headline of Louisville’s Courier Journal proclaims drastic budget cuts in Kentucky to school safety. A Kentucky state representative is quoted as saying we “need to study” what happened in Connecticut before we think about putting more money into school safety.

We aren’t back in the 1700’s, which incidentally is when the Second Amendment was adopted, and when stagecoaches and the Pony Express carried the news. Don’t we already know what happened?

A young male with easy access to military style weaponry shot his way into a locked school and massacred little children. Back in the 1700’s I suppose we would have called out the Calvary and blamed the Indians for rampaging. Maybe we would have evacuated families with children to a fort.

In the New York Times an architect writes about how we should “harden” our schools like we have done for airplane cockpits to keep the crazies with guns out. Or maybe we should just make schools, movie theaters, churches, mosques, shopping malls and wherever else a crazy person with legally-purchased automatic or semiautomatic weaponry and accouterments might go into fortresses. That would take a lot more money and for more than just school safety.

Retreating to fortresses would not protect us and our children even if we could afford it. The answer is obvious as the noses on our face and the guns in our hands.

 Our love affair with guns and belief in an inalienable right to a gun-toting “frontier” way of life with 21^st century weapons has created the opportunity for this mass carnage of innocents.  And politicians’ blind adherence, until now when some sane voices have emerged, including Louisville’s own brave Representative John Yarmuth, to the NRA’s big stick have the blood of innocent children on their hands.

What century are we in—with 21^st Century guns and an 18^th century mentality?

Elephants Lost in the Tall Weeds

The first debate did little to hide the misogynistic and absurd tendencies of the Republican candidates.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/07/opinion/paul-krugman-from-trump-on-down-the-republicans-cant-be-serious.html?smid=nytcore-ipad-share&smprod

It’s hard to believe more than a radical fringe would ever vote Republican again when that party’s base so strongly supports a man, calling himself “The Donald”, who sets out to brand himself as one who can belittle and insult more than half the population.

Donald Trump not only could not explain away his many nasty comments about women but he added to his ridiculous and insulting remarks after the debate when he attacked the only female interviewer, Megyn Kelly, suggesting why she had been so aggressive towards him, “You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.”

Good one, Donald. When you can’t handle the heat or the questions, attack the questioner. And suggest, as insultingly as you can, she doesn’t love you because right now she’s hormonal.

But Trump is hardly the only male Republican candidate who lacks respect for women’s minds and bodies. Republican candidates tried to out-extreme each other, several saying they would countenance no exceptions to allow abortions in cases of rape or incest.

Scott Walker’s position is so extreme he brings to mind aliens in the movie “Independence Day”. He has a one-word response to a woman with a life-threatening pregnancy: Die.

 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/08/us/politics/fear-that-debate-could-hurt-gop-in-womens-eyes.html?smid=nytcore-

Given their positions and their raucous support for women-hating candidates, Republicans are right to worry how they can gain any votes from the fairer sex, or anyone with a brain.

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2015/08/07/3689094/extreme-abortion-rhetoric-debate/

 Smart Republicans, forgive the oxymoron, recognize they have a teensy little problem appealing to the female demographic, not to mention younger voters, voters of color, and well, anyone with any sense. But they have come up with a clever solution for at least that female problem. Well-planted propaganda in the form of op-eds, preferably penned by women, to appeal to what they believe is a woman’s vanity and stupid-side of the brain.

A case in point: Bridget Bush’s column, “Tanning Bed Tax Does Much Harm, No Good”, published in the August 5 Courier Journal.

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/opinion/columnists/2015/08/04/bush-tanning-bed-tax-much-harm-good/31113165/

The article is aptly headlined; just one word needs to be omitted: “Tax”.

This propaganda piece was so ridiculous that a recent letter to the editor suggested she thought it was from “The Onion”. In an otherwise greatly decreased, and some might say, diminished newspaper, a full column was wasted on this so-called “Guest Editorial”.

Let’s look at what Ms. Bush says. Without any factual support or citation, she states the tanning bed industry disputes that the use of their tanning beds causes cancer. In actual fact, the use of tanning beds before age 35 increases the risk of melanoma by 75%: tanning beds are now in the highest cancer risk category. In addition to greatly increasing the risk of cancer, a few of the other risks associated with indoor tanning include eye damage, suppression of the immune system and premature aging. See, for example,

http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm186687.htm

Saying the tanning bed industry disputes the facts is a lot like saying the tobacco industry disputes tobacco causes lung cancer. Much like what spews from Donald Trump’s mouth, Ms. Bush’s column is balderdash. And it’s balderdash for a profit motive.

Making a claim that is contrary to the scientific evidence is not the same as actually raising a serious factual question. Why the CJ wastes space on such tripe is beyond my ability to fathom.

The fact that this tax has decreased the use of tanning beds and tanning businesses is the best evidence the tax is a success. Ms. Bush’s simplistic arguments the tanning bed tax has not been useful because it was insufficient to fund Obamacare, when even she admits it was never intended to solely support the whole program, is too ludicrous to merit a response.

Since Ms. Bush acknowledges the tax has resulted in less use of tanning beds she might consider adding as a major benefit of the tax the avoidance of so many disfigurements, injuries and deaths, as well as the health care costs avoided as a result of the decreased use of tanning beds.

But let’s talk about what Ms. Bush says bothers her most about the tanning bed tax, that is, “its disproportionate effect on women.”  Of course, her statement is designed to try to deal with Republicans well-deserved struggle to draw votes from women, particularly young women. Do Republicans seriously believe women are so gullible they will think Republicans care about them because they oppose the tanning bed tax?

Even if we are not elephants, many women have long enough memories to recognize and remember  the many assaults and insults by Republicans, some of them recent, such as during and after the debate.  And then there are the many other Republican attacks on anything benefitting women. Just this week, Jeb Bush said he was not sure we should spend so much on women’s health care. Less than two hours later he was “walking back” that comment.

The Republicans have a long history of outrageous attacks on and insults to women. Though not limited to that arena, many involve women’s reproduction rights. The Republican comments are so jaw-dropping as to be unforgettable.

All of the following are Republicans: Todd Aiken (women seldom get pregnant in a “legitimate rape”.); Richard Murdoch (suggesting God intended a rape if it results in pregnancy); Roger Rivard (“Some girls rape easy.”); Tom Smith (suggesting a pregnancy out-of-wedlock is a lot like a pregnancy resulting from rape.).

See also the Blunt Amendment that would have allowed employers to withhold insurance coverage for contraception and GOP support for so-called “personhood” laws that would criminalize some types of contraception.  

And let’s not forget such clever Republican proposals as making birth control available over the counter, incidentally, the subject of another Bridget Bush op-ed published in the CJ. What better way to accomplish another Republican goal-- undermine Obamacare and its requirement that birth control be covered by insurance plans.

http://op-talk.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/29/why-are-republicans-in-favor-of-over-the-counter-birth-control/?smid=nytcore- -

We, that is, anyone with a sentient brain, recognize these Republican “slips of the tongue” and their actual agenda for what they are: signals to the extremist elements now trying to direct the Republican agenda. These “wingnuts”, to borrow a John McCain phrase, one Republican who occasionally engages in “truthiness”, are telling us loudly and clearly they will trash women’s health care and other rights. And they don’t mind insulting us if we go along for the ride.

Ms. Bush is identified as the founder of “Elephants in the Bluegrass” blog. A better name for her and those in her group might be “Elephants Lost in the Tall Weeds”.