guns

A Little Soap Box

If we are to progress in any meaningful way as a species we must overcome the particular fears and beliefs that have defined us throughout history and continue to define us today. This idea is not new. The idea to overcome humanity’s shortcomings by changing not only the way we think, but our actions and the reasons that we act is one that has been presented by great thinkers throughout the history of our species. We simply must learn to listen to them.

There are three frailties of humanity that stand in the way of progress. Make no mistake, these frailties do not stop progress completely, but only slow it down. The first is tribalism in all its forms. There can be no “us” versus “them”. Where there is patriotism there is nationalism, and where there is nationalism there is war. We have come to the point in our history where we cannot afford war.

The second shortcoming that will define humanity’s future for better or worse is ideological belief whether it is in a religious form or a political one. Ideology is a certitude that leads to tribalism, to the death of curiosity and to confusion. Our ideologies, if they define us, take over us and create a concrete bunker in which intellect dies. Our ideologies are born out of fear and arrogance. Not knowing an answer is always better than creating one out of thin air.

The third is as old as the gods and is known by many names: selfishness, avarice, greed. To have enough is something that does not come naturally to most of us and to have too much is something that is not often enough recognized. We have many excuses for our greed ranging from family to individual rights. Greed is too many times measured economically, but its seed is psychological.

The question must become what kind of society do we want to live in? The question will become what will we have to do in order to achieve this society. The question is simply when will we have to decide these things and how.

With a Gun in Its Hand

Image result for gun violence pics

That we all must live in a society is no longer a question; the question is what kind of society do we want to live in?  Most of us talk of a just society, a society in which we have liberties, we have rights.  But those words are more often than not code for “my” liberties, “my” rights.  In such a society discussions become battles we cannot fight; arguments become wars that we must not lose.

In order for a society to work there must be a basis, a foundation upon which we all can build.  We must fight fear and cannot ignore ignorance, but must meet it head on.  My liberties are our liberties; my rights are our rights.  Any group, any government administration, any corporation or individual which dismisses this foundation is no longer working towards a better society.

But what are rights and what are liberties, those words so many seem to throw around?  Rights are limitations, liberties are freedoms.  To have the one we must accept the other.  To have a civil and a peaceful society we must all come to understand this.  And, we must understand that fear, ignorance, ideals and ideologies will fail us all.

So as the roar of voices rage on and the vulgar have their pitiful time in the spotlight, those that believe that a peaceful rather than fearful, that a civil rather than ignorant society is possible must continue to carry the heavy load of human potential and not give in to the penchant to define freedom as violence and normal as the lowest denominator.  We do not do this for our children or our children’s children, we do this because it is the right thing to do; we do this because the ugly alternative is staring us in the face at this very moment… with a gun in its hand.

One More

NRA

This coming weekend I am faced with having to put a pistol to the head of my two pigs. When I talk to others about it we talk of the necessity of the killing, and how they’ve had a good life, which they have. I do not pick up a weapon lightly, and I do not kill anything with apathy; rather, I put the pistol to their heads with antipathy. I take a life, and I do it trying to be morally consistent and with respect for the finality of the act and because I live the way I do: I eat meat.

The recent slew of shootings is the opposite of respect or for that matter the understanding of the finality of death. These shootings are the symptom of, not the prelude of, the lack of understanding and dismissal of the respect that is necessary to take a life with purpose. These shootings are a symptom of how we as human beings have lost the understanding of the price of taking a life and replaced it with ignorance and fear, false empowerment and cowardice.

These shootings are allowed by apathy and a lack of antipathy for killing not because we are not capable, not because our leaders are not capable, but because we are unwilling and our leaders are unwilling to call the shootings what they are: our own responsibility. I kill my pigs, the pigs that I have watched grow and play with the understanding that I am responsible for their lives, but also and more importantly my own: I kill my pigs because I eat meat, not because I like to kill.

I remember when the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) motto was “Firearms Safety Education, Marksmanship Training, Shooting for Recreation”. This was almost a virtuous, an understandable goal. Now, the illustrious association prefers an excerpt from the constitution: a motto that was changed in 1977 to the one the N.R.A. still uses: “The Right of the People to Keep and Bear Arms Shall Not Be Infringed.” Mr. LaPierre leads the charge against a massive majority of this country’s populace who must endure and endless stream of shootings because a minority of people scream about concepts that they seemingly do not understand: rights.

What strikes me about the motto is the allusion to rights. But rights are actually restrictions, not guarantees. The use of a constitutional amendment is important, not because it is an excerpt of the basis of this country’s laws, but because of the word “amendment”. The term amendment alludes to change, to alteration: by its very wording the constitution is to be changed: the very thing the NRA led by LaPierre fights rabidly against.

The NRA is now nothing more than a terrorist organization belying their stated goals of protections of rights by their endless siege upon the safety and security of the persons in this country. They now hold this country hostage by disallowing amendments not only to the constitution concerning gun law, but to their obvious lack of antipathy towards killing: it seems they simply like to kill. With this in mind, I must hold a gun to kill the food that I will eat: I hate killing, but I am morally responsible for what I eat. The NRA supports the opposite: they kill because they immorally support concepts that they either do not understand or refuse to understand.

To the NRA I ask: “How many more times must we say “one more…”?
And the answer that they seem to give is: “As many times as it takes.”