A single observation on the streets of Ferguson makes a big
point; the gun laws in the United States are a mess, which led to the
conclusion, so is our society. I built this web site on the idea of looking at individual
social, political, or science problems and presenting an opinion about that specific
problem; right or wrong, I try to arrive at a logic opinion. What is happening
in Ferguson overwhelms me on all sides.
Panic time: a protestor on the streets of Ferguson, Mo. was
seen holding a firearm. He was reported to have a handgun but obviously he
would have gotten more attention if he had an assault rifle, which is legal to
own. Why? Whose side was he or she on makes a big difference? If he or she is
going to shoot a police officer, it is OK for some; while for others if he is
going to shoot a black person it is OK. If he is confronted, he can “stand his
ground”. Is he or she there to shoot looters? Is that OK if he does shoot
someone coming out of a store with a TV set? All of a sudden, there is a
question; does a citizen have the right to carry a firearm or not? Do the
circumstances matter? Is being on the streets of your “hometown” the same as
being in your “home”? For many of us it is not OK that he or she has a gun at
all.
Are we the safest if everyone has a gun? The right wing tells
us that everyone has the right to carry a firearm unless the person is crazy
but we cannot formalize a program on gun control on that basis because that
will lead to gun control. We assume that we have to do that on an individual
case basis, which is prevent gun control. We
know the right thing to do after they commit a crime with a gun but not
before then “we”, meaning the government, can “legally” take the gun away from
them, which is the right thing to do.
Do you realize the right wing are the “hate the government” people
who believe the government is not “we the people” but is only those who tell
free people what they can or cannot do; they are the enemy; they do not recognize
the government as having any authority. Do they recognize that the police are the
equivalent of an organized militia, thus are legally included under the second amendment
of the constitution but the protestor in the street with the gun is not? Perhaps
he or she is a convicted felon, but who is going to ask him.
Are seven billion people, due to technology more and more
instantly know what ever one else is doing and thinking, and more and more crowed
into cites, states, and nations really capable of organizing in a way that allows
them to rule them selves? Obviously, the Rand Paul’s libertarian approach of ignoring
everyone else—is unrealistic—it is a “cop out”; it is the ultimate form of
greed. Do we just set back and accept the killing of those we disagree with as
a part of life when there are so many people we cannot isolate ourselves as
individuals. There are so many of us and we know so much about each other that
we can no longer live in isolation, which means we have to learn how to live
with each other. We cannot live in isolated colonies like ants; Ferguson is an example
of the failure of that microcosm approach; they had their rules to live by but
violated the rules of “greater” society in a heartless bloody way, which came
down on them hard.
We must learn from Ferguson and we will; we have no other
choice. We have to take the events in that town apart one incident at a time. Even
though it is a slow painful process, I feel comfortable that we can work it
out; as Chris Matthews has been heard to say, liberalism will win out in the
end; I AM SURE HE MEANS ALTRUISM. After all, we have been working on the problem
for at least 15,000 years or 600 generations; it is obvious that a few more
will be required; let’s hope we are in an exponential learning phase.
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