on the on air killings in Virginia---
“THIS HAS TO STOP’--- a lot of folks say and post and debate---that’s the WHAT…..the thing that eludes us is the HOW….because saying THIS HAS TO STOP when it applies to gun killings in this country is like saying WE HAVE TO START MAKING IT RAIN MORE OFTEN….ask any Californian how that’s working out for em?.....
inevitably the conversation leaps immediately to the pro gun, anti gun, gun control versus the second amendment argument….and that argument is a hamster wheel of yes I will, no you won’t…..ask any divorcing couple how THAT argument worked when they were still talking to each other---
then, those who think the right to bear arms is a blank check and not specific amount earmarked for personal safety start babbling about the government coming and taking away all the guns……you know, they say, that’s how Hitler got started…..historically, that’s only partly true but it misses the bigger picture…and here’s the bigger picture….it’s NOT 1932 anymore….and even IF the government of the United States could somehow circumvent the will of the people of the United States and attempt to confiscate weapons, there are so many guns in so many houses in this country that all the confiscators would get for their trouble is shot up real good…cause it would be war, ya’ll….real honest to God shoot em up war….it wouldn’t be 1932 anymore…it would be 1862 and CIVIL WAR II—THE RECKONING….so the fear that Obama or any of his Muslim buddies will stopping by and TAKING AWAY YOUR GUNS IS WHAT YOUR DAD USED TO CALL A SILLY FEAR BECAUSE THE SHEER SCOPE OF WHAT WOULD BE REQUIRED IN THIS COUNTRY IN THIS DAY AND AGE TO MAKE THAT HAPPEN IS STAGGERING…THE REAL FEAR WE NEED TO DEAL WITH IS… PEOPLE WITH GUNS WHO NOT ONLY DON’T CARE ABOUT LAWS OR AUTHORITY, BUT WHO FEEL NO HESITATION AT ALL IN DISRESPECTING UP TO AND INCLUDING KILLING, POLICE OFFICERS.,,,not to mention reporters and cameramen….LIVES matter….or they don’t…..of all the things in this life that are color blind, that one belongs at the tippy top of the charts, cats and kiddies….
THIS HAS TO STOP….yeah, we get it…..even the stupid ones get it…..knowing WHAT ultimately mean SQUAT unless we stop babbling about the second amendment and start changing THIS HAS TO STOP into THIS IS HOW WE STOP IT………….I’m open for suggestion…whadda ya got?
on the right to bear arms (again)---
I heard some so called news analysts, commentators, etc on Fox News wailing about how Hillary was politicizing a tragic event in order to beat the drum, again for gun control…..
what she said was gun VIOLENCE and, yes, she did use the word control in her statement and that, unfortunately, is where the rootin tootin six gun shootin Tourettes that I talk about all the time kicked in for those who aren’t interested in having ANY discussion WHATSOVER about guns other than the discussion that starts and ends with the phrase, right to bear arms which translates, for them, as any damn gun and as many damn guns any damn time I want….. until, or even unless, a way is found to actually listen to each other, have the conversation and start talking about how to fix this problem, the problem will remain unfixed and more people will die….and I fall back on what has become MY standard fallback phrase….take EVERYTHING else off the table of discussion and to those who don’t want to have the conversation AT ALL I offer this….the way things ARE….aint workin…what else you got?....and to try and help put it in a perspective you might appreciate more fully? do you have a daughter?…or a son? picture your daughter standing with a microphone in her hand interviewing another lady…picture your son broadcasting it live with his camera….now imagine the sounds of screams---and gunfire---
on the speaking bluntly and "telling it like it is"---
all those words from Charlie Daniels' open letter to Congress and, for that matter, most every thing Donald Trump has to say are, on the surface, expressions of free speech, one of those freedoms that we snarl like tigers and hiss like snakes when anybody comes close to talking about taking away from us….but here’s a thought about what lies underneath those words…
the one thing that people of all persuasions seem to be able to agree on lately is that Trump and, now in this letter, Charlie Daniels are “telling it like it is”….and it’s hard to argue against that because things are pretty screwed up in this country…and politicians, as a rule, don’t get elected unless they manage to talk out of all sides of their mouths….Charlie Daniels sure isnt doing THAT in this letter and Trump isn’t doing that either and that’s why he seems like a breath of fresh air…but let me you offer something else Charlie Daniels didn’t do in this letter and something else Donald Trump isn’t doing with his “telling it like it is”….they’re not inspiring…they’re inciting…lifting people up out of despair and frustration, motivating them to join ranks and change what needs changing, energizing them to be better than they are and make this country the best that it can be IS NOT the same thing as turning them into a mob, pushing their hot buttons to start a fire that will burn the village down long before it lights the way to a better life for your kids and your grandkids and IT IS NOT the kind of leadership that inspires good people to work together to find a way from bad place to a better place…it is the kind of leadership that incites bad people to become a lynch mob, coming up on whatever, or whoever, they don’t like and burning it or them to the ground or hanging it, or them, from a tree---
during Donald Trumps rally in Alabama while he was talking about his immigration policy plans, more than one voice was heard to cry out WHITE POWER!....hmmm..
