SHADES OF THE CIVIL WAR

While I slowly extricated myself from the extreme right wing and fascist-minded mental delusion that captivated my life for so long, much of that mindset maintained its control over my subconscious and far too much of my conscious mentality.  The growth out of it has been slow and by no means painless.  I have not yet attained, and probably never will, total freedom from it.  It's like a software program that buries electronic "hooks" in your computer and tenaciously refuses to let go. 

For decades, I assumed, like millions of others, that the second amendment to the constitution was inserted primarily to make self-defense possible against foreign incursion and domestic tyranny.  That's not necessarily the case.

Here's a very thought provoking post from the Freethought blog Pharyngula:

Root of all evil?

Categories:

History, Politics

by PZ Myers

While I’m criticizing the South, I should also damn the whole country. They Yankees also contributed to the history of slavery: that whole second amendment thing that troubles us so much now was a sop to slavery, enabling ‘militias’ that were intended to capture escaped slaves and suppress insurrections.

…most southern men between ages 18 and 45 – including physicians and ministers – had to serve on slave patrol in the militia at one time or another in their lives.
And slave rebellions were keeping the slave patrols busy.
By the time the Constitution was ratified, hundreds of substantial slave uprisings had occurred across the South. Blacks outnumbered whites in large areas, and the state militias were used to both prevent and to put down slave uprisings. …slavery can only exist in the context of a police state, and the enforcement of that police state was the explicit job of the militias.

So many of the high ideals of this country were poisoned by compromises to allow deep inequities. And the founding fathers were complicit.

"ASSAULT" MEANS ASSAULT

I'm all for law-abiding, mentally competent citizens having whatever shotgun, rifle or pistol they feel is necessary for home protection, hunting, etc.  When farmers in North Dakota, my original home state, couldn't hunt deer during and immediately after World War II, the deer population got out of hand and were destroying crops, hay, etc.  As soon as a hunting season was declared and ammunition was handy, the over-population problem went away.  There are still lots of deer in North Dakota, but a yearly regulated hunting season keeps the population in check. 

You don't go hunting that 12-point buck with an assault rifle.  A bolt-action rifle with a moderate ammunition clip suffices just fine.  Even a slug-loaded shotgun will do.  People aren't contemplating hunting animals when they buy assault rifles.  What's in their heads is the possibility of hunting people they regard as enemies and/or threats or nuisances.

That's where the "assault" part and the multiple round clips come in.

A lady who attended one of our free-thought get-togethers summed it up succinctly when she stated that we need them to protect ourselves against "the government."  Our group doesn't endorse that kind of thinking and she hasn't been seen again.  I think she was looking for something much more anarchical than our opposition to religious and philosophical despotism.

There is an undertone of suspicion in the minds of too many Americans.  They regard "governemnt" with a jaundiced eye, forgetting that the government is us and is controlled by those we elect.  They're absolutely convinced that there is some grand conspiracy to impose a dictatorship on all of us and that dictatorship comprises anything with which they happen to disagree. 

If the government doesn't go along with what they demand, they dream that they can take to the hills and trenches and forceably supplant it with the "freedom" of their government -- which would be the real dictatorship.  Their 'Ramboesque" dream is made all the more erotic by holding that marvel of assault power in their hands.  They might not be all that well endowed down below but that assault rifle is a mightly potent phallic symbol -- in their fantasies.  Real he-man stuff!  (I haven't quite figured out the basic appeal to some women.)

We have enough problems to deal with in countering foreign terrorists.  The last thing we need is a Middle Eastern style civil war erupting in our own nation.  Our problems need to be hashed out in legislatures, not battlefronts.  We haven't totally recovered from the effects of our last civil war, a century and a half ago.  We don't need crazies bringing on another bloodbath while they sacrifice themselves to jet aircraft, missiles, drones -- you get the picture -- and tear our beloved nation apart, making our international position all the more perilous.

It's time for reason and cooperation, not assault!

WORSE THAN THE WILD WEST

Most of us spent our youths fantasizing about the wild west which was a constant theme on the "silver screen," radio and early TV.  Much of it was overblown.  There was a subculture, especially after the Civil War, centered around crime and banditry and gunslinging, but it was always a minority in the population.  Women and children and the sanctity of the home were generally respected.  In fact, my grandparents who homesteaded in North Dakota shortly after the turn of the century never locked their doors, and neither did my parents until about the nineteen fifties or sixties.  Society was changing even then and not for the best.

Even the gunslingers who dueled with each other were generally a problem only in isolated areas like mining towns and Dodge City and they tended to wipe each other out and disappear as soon as the civilizing process through the introduction of women folk, education and churches began taking effect.  I'm pretty sure that most areas of Deadwood and Tombstone were a lot safer for the average child and adult than some areas of Chicago and new York are today, with so many irresponsible individuals owning or stealing guns and spraying bullets with abandon.

