American Terrorism

From the moment all of America and the world were shocked to their collective core by the events on September 11, 2001, 120,000 Americans have died at the hands of "terrorists".

This terrorism of which I am speaking is for the most-part native born. It is supported by a vast minority of our elected officials. Anyone who should dare speak out against these terrorists and their instruments of death is labeled "liberal", "anti-American", "communist", "for big, instrusive government."

The proselytizers of this cause legally give money to get officials elected. They are permitted to invest millions into smear campaigns against anyone who might dare infringe upon their ability to earn money. The people earning money from this industry are about .5% of our population. They employ directly or indirectly about another 1%. Yet, the reach of their industry, the fruits of their labor, devastate communities, ruin lives, support criminals, turn places into anarchic nightmares of violence, of lost dreams and dashed hopes.

Poisonous Fruits

The poisonous fruits of their labor can effect any American at any moment in any setting every 17 seconds: at home, at school, at church, at Michael's Craft Store, at McDonald's, in college, sitting on the front porch of a neighbor sipping iced tea making plans for the upcoming summer. At any moment, a bullet that you had no way of knowing about had your name on it, can find its mark are you are no more.

While I am writing this and while you are reading this, 52 Americans were gunned down--some in fights between gangs in a ghetto; some in a school because father forget to secure his weapon and little Joey found it and decided to scare the bully. Some person left her home to run errands and when stopping for a coffee, marvelling at the new spring flowers, she didn't notice that the coffee-shop was being held up. This woman is no more, yet, a minute ago she was.

Why? Why does living in America mean that someone else has the right to manufacture products which permit others in drunken rages or acts of "temporary insanity" or "true insanity" to kill the rest of us who are struggling to make the best out of the one life we have been granted by the Lord?

Oh, yes, the "Lord". I almost forget. The overwhelming majority of these people who support the makers of high-powered rifles which are sold to young men with a lot of testosterone raging through their veins are Bible-thumping, hypocritical, red-neck Southerners or Southerner wanta-bes or anti-government freaks from places like Montana or Kansas, etc. There may be no gay marriages in the Bible but there are also no guns!

Old Number 2

The poor Second Amendment states the following: the right to keep and bear arms. In 1789, this was a very pertinent concern for Americans; there was the danger of the wilderness to be contended with; and, there was the fear that if all the power was to be in the hands of a government then again, Americans could eventually become victims of that government as had been the case while under the rule of the English.

By maintaining weapons, we could defend ourselves from criminals, wild animals and disgruntled Native Americans and from a government which was not yet ready to be trusted. Also, the concept of the "citizen soldier" was a real and needed one.

It is 2009. We have an army. We have police. We have laws. We have a civil society that promotes trust, neighborliness, good will and a belief in one nation. Despite the Republican Party, we are a religious nation. Weapons stored at police precincts that would be checked out for sport: hunting, target practice, etc. make sense.

Weapons sitting around homes waiting for a "criminal" but usually used on everyone else sooner or later, at any chance, every 17 seconds is madness. It is government-backed terrorism. It is amoral. Permitting the NRA to do what it does, permitting the manufacture and sale of guns in the manner that they are being sold today is madness: the blood of the 35 people killed since I wrote about the previous 52 killed is on the hands of anyone and all who support the sale and manufacture of handguns for the sole reason of having one.

Texas

In Texas, they are seeking to pass legislation that would permit college kids to carry concealed weapons. College kids, the most rational and sober thinking people in the world: if this happens deaths will occur nto every 17 seconds but more like every 9! I would have been killed a few times when I was in college and probably would have killed a few people--by accident, course.

Terrorism is the art of striking at the enemy in any setting at any moment and never permitting the enemy to be prepared for the attack resulting in a heightened sense of fear and a decreased quality of life as a result. Sounds very familiar to America today.

Why do we the people tolerate this absurdity? Because too many people with too much power are making too much money and so we are lulled into silence the way the lobster is lulled to sleep as the water warms and warms until it boils and then the lobster is no more.

Some legislator in Texas said that "kids on campuses without guns are like sitting ducks." And, we call ourselves a civilized nation? And we invade other nations because we consider them uncivilized, backwards...another American was just murdered and someone else's bottom-line improved.