com·mon sense kämən ˈsens/
noun good sense and sound judgment in practical matters.
so im going to start with this - lets just agree to disagree. because we are going to. there are about 15 different sides to this argument and they all have valid points. but until we can agree to actually LISTEN to each other, we are doomed to keep witnessing these horrific mass shootings.
and if we are honest - there isnt one answer. we ALL share the blame. its just that its so much easier to blame someone else, and hold tight to our singular righteousness. which is complete bullshit.
It is no good casting out devils. They belong to us, we must accept them and be at peace with them. ~D.H. Lawrence
i have to be honest. until this election, i would have considered myself a moderate republican. if i had to ascribe a "label" to myself. and i believed that most people were "moderate" somethings. and maybe we all are. BUT what i am coming to learn is that most of us are MOSTLY moderate. and then there is that ONE issue that we lose all rational sense about. and its totally different for everyone. and somehow that ONE issue, becomes how we define ourselves - and how others define us.
a large majority of my friends are conservatives. religious. gun owners. unfortunately to me now - that is how republicans are defined. to be "conservative" in our current culture, you must be pro-life, and pro-gun. PERIOD. and believe that the word liberal is somehow synonymous with "ax murderer". i read a post from a friend that was a complete indictment on how liberals want to CONVERT everyone to their beliefs. and to me, that is the crux of the problem. we are villifying the "other side".
There are truths on this side of the Pyrénées, which are falsehoods on the other. ~Blaise Pascal
who decided that there were only two sides? and why do YOU get to tell me which side im on? let me voice a few opinions - from what i think are the middle of the road:
I think owning guns is your right. To defend yourself, certainly. To hunt for sport, sure. Am i a fan? absolutely not. Do i own a gun? nope. But i am 100% behind your right to do so. However, do i think you have the right to own an assault weapon? absolutely not. just because they make these really cool guns that experts developed to help us win WARS, doesnt mean they are appropriate for the general population. Im not allowed to drive a tank down the street. its the same thing. they are safer for ME and MY FAMILY. just because you dont own one, doesnt mean it should restrict my ability to drive one. who cares that it negatively impacts YOU. MY rights supercede YOURS IN ALL THINGS, right?
It's not the bullet with my name on it that worries me. It's the one that says "To whom it may concern." ~Anonymous Belfast resident, quoted in London Guardian, 1991
I'm totally pro-choice. Your body is YOURS. Do i personally support abortion? you bet i do. you know why? if you cant afford a baby, or honestly dont want one - DONT HAVE ONE. but deni, what about those innocent lives? dont they have a choice? NO. they don't. i mean in an ideal world, sure. but how many children go hungry in our country today? how many kids are not adopted? how many children are living in horrible conditions, or on the street? how many are growing up in abject poverty? until we are willing to solve those problems, and guarantee that ALL children will be safe, and well taken care of, no one gets to mandate their birth. is that callous? inhumane? im not sure. but i dont believe its any more inhumane than making a woman give birth to an unwanted child?
Society does not need more children; but it does need more loved children. Quite literally, we cannot afford unloved children — but we pay heavily for them every day. There should not be the slightest communal concern when a woman elects to destroy the life of her thousandth-of-an-ounce embryo. But all society should rise up in alarm when it hears that a baby that is not wanted is about to be born. ~Garrett Hardin (1915–2003)
which leads me to bad parenting. we all want to blame those damn "bad" parents for all of societies problems. "when i was a kid" we got spanked blah blah BLAH. well bully for you all. i'm glad YOUR children are perfect. im sure NONE of them is ever going to grow up to be a school shooter. right? i mean, who RAISES those kids anyway? isnt there like, a parenting class we all have to take or something? you know, like drivers ed, except for raising kids. no? so we all are just doing the best we can? that doesnt seem like a very good system. i mean, are you a bad parent if your kids know how to handle weapons? or are you a good parent? this is where the confusion lies. are you a good parent for sending your kid to private school? or are you shielding them from reality? see where i'm going with this? maybe you just have a bad kid. WHAT did you say, deni? a "bad" kid - how dare you? is it your fault, or is it his fault? it has to be someones FAULT, right?
What's done to children, they will do to society. ~Karl Menninger
wait, its the video games. and the movies. PORN - that's it. society is bad. my kids dont stand a chance. i am a great parent, but school is responsible. or tv. i'm not sure, i just know its not me. im digressing, but are you starting to see the point? there are literally 400million different ways to look at all of these issues. and until we remove the filter of "ME", then we are doomed.
life is not one single issue. we have to stop voting our lives away as if it is. if you are pro-life, but believe in an assault weapons ban (which i think you probably SHOULD if you are pro life and all), then start asking tougher questions when you vote. and maybe start asking yourself some harder questions. do you want to send your kid to a school where all the teachers are armed, so that you can restrict someone elses rights to choice? and if so, how is that different from me wanting to restrict YOUR right to own an assault weapon? is it different?
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.
~Abraham Maslow
this is my version of "see something, say something". peoples rights are going to be infringed on in small ways. they already are. i cant buy sudafed without a license. i cant drive without a seatbelt. i cant buy drugs, even if they help me. my kids cant buy alchohol, or cigarettes or lottery tickets - because somewhere along the lines, we decided these things were bad for them. but you know what they can buy? lots and lots of guns. i dont see the logic in that. call me crazy.
its time for change. id like to think we can do it together. you give a little. i give a little. and we reach a place where we start to find some common ground. keep your guns, give me the assault weapons. keep my choice, but ban late term abortions. stop worrying about who marries who, and worry about who you marry. you can keep your rights, and i can keep mine. yours dont preclude mine, and vice versa. we need to stop letting people pit us against each other.
Won't you come into the garden? I would like my roses to see you.
~Richard Brinsley Sheridan
do me a favor. ask your friends how they honestly feel about different things. do they care about assault weapons? do they care about abortion? how about gay marriage? these are the single issues we are voting on. and its dragging us all down a path where we cant join together to find real solutions to the BIG problems. we have a mental health crisis in our country. an opioid epidemic crippling communities. we have crumbling infrastructure, and serious military challenges across the world. and yet, here we are, still just pointing the finger at each other.
im encouraged by the high school movement. im so glad to see them engaged in the conversation. they are asking hard questions, and expecting answers. without the politics. most of them dont even identify yet. they are PRE label americans. and we could all learn a lot from them.
I brought children into this dark world because it needed the light that only a child can bring. ~Liz Armbruster
