Friday, December 14, 2012

This Final Outrage Cannot Stand!

28 Dead

The price for having the right to buy automatic high volume firearms just went up dramatically. We know it is bad when the President cries on national TV. It has been suggested apparently with a straight face arm teachers. Does this fool not realize most people do not wish to live in such a world? Does this fool not realize this does absolutely nothing to solve the problem? Can this fool not do basic math? Allow me to help. People with severe mental problems plus high volume automatic weapons equals tragedy.  Let's take a closer look at the above equation.

People with severe mental problems plus high volume automatic weapons equals tragedy. We have pretty much laid waste to our mental health system. Often, the poor with mental health issues, cycle in and out of prison with poor if any treatment. We throw these lives away. sometimes with deadly results. We bury ourselves deep with-in our fuck you winner take all capitalism isolated from the warmth and comfort of our fellow human beings. We are taught to fear one another. Anyone who looks different, acts different or has different beliefs is not to be trusted. Thus we get what we have today, a country in which there are more guns than people, a country in which the government issues permits for people to legally carry concealed deadly weapons and a country in which gun ownership is a right and health care is a business.  We call ourselves the home of the brave. How can this be further from the truth? We cower isolated in our homes so scared of our neighbors many of us feel it necessary to arm ourselves and apply for Conceal Carry permits. All the while being fed a river of molten fear via our TV's which we consume with out question. We stigmatize those who seek mental health services to the point of exclusion. No one wants to live with he's crazy or that family has a crazy person. People with meantal health issues are swept under the rug until they burn through in a final desperate act of rage. Yet, we ask ourselves "why" when such tragic avoidable events occour over and over. The shooter did not wake up yesterday and just decide to waste him mom and a bunch of kids. Something lead to this and I'm sure in the coming days we will hear of ignored warning signs, a long dark history of his life and missed chances to stop this. There can be no justification for his crime of mass murdering children. It is up to us to examine critically and with real courage a culture that could produce such a terrible event, our culture.

All too often, our heros have and use guns to resolve differences. Bang! Kill the "bad guy" -problem solved. Life never works this way. It is a sad over simplification for consumption by the feeble minded. How many of us really paid attention when Jesus said "Those who live by the sward die by the sward?" Not many. Violence has always begot more violence and it always will. We watch TV as women are murdered, beaten and raped and most often a male tracks down the criminal. We watch the choreographed barbarism of WWF and MMA fights and call ourselves peace loving.  Even the NFL is nothing but a group of gladiators who battle in a dangerous violent game each week. All of this passes for enterainmet. The 24 * 7 news media practically wets itself every time something like this happens. How about a different approach? Here's an idea. What else can be done?

We must demand restoration of our now gutted mental health system.
We must take the stigma out of seeking mental health care.
We need to make it more difficult for those with mental health issues to get their hands on guns.
We cannot snap our finger and 300 million plus guns be gone. We have to make violence unacceptable. This is the hardest task of all but we must try.
To do nothing is unacceptable. We cannot let these lives be lost in vain.            


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