They Are Not Failures

When I grew up in Selma, Alabama, 74 years ago, there were separate drinking fountains for white and colored.  The white folks sat in the front of the bus. Selma was divided in half - one for the white families, with nice homes, lovely churches, good schools, and a ballet school that gave me an identity throughout high school.  I don’t know what the other side of town looked like, because I never went there.  My Dad used to occasionally come home on Friday night from the “other” side of town with containers of barbeque and brunswick stew.  That was pretty much all I knew about the African-Americans who lived in Selma.  Remember the movie, “The Help”?  Some of my friends’ mothers had “help” but they were all but invisible to me. I left before the March, so I missed that historic event.

Fast-forward 74 years.  Well, it probably didn’t fly by for those black neighbors of mine, but I was pretty much unaware of anything outside my small little bubble til I was much, much older.  And now, I sit with my dear husband and watch the coverage of this Presidential election and see one of the candidates tell our friends and neighbors who are black that their lives are failures.  I can tell you from my own life experience that this is absolutely not true.  

My grandchildren have grown up with children of all ethnicities in their classroom, and they play together, go to each other’s birthday parties and compete with each other on Minecraft.  That’s not failure.

I shop at grocery stores, department stores, electronic stores, and I see employees that are white, black, latino, and asian.  I didn’t see that in Selma when I was growing up.  That’s not failure.

On TV these days, I see funny, funny sitcoms about a successful black family, an Asian family, a gay couple who adopted a little girl, and dramas with leading characters who are minorities.  One of my favorite late night shows is hosted by Larry Wilmore who presents the news from a black perspective.  And marketing people have finally figured out that minorities have jobs, so they have money to spend, and they put brown and black faces in their commercials.  That’s not failure.

When I was growing up in Selma, I thought that “going to Europe,” was only for the very rich, those people who lived in places like New York, Boston or Hollywood.  I also didn’t think that black people could be doctors, professors, nurses, mathematicians, physicists, or politicians.  Now, not only have I been to Europe, but black people are professionals in every discipline.  That’s not failure.

Shame on Donald Trump.  You should apologize to my friends and neighbors whose lives are not failures, but are successful by any measure.  

Job Application

Almost everyone has applied for a job at one time or another.  Job application forms usually follow a similar pattern.  They require the applicant to state his/her qualifications for the job, educational status,  accomplishments in the field, and, most important, his/her employment history or experience.  Quite often a background check is required as well as a credit check.

I started thinking about what an ad for the job of President would look like and who might have the qualifications sufficient to gain an interview.

According to Geri Zabela Eddins in Our White House, Looking In, Looking Out,  the president has two primary functions.  One is to serve as CEO of the federal government and the second is to serve as commander in chief of the armed forces. As Chief Executive, the president must work with his staff, his Cabinet, and the enormous bureaucracy that is the federal government to ensure that laws are carried out.  It is important to remember that the president does not make laws.  The Executive branch is responsible for carrying out the laws that the Legislative branch enacts.

Specific job responsibilities require expertise in a variety of disciplines.  Negotiating treaties with other nations requires diplomacy, establishing a budget requires knowledge of economics and social science, and formulating policy involving energy requires a knowledge of science.  One of the most important attributes of a president is the ability to form and work with a team since no one person can possibly possess all the knowledge necessary to perform the job.  Finally, the president as commander in chief can send troops into combat (presumably under the advice of his military advisors) but cannot declare war. 

So, now, let's pretend that you are in charge of hiring the person who will do the job of president.

In her Parade magazine essay “The Secrets of America’s Great Presidents,” Doris Kearns Goodwin, a prize-winning historian,  encourages citizens to consider ten qualities when choosing a president. We will look at those qualities and then examine our two candidates for how well they demonstrate those qualities.  You are welcome to add your 2 cents worth of opinion.  Finally, you will choose which candidate you think should have the job.

1.  The courage to stay strong in the face of adversity.
      Secretary Clinton has been in public life for more than 4 decades.  She has been scrutinized, criticized, blamed, and shamed.  But here we are, she is still standing, still fighting for those who can't fight for themselves, and is the Democratic nominee for President.  Donald Trump has never engaged in public service, but has sought the spotlight often in his life.  His response to adversity is to attack those who find fault with him.  He uses the language of a bully, and never, ever, admits a mistake or apologizes for having hurt someone. He is quick to use Twitter to hurl insults out into the Twitterverse.

