GUNS GUNS EVERYWHERE ...

Well, I have been accused of ranting on FB because I disagree with the impassioned anti-gun group. First, because I disagree with you does not mean I am ranting ... anymore than suggesting that banning guns, banning the NRA, banning ANYTHING is a rant ... both are opinions. Furthermore, just because I am pro gun does NOT mean I am anti gun REFORM .... In point of fact, being on one side does not automatically preclude me from sharing similar ideas with people on another side - there IS substantial middle ground.... and until we COLLECTIVELY find and share that middle ground gun reform is dead in the water.

Second, if it actually IS ranting, it's not ranting to arm everyone and it's not ranting to outlaw guns --- it's ranting because this senseless slaughter of children and innocents pisses me off - not because they were killed with guns but because they were killed BY US for flatly REFUSING to even discuss SENSIBLE gun reform INCLUDING a full on assault against EVERYONE violating existing gun laws and UPDATING our national ability to track illegal firearms, guns used in crimes and seizures, etc. quickly and efficiently. I get why pro gun advocates don't like mandatory gun registration but if it saves even one single life of one single child isn't it worth at least considering? So I guess, yeah, maybe my middle of the road opinion that we are screwing the pooch on this one IS a rant but it's a rant for solutions that WORK-- not this f*cking bickering about being right or wrong..

Why, you ask, do I think it's dead if we stay divided into 2 factions a) arm everyone and b) ban guns? Because neither is going to happen in our lifetime and to believe otherwise is just foolish .... There are millions of gun owners who fall in that middle ground, responsible gun owners who have NOTHING to do with the current politicized NRA (rather than the old NRA which touted gun safety and responsible gun ownership). Men and women who own guns but also see how our world has changed from responsible leadership and parenting to a society that glorifies violence and let's kids raise themselves with the assistance of XBox, Netflix and cable TV. Gun owners who see a society that systematically desensitizes our youth to the reality of death. Gun owners who see a society so bitterly divided over the issue that they are afraid to even voice a moderately dissenting opinion for fear of being labeled by "the other side" and slammed squarely into the "right wing gun nut" category. Gun owners who see reasonable solutions that fall into both classes but don't want to speak out for fear of being accused of RANTING ...

This subject does not have to be as divisive as the two warring factions are making it and it does not have to mean an all or none ultimatum but we will continue to see blood shed, children die, innocents slaughtered and NO change if we keep this my way or the highway attitude. BOTH sides -the far right (all guns, all the time) AND the far left (no guns, ever) are responsible for this mess because NEITHER side is listening to reason, thinking through and DISCUSSING the problem and instead are reacting emotionally with criticism and judgment. Middle ground gun "advocates" who have no problem with gun reform (like myself) seem to have no place in this debate at all, yet we are the ones making the most common sense in the matter.

Resorting to name calling, accusing dissenters (on either side) of ranting, closing minds to REASONABLE solutions and planting yourself firmly in an all or none foundation will NEVER solve this problem and I don't care if Australia, Canada, the UK or Japan banned guns and it worked or DID NOT work ... we are not Australians or Canadians. We don't think like them, we don't live like they do or educate our children in the same manner, we don't have the same histories of breaking free from "tyrannical" governments, and although we have similar social issues they don't have social issues to the same extent that we face... but we CAN learn from them and maybe come up with ideas that won't alienate one another on the gun issue but I think I can safely promise that NOTHING -- ABSOLUTELY NOTHING will get done as long as the middle grounders are silent .... and as long as we try to silence dissenting opinions.

Elie Wiesel, writer, activist and Nobel Laureate and former prisoner in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps said it best. “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” I am on the side of the slaughtered and those who I can guarantee WILL BE slaughtered if the millions of sensible gun owners remain silent and refuse to take a stand for responsible gun ownership and REASONABLE gun control laws including unrelenting enforcement of existing gun laws.

Why Are We Here?

In Memory of My Friends:
Ruthie Haynes and the Donn Brothers
you all died too young

I watched this video How to Identify and Collect Psilocybin Mushrooms  and thought "I don't BELIEVE we used to do stupid sh*t like that" ... drive by a cow pasture after a rain (today we say "what cow pasture?") but yeah, we REALLY did have cow pastures in our little "urban" areas, anyway, drive by and say "wow, dude, cow pies, there might be MUSHROOMS" and we'd all pile out of the van and go digging around in cow sh*t looking for "purple rings" so we could run back home, brew some tea, make Kool-Aid or wine spritzers and try to commit suicide (or murder most foul if you let your friends drink it first)!!  Because, by today's standards and with our gradually maturing hindsight, we now UNDERSTAND that is exactly what we were doing.   

The great security and romance versus the inherent risk and tragedy of youth is the total inability to visualize MORTALITY.  Men and women "of a certain age" see their mortality crystal freakin' clear ... if we are up to 3D? 4D? then mortality is like 50D at that "certain age" and gets more clear daily. We are old, there isn't much that we haven't seen or done at least once... more if we liked it.

My heart tells me THAT is why we are here ... we are here to get old.  Don't panic. I'll get to "why some die too young and some don't".  I've heard it said that we are born to die and there is definitely truth in that statement. It's factual, undeniable, no 99.9% correct there - it's signed in blood, these old bodies are definitely going to poop the party but WHY are we here if it's just to die? First, I DO believe in eternal life, but I'm not into that at this moment ... my question is why the journey? and why do some live to see a one hundred  and others one day?  Whether or not you believe in eternal life and if you don't perhaps MORE so ... you must wonder "what is the point?" ... "why these hills and valleys?" ... "why is life so f*cking difficult?"

Simple.  I think we are born to grow older and wiser ... it is our ultimate destination, the culmination of our journey and whether we live like it or not, the mentally healthy among us do grow wiser.  ALL the sh*t that happens to us, how we act, react, the roads we take, people we meet, the people (and pets) we lose, it's our history and we learn from it, often too late.  We all know someone who died too young and each of those deaths should have taught us something.   It sounds silly even to me but I believe THAT was their purpose in life.  We have absolutely NO idea how the Lord might have used that person to further His greater goal.  Again, I don't want to muddy the waters here with religious overtures ... I simply believe that not one single life is taken or lost that cannot be used to achieve good, even achieve a greater good and perhaps, just perhaps, that was the way it was meant to be from the day that person was born.

There is no denying that each death of someone you knew or loved as a child, teen, young adult impacted you ... maybe even in ways you didn't or still don't recognize.  Multiply that by every single person who knew the person, knew about the death or might later LEARN about the death. It's just not that hard for me to imagine a death of seemingly little importance, impacting someone who will profoundly change the future. The dichotomy of death is that it can be both beautiful and tragic.  The beauty is that it can change other lives for the better, the tragedy is when we waste the opportunity to MAKE their death meaningful. Learn from it, use it to save another life, let it change us for the better.

ALL our experiences, the highs and lows, the pain, the pleasure, the sacrifices and rewards shape us, how we REACT to all that stimuli becomes who we are ... Ultimately, we each in our own way become history. It is our purpose to share the stories that made us survivors, that led us to our destination, good or bad, right or wrong.  Often the most negative of outcomes can bring the most positive change in the lives we touch.  We can teach even if we are not "teachers", we can guide with our "school of hard knocks" wisdom, we can tell what we did wrong and what we did right, what worked and what turned out to be epic fails, every single one of us has the power in us to hold out our hand and help someone else become a better person.  THAT I believe is our purpose in life ...