those who want our votes don’t have to be perfect…Abraham Lincoln was a manic depressive, but he inspired people…Franklin Roosevelt was a adulterer, a racist and a rich snob, but he inspired people---John F Kennedy was a drug abusing skirt chaser, but he inspired people---
Charlie Daniels, with his letter, Donald Trump with his speeches and, for that matter, a lot of those who want to be President of this country aren’t inspiring anybody…but they’re inciting a whole lot of people……
let’s think about that and ask ourselves if we don’t deserve better…if, for that matter, we shouldn’t be demanding better?....
oh, and if any of my opinions here offend you…all I can offer you is that I’m telling it like it is……
on the staggering number of citizens who know pretty much everything---
one quirk of being a citizen in a
country where we’re allowed to say whatever we think is that saying it doesn’t automatically
make it either the truth or correct…and I never ceased to be amazed by the
number of Americans who think they know more about the intricacies of ANYTHING
than the people who deal with those things every single day…I’m not saying that
the Iran deal is good…or bad…because frankly, I don’t have enough access to
enough information to make an “informed” decision about that…I have to kind of
live within the system…and that system provides that I trust the judgment of
whoever it was I voted for to represent me
in these kinds of things…bottom line…99.9 percent of the time when you hear
something like “I think this is a bad decision” what you’re really hearing is “I
didn’t vote for that clown and if things turn to shit on this deal, you clowns
who did vote for him or her have no one to blame but yourself…” well,
that may be true…and it is your right to say that…but saying “I’m hereby
calling dibs on that clown YOU voted for turning out to BE a clown” doesn’t
exactly add anything even remotely positive or even helpful to the effort to
make things better for our kids and grandkids, does it? again...the question is...what else ya got?
on the question "should kids' summer last until after Labor Day?"---
...sentimentally,
yes, I think no school until after Labor Day….if it was still 1959…but its not
a 1959 world anymore and if we are serious about competing, no, make that, if
we are serious about leading the world as we once did, then education is the
trump card, no pun intended….and that means sucking it up, teaching our kids a
new version of the work ethic which includes going to school more than just
enough to get by…….
on how being shot to death can put a real damper on weekend activities---
This weekend was filled with the sounds of summer slowly but surely drawing to a close, backyard barbecues, families gathered together, splashing in the pool, traffic lined up for miles as folks headed to the beach and enjoyed the sound of the waves hitting the sand….Alison Parker and Adam Ward would almost surely have enjoyed and probably had plans to be a part of one or more of those summer sounds---because they weren’t supposed to be dead this weekend---People all over the country were talking about the continued craziness of the forthcoming presidential election, what a vast and varied group of people are trying to become the leader of the free world, how unique and unusual personalities like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, just to name two, are actually seriously being considered for the highest office in the land…Alison Parker and Adam Ward would almost surely have been involved in one or more of those discussions, being young and idealistic and certainly interested in what’s going on in the country and in the community they served----because they weren’t supposed to be dead this weekend---
Couples from coast to coast were making wedding plans and reception plans and honeymoon plans, a whole lot of planning of a whole lot of activity climaxing in the beginning of a new and hopefully, happy, healthy and safe life filled with achievement and accomplishment and children and, someday, grandchildren….Alison and Adam, both being engaged to be married, would have surely been knee deep in making just those kinds of plans---because they weren’t supposed to be dead this weekend---And across America on this weekend, like, sadly, so many other weekends lately, people read and watched and talked and shared and debated and argued as another senseless shooting took the lives of people who were guilty of nothing more than simply, and sadly, being in the wrong place at the wrong time…tears were shed, hearts were broken, dreams came to a screaming. crashing halt as lives were abruptly and brutally ended….and being energetic, energized, engaged and committed to the seeking out of news and the lives of those around them, Alison Parker and Adam Ward would most certainly have been part of the reading and watching and talking and sharing and debating and arguing….because they weren’t supposed to be dead this weekendAnd this time, unlike the other times, too many other times, those who reported the news….became the news….and in the most horrifically tragic and ironic twist of all, their last on air report was breaking news….as the news broke our hearts…..because Alison Parker and Adam Ward weren’t supposed to be dead this weekend….
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