2.  Is confident enough to seek different viewpoints.

     In this campaign season, we have seen HRC work with her opponent, Bernie Sanders, and agree to incorporate some of his ideas into her own campaign.  DJT says, "I alone can fix" this country's problems.

3.  Can learn from his or her mistakes. 

     The best example is that HRC made mistakes in 2008 that caused her to lose to Barack Obama. She did not make those same mistakes in 2016 when it came to the formidable Bernie Sanders.  DJT's company has filed for bankruptcy four times.  Trump borrowed too much money at interest rates he could not afford, and ended up having to give up his ownership stake in various ventures.  Obviously, he didn't learn from the first bankruptcy to be more fiscally responsible.  

4.  Is willing to embrace change.

       The motto of the Trump campaign is "Make America Great."  The implication is that America used to be great, but no longer is.  So, I guess you would say DJT hasn't embraced change.  HRC celebrates progress made in civil rights, the rights of women, the rights of the LGBTQ community, and promises to work together to keep moving forward.
      

5.  Is emotionally intelligent (willing to share credit with others, accept blame, and convey strength).

     Example 1: HRC accepted responsibility for the email snafu.  Example 2: DJT never accepted responsibility for the debts of his casinos, saying he, personally, had never filed for Chapter 13. Consider two phrases: "I Alone," and "Stronger Together." 

6.  Can maintain self-control in the midst of trouble.
     During 11 hours of intense questioning about the tragedy at Benghazi, HRC calmly answered every question, faced every attack.  If getting yelled at for hours without losing your cool is a requirement for the presidency, Hillary Clinton checked the box on Thursday. (Glenn Thrush and Gabriel Debenedetti, Politico, 10/22//15).  On the other hand, when confronted with his own words by Megyn Kelly in a debate, DJT responded the next day with a statement so inappropriate, so vicious, and so misogynistic that it drew severe criticism from his own supporters. Totally lost his self-control.

7.  Is aware and in touch with popular sentiment. 
     This quality is one in which DJT does excel. Those Americans who feel disenfranchised, who feel they've been forgotten for too long, gaze at him as if he is the Messiah.  Unfortunately, they are totally ignorant of the workings of government and don't realize that the promises made by Trump are not promises he can keep.  HRC appears to understand that the voters who agree with her on the issues don't really care about the email issue.  She spends her time discussing the issues she believes are important and telling voters her plans to address them. 

8.  Possesses a strong moral compass.
     DJT has been married 3 times, cheating on the present wife with the future wife each time and still claiming to be a moral, honest, person.   HRC chose to keep her family together in spite of marital problems.  You may not agree with her decision, but she did set a moral example. 

9.  Is able to relax. 
     We know that Grandmother Hillary loves Facetiming with her granddaughter, Charlotte, and reading to her.  Donald plays golf.

10. And finally, communicates well and inspires others.
      Maybe it's just me, but I don't think DJT can speak in complete sentences.  He starts a thought, but then cuts himself off, relying on his favorites "believe me," "trust me," "we're gonna win," and "huge."  HRC speaks like an intelligent, well-informed, public servant.  If Trump inspires others, it is to violence.  If Hillary inspires others, it is to help those less fortunate.

Based on these qualities, you decide who is best qualified for the job. And I hope you're right.

Just the Facts, Ma'am

The Republican nominee (I refuse to use his name, just like I think we should refuse to use a mass shooting perpetrator's name) loves to spout off using social media, especially Twitter.  What he fails to appreciate, though, is that the internet allows anyone to fact-check anything he says in an instant.

Years ago, we listened to candidates' speeches and had to wait for the next issue of Time, Life, Newsweek, or the opinions of our local newspaper editor to tell us whether the candidate was being truthful or not.  This year, the Washington Post published "Fact-checking Donald Trump's acceptance speech at the 2016 RNC" on the morning of July 22, only hours after the actual speech.  

Turns out the nominee "cherry-picked" data to support his claims about the crime rate.  Ditto for Immigration.  On the issue of the economy since President Obama took office, he used out of date statistics (which actually reflected data during the Bush administration).  Fact checkers state that the nominee's statement that "America is one of the highest-taxed nations in the world," is just flatly not true.  Likewise, his criticism of allowing refugees into the country because there is no way to screen them is also not true.

Now, I know some will say that the Washington Post is a liberal newspaper, so we'll see what some other fact-checking sites say.  Politifact is a fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others who speak up in American politics.  

Rudy Giuliani characterized Clinton's proposed immigration policy as "open borders."  Politifact says this claim is False.