Our ancestors sought for the calming effects of civilization and consciously set out to find and apply them.  They wanted safe neighborhoods where wearing guns would become obsolete.  Tombstone even had a statute against citizens wearing guns in town, and enforcing that law against some lawless elements was one factor that led to the famous shootout at the O K Corral.  That "wild west" attitude is quite a contrast with the current attitude exhibited by Wayne LaPierre.

He actually said, "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."

He went on to blame everything from video games and TV shows to a violent culture for the problems we face and called for armed guards in all schools.  He conveniently neglected to suggest ways to pay for such armed protection.  Even if such "protectors" were volunteers, the administration of such a program by school districts, local, state and national government would be astronomical.  I'm sure he doesn't want taxes increased on his corporation or his overpaid self to take care of it.  Probably, he would take the common GOP and tea party approach of cutting more desperately needed safety nets away from desperately needy citizens while he expected the resulting increase in desperation to lead to "law and order."

I don't blame him for not taking questions after such a display of stupidity and ignorance. 

It is impossible to have a civilized society under our present system of letting everyone, regardless of need or qualifications, to be armed to the teeth with military style weaponry and to walk around with impunity any place they choose to do so.  As I pointed out recently: http://theageofreason--21stcentury.blogspot.com/2012/12/sums-it-up-perfectly.html and:  http://theageofreason--21stcentury.blogspot.com/2012/12/time-to-wise-up_14.html, the idea of becoming the member of an etremist militia and "saving America" is pure nonsense and it is an attitude that gave us one civil war a century and a half ago.  Do we really want to precipitate another such paroxism of bloodletting?

As for me, I don't want to see schools transformed into a scene approximating a prison or concentration camp.  I don't want teachers having to strap on holsters filled with loaded guns every morning.  I don't want to walk down the streets of Cottonwood, or anywhere else, and wonder if some deranged individual is going to send either an aimed or ricochet bullet my way or the way of some unsuspecting child merrily skipping rope or tagging along on a shopping trip.

Please, let's see some sanity!

P.S:  P. Z. Meyers has a good statement about this nonsense as well:  http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/12/21/the-nra-has-spoken/

And, check out Lawrence O'Donnell:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/22/lawrence-odonnell-nra-lapierre_n_2349965.html

TIME TO WISE UP

What a horrible day!

I've spent much of the day glued to the television screen, apalled by the senseless slaughter of innocent children and adults in Newtown, Connecticut.  Gone are the days I remember from my own youth when children went off to school with no worry of some deranged person invading with guns and summarily executing them and their teachers.  Teachers could concentrate on the 3 R's, not on crisis training to deal with such madness.

My rural community was full of guns, mainly rifles and shotguns for the annual hunt and dealing with predatory "varmints."  Little, if any, thought was given to someone invading their homes and certainly not the local school with murder and mayhem on their mind.

I remember my dad handing me his old .22 rifle when I turned 14 and giving me stern instructions how to handle it.  He let me know that if I ever brought that rifle into the house with the clip in or the bolt closed, I wouldn't see it again for a long, long time.

We regarded guns as tools with a legitimate use, and certainly not for harming or even threatening another human being.  I'm sure there were mentally deficient and challenged people somewhere in our community, but for some reason, they never became the kind of community dangers they seem to be today.  I think they were usually consigned to asylums and homes where they could be properly cared for and monitored.  Today, we are too concerned about "entitlements," the possibility of unjust incarceration just to get rid of unwanted people, and especially the social expenses that might take a few dollars away from the bloated rich.  Thus, people who should be supervised and cared for by experts are left to prowl their communities and we have inevitable tragedies such as we witnessed today and in Tucson.

I'm not in favor of draconian gun control.  Our forefathers demanded the right to keep and bear arms for logical reasons, and it wasn't just to be able to hunt.  They also wanted to be able to protect themselves and had no inkling of the world we now live in where resisting the rise of tyranny with individual arsenals would be the height of folly.  You can't resist a military armed with jet aricraft, helicopters, guided missiles, etc. with household arsenals!  Not even with assault rifles and multiple round ammunition clips!

No one needs anything other than rifles, shotguns, and handguns for hunting or home protection, and having to meet common sense standards of mental and psychological fitness and adequate instruction before such ownership is allowed is simply good common sense.  The Swiss are armed to the teeth, but they also have universal military training and know what they are doing when they pick up a gun.

Rather than think we can "save democracy" by becoming wild-eyed militia fanatics, we had better concentrate on electing qualified people who love and support democracy to public office so they can rein in the military industial complex and keep it from taking over our republic.  If that takeover ever succeeds, any militias that might exist would soon be "toast."

Just a few days ago, my friend, Mark Manning, wrote a very inciteful article on this very subject.  Rather than try to say the same things all over, I urge you to read his blog article:  http://manningtheneutralzone.blogspot.com/2012/12/guns-kill-people.html

That's all, folks.