A Quickie Before Bedtime

What did you think, cheeky monkey? That is to say a quick thought for the end of the day.

Someone told me once, if you have your head up your ass, even church can be a dangerous place. Despite the alarmists in the corporate media, the sky-is-falling criers on FOX and in the Right wing media, who see terrorists, rapists, madmen and murderers lurking everywhere most of us, indeed the vast majority of us will live our lives never being raped, robbed, murdered or beheaded by blood thirsty Islamic crazies. When will the public learn that they tell us to sell us? They are a business and the business is in making you afraid to sell commercials, particularly by products hawked by their pharmaceutical friends for the countless afflictions of hapless Americans.

The gun lobby and NRA would have us believe that walking around armed, locked and loaded will make us a better, safer society. It will only make us a meaner, more suspicious and more violent nation. You'll draw on the guy who cuts you off in traffic, or the lady with too many items in the ten item or less line before they can get the drop on you.

Before you dismiss me as a gun grabber, I grew up around guns, hunted, was on a Marine Corps ROTC rifle and drill team, I have owned weapons and I've been to war.

I spent two years in war torn Bosnia, dodging sniper fire in Sarajevo. been through pitched battles and front line trenches in places most Americans can't pronounce. I've been through the toughest and nastiest neighborhoods and projects in Chicago and never carried anything more lethal than a pocket knife. So why, I ask, do Righties feel the need to carry a gun every damn place. Please, for the love of god, give me back second hand smoke!

So what is the Right wing afraid of? Fundamentally it must be the fear of giving respect to people, and the fear of having to pull their head out of their ass and notice the world going on around them.

Do bad things happen? Damn right they do. Back when I first moved to the city I would run into this guy asking for change in front of the White Hen. I was looking for work back then, and running out of money. In fact, things were looking rather desperate. One night, with the last five bucks I had I went for a six pack of cheap beer and a Suzy-Q. Woo-hoo, party time!

So that fella pulls a knife on me and announces a mugging. I laughed. At wits end, this was all I needed. well, he asks why I'm laughing and waves the knife in my face.

I pull out the five and tell him that's all I have and I ain't giving it up. I told him that if I didn't find a job I'd be out here with him! I glared at him a moment then turned and went inside. When I came out he was still standing there. I offered him a beer and went home.

The next day I landed a job. I'd see that fella from time to time. Now and then I'd buy him a beer or toss him a couple bucks. He would always ask if I was doing better, and all because I thought my way out of the situation and showed the guy some respect.

In Bosnia I survived some pretty dicey situations by my wits and intellect. even when I failed to be ahead of a situation, and anticipate a little, which was pretty easy in war, i relied on intellect to see me through. The point I'm making is that guns remove that. They don't equalize, or set a standard, but create competition for who will have the bigger weapon or draw the fastest.

Truth was, in Bosnia, the vast majority of people were caught in the middle of the war. Including conscripts, criminals and militias only 3% of the population was actually involved in the fighting. The ratio is roughly similar in any war you wish to examine.

My brother is a Texas cop. Riding through town one day he lamented that every street he goes down he knows a house where there was a murder, someone sold drugs or some guy beat his wife. It paints picture of a town in crisis. Truth was he saw the one house where something bad happened, but ignored the 60-or70 houses that were quiet and peaceful.

So settle down Righties and put the guns away. It is a much safer world than you believe. There is a huge difference between being diligent and alert, and being paranoid. If you wish to change the culture, start with the part of the culture that separates us to the benefit of greedy corporations and self-interested media conglomerates.

By the way, that also makes a great case against media consolidation. When media outlets were independent, and not beholden to shareholders and huge profits to pay the insane salaries of mega-pundits this was a safer more civilized nation, but I digress.

Put a away the guns. If you want load noise and unprovoked chaos and violence get married and have kids. If you want to fondle something and make it go off masturbate. The resulting mess is much easier to clean up.