Jeff Sessions claimed there are about 350,000 people who succeed in crossing our borders illegally each year."  Politifact says this claim is False.

The nominee told Bill O'Reilly that he wanted the convention to be in Ohio; that he recommended Ohio.  Strange, because the RNC announced Cleveland back on July 8, 2014 when the nominee wasn't even a candidate!  Politifact says False.

Sean Duffy said "Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have left us with $19 trillion in debt."  First, about half of that debt was from before Obama took office.  Second, the Secretary of State has almost no role in deciding issues of fiscal policy.  Verdict: Mostly false.

As for accusations that President Obama "is a Muslim," Politifacts rated this "Pants On Fire!"

Had enough yet?  I recommend everyone bookmark a fact-checking site and do your research before arriving at a conclusion about whether or not a candidate is telling the truth.  

TGFTI - Thank God For The Internet

Only Guns Matter

On the CBS news tonight there were two videos that showed police officers exhibiting violent attacks on people with absolutely no provocation.  (http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/austin-officers-investigated-for-disturbing-arrest-video/) (http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/21/us/miami-officer-involved-shooting/index.html)  (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/07/21/fla-police-shoot-black-man-with-his-hands-up-as-he-tries-to-help-)  It's hard to judge which is the most outrageous - the man lying on the ground with his hands in the air, who still got shot by the officer; or the one where the officer threw a slight, 120 lb. woman to the ground not once, but twice, after a traffic stop.  There is no report that she threatened this police officer with a gun or other weapon.  Her only weapon was the color of her skin.  The health-care worker stretched full-length on the pavement tried explaining that he presented no danger to the officer. We can hear his words on the video.  He asked the officer later, "Why did you shoot me?"  The officer's answer?  "I don't know."

What in the world has happened to law enforcement?

I think the answer is that the Republican party in conjunction with the NRA has encouraged every American to carry a gun.  (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/apr/13/nra-weakened-gun-control-laws)  States have open-carry laws where a police officer has no idea whether the person with a weapon is a "good guy" or a "bad guy." (http://blogs.wsj.com/numbers/map-where-is-open-carry-legal-1715/)  Even Chiefs of Police have spoken up against open-carry, saying that it makes their job much more difficult.  (http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-dallas-chief-20160711-snap-story.html)  Years ago, when an officer stopped someone for speeding or running a stop sign, they didn't really have to worry much that the driver might pull out a Glock and start shooting.  Now they do.  When law enforcement is operating in fear of their lives, they preempt violence with more violence.  The rule now is "shoot first, ask questions later."

Unfortunately, sometimes the weapon carried by a 12-year-old turns out to be a toy.  And chances are the murderer - and, make no mistake, this child was murdered - will never face any consequences.  (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/23/us/in-tamir-rice-shooting-in-cleveland-many-errors-by-police-then-a-fatal-one.html?_r=0)  Because he is a protected class - the ones who wear a uniform and a badge.  There are a myriad of reasons why law enforcement officers are not charged and convicted, even when a video exists that shows unarmed men being shot in the back while running away from the officer. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2015/04/11/thousands-dead-few-prosecuted/)

If you are still naive enough to listen to politicians for information, you will hear that all the violence we see on the evening news is due to ISIS.  That in some way it's all related to terrorism.  This is the coward's reasoning.  If you can blame the death of so many Americans on some foreign entity in a turban, then you do not have to face the consequences of your own inaction.  So many times Congress has been asked to take even one small step for our country, one small step to keep assault weapons out of the hands of those who want to kill.  But no, the problem is ISIS.

Therefore, those susceptible to persuasion begin to believe that every time they leave their house some crazed Muslim is going to start spraying their local Starbucks with armor-piercing bullets shot from an AR-15.  So they need to buy an AR-15 so they can shoot back and not hit any innocent person, but only the dark-skinned madman.

Finally, it seems that "Black Lives Don't Matter," "Blue Lives Don't Matter,"  "Gay Lives Don't Matter," "First Grade Lives Don't Matter," "Bible Study Member Lives Don't Matter," "College Student Lives Don't Matter," "Movie Goer Lives Don't Matter".  Only "Guns Matter."

Where Was The Good Guy?

I woke up this morning to the news of yet another mass shooting in the U.S., in Orlando, Florida.  50 people this time.  And the death toll will increase because another 53 were injured.  And, as usual, the product that produced this carnage - performing exactly as it was meant to - was an AR-15.  

There was a time when the Congress recognized that this was not a hunting rifle meant to go out and hunt Bambi, and they sensibly banned it.  The following quote is from a Wikipedia article on the Assault Weapon Ban of 1994.  (The reviewing court held that it was "entirely rational for Congress ... to choose to ban those weapons commonly used for criminal purposes and to exempt those weapons commonly used for recreational purposes."^[18]:10[22] It also found that each characteristic served to make the weapon "potentially more dangerous," and were not "commonly used on weapons designed solely for hunting."^{[18]:10–11[23])}  Any product designed to kill as many humans as possible in as short a period of time as possible is meant for warfare, not hunting, and not for personal protection.  Unless you really believe the zombies are coming.

Now the NRA says the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.  In the nightclub last night, I guess there were no good guys with guns.  Most normal people don't want to walk around carrying a weapon that could more likely cause harm to themselves or a member of their family than protect them from some madman.  I cannot envision myself killing someone else.  Can you?  Honestly, can you?  

Where are the good guys with laws?

I'm Ignoring Trump

When it all began, we thought it was humorous.  The idea of the larger-than-life reality showman running for any political office, let alone the Presidency.  The only thing anyone knew about him was that he was rich and like to fire people.  As time went on, the joke became less funny.  And, finally, when it looked as though he would definitely be the Republican candidate, it got scary.

The major news folks - from CNN to the Twitterverse - have given Trump millions of dollars of free coverage.  Every word he utters seems to be news.  Why?  I'm damned if I know.  We have a sitting President, and his activities and speeches are not covered as much as the lies and exaggerations of Mr. Trump.  

Everyone seems to be concerned about the image he's giving our country.  It's not just on Facebook that people are saying they will move to Canada.  I said it last night.  Mitch McConnell tries to reassure us that the structure of our government will protect us from Trump's unconstitutional and racist ideas.  But we have had presidents in the past who were willing to break the law to have their way.  Certainly, I can imagine Trump ignoring our laws because he thinks he knows better.

The one sure thing that would straighten things out a bit is if the media just ignored him.  Let him make his speeches, criticize whomever he wants, threaten each and every minority, and make promises he cannot keep - just don't cover the story.  That's what Megan Kelly did.  We've heard enough to form an opinion.  Months more of it won't change our minds much.  Let's see the news reports of heroism in the face of floods in Texas, document the newest breakthroughs in the treatment of cancer, show us the refugees who are settling in to their new lives.  Just, please, no more Trump.

More than Beautiful

So-and-so updated her Profile photo, and all the comments say, "You are so beautiful,"  "Great photo," "Such a good-looking couple," etc.  Why do we only acknowledge a woman's looks, not her achievements?  

Just once, I would love to see the profile photo of a 40-something with three kids and a husband and a business, at the end of a marathon.  Now that should garner some meaningful comments.

And now, at graduation season, let's see some photos of Moms and grandmothers in their caps and gowns, having finally earned a degree after they ensured the education of their children.

Let's see the woman who, at 2 a.m., is working on the taxes for their business, preparing for a meeting with the tax accountant.  She's taking advantage of the quiet of the house after the health-care workers have gone home, the phone has stopped ringing, and her cancer-stricken husband in a hospital bed in the living room has finally gone to sleep for the night.  Now that's a beautiful woman!

Think about it the next time you see that one of your Facebook friends has updated their profile.  Try not to comment on her appearance - speak to her achievements.

Advice I Never Got

Why didn't anyone ever tell me that money, and managing money, is such an important part of living a full and rewarding life?  No one ever told me that one day I would be 74 and arguing with my 76 year old husband about whether we could attend his nephew's funeral because we have no money.

That's not actually true.  We each have our Social Security checks coming in each month.  That's a total of $1925.  Our expenses are $65.00 more than that each month.  And, believe me, we do not live lavishly.  He makes redwood Adirondack chairs which sell for $100 each, when they sell, and I have an Etsy shop which brings in an average of $200 per month.  I also do some baby-sitting and dog-sitting for extra money.  We have some savings, but according to the Social Security folks, it's got to last us another 20 years.  

I just wish my parents had seen fit to educate me about investing money when I was 17, that they had shown me the numbers.  But it's my experience that kids don't really understand the numbers until they start buying diapers and paying for pediatrician visits.  I don't know what I was thinking back then, or even when I had three kids and was working full-time to pay the bills.  I argued then that there simply was no money left over to save, but, of course, there was.  I just didn't choose to do it.

Here's what I am going to do for my grandson: make a picture book showing (a) the car you can have if you have money, and (b) the car you have if you don't; the trips you can take if you save money, and (b) the road trip to Wally World if you don't; (a) the house you can give your family with a college degree, and (b) the low-rent apartment you'll have with a GED.  You get the idea, right?  Maybe that will work better than talking numbers.  

But how do you tell them that the working years go by so fast and in a blink, you're 74 and arguing about money.

God's Not Listening, Folks

These past two months have been difficult for our family.  My brother was diagnosed with Stage 4 Liver Cancer and given 6 months to live.  My husband's nephew died suddenly from a massive seizure.  Two days later, we got a phone call from my husband's niece who said that her younger brother had just died from a heart attack.  He was only 49 years old.  Then a family friend died from colon cancer - she was 39.  Oh, and I forgot to mention that my husband was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma and just completed six months of chemo.

Throughout all of this, everyone kept saying, "We're praying for you."  On Facebook, requests were made for everyone to "say a prayer for fill-in-the-blank."  Even after a death, people are still praying.  Doesn't anyone ever realize that if there is a God, he's not listening to all those prayers?

The most fervent Catholic members of the family plead for prayers every time their daughter, who has cystic fibrosis, is in the hospital.  They ask us to pray for her lung function to improve, when all her life they have known that it is the doctors, nurses, and medical technology that bring her lung function back to normal.  Do they ever, ever, post something that says thanks to the medical team?  No, they thank all those who prayed.

As for me, I try to stay open to new knowledge.  I talk to others about their experiences.  I read about new approaches in genetic treatments, since I have come to understand that your DNA has more to do with your health than your reputation with God.  Recently, I did some research on cannabis oil as a treatment for cancer.  Perhaps God directed me to google "cannabis and cancer."  

I wish someone could tell me what their feelings are when all their friends and family members are praying their asses off for a person and that person still dies.  Do they think God didn't pay any attention?  Or did God decide that He/She needed that person in heaven to do some tasks that only they could do?  

How Can You Call Yourself a Christian?

It seems like every day I see another example of hypocrisy.  Frequently, it's on the news: another candidate who claims to be a Christian is threatening all kinds of horrible things that he or she will do to other people if we elect him/her.  But often it is closer to home - much closer to home.

I'm speaking now of a Catholic family.  One whose children went to Catholic schools, who are ultra-conservative, and who frequently request that their Facebook friends pray for them.  But then, when their son died a few weeks ago, they published an obituary which pointedly left out the name of his wife of 20 years as a survivor.  Is this what Jesus would do?

Perhaps this woman did things that did not sit well with her husband's parents.  That would be understandable, since the son himself could never stand up to his father.  His wife, however, was a strong woman who did not suffer fools.  So, yes, maybe they are mad at her.  But isn't forgiveness part of the Christian doctrine?  Did their son not choose this woman to be his wife until he died?  Can they not respect that choice and give her the respect she deserves?  It is clear, in this final act, that the father still could not simply love his son unconditionally.

Oh, did I mention that the wife was the primary care-taker for the son as he dealt with the complications of a brain tumor, finally confined to a wheel-chair, and in a nursing home.  Thank God for people like her - not people like his birth family.

Why Do You Have to Be So Mean?

My husband's brother had two children, Matthew and Melinda, while my husband chose not to have any.  So, my husband was always close to his nieces and nephews throughout their lives.  His nephew, Matt, had a brain tumor when he was 26 years old, and had surgery and radiation treatment at the time - which is now over 30 years ago.

Matt worked hard, got a master's degree, and worked for AT&T for many years.  He married and had a son, John.  As so often happens these days, they divorced and John went to live with his mother.  By this time, Matt's father hated the woman who divorced his son, and therefore he never had a relationship with his grandson, either.

At church one Sunday, Matthew met a vivacious woman with long dark hair and a smile that would make you happy just looking at her.  She was a single mom with two small children, and Matt was a lonely young man looking for a family.  They married and loved each other for over 20 years.  His father was now a happy man, seeing his son happy after so much pain, right?  Oh, no!  Dad was convinced that "she only married him for his money."  What money?  Matt worked a middle management job and probably was able to invest in a 401K, pretty much what everyone else was doing at the time.  Not going to become a millionaire like that.  And his wife's ex-husband took care of his share of the expenses for their two children, so it's not like Matt had to assume the entire burden of raising the two.

Eventually, a few years ago, scar tissue formed in Matt's brain at the site of his tumor surgery.  He began to lose function in several ways, and became unable to work.  His wife carried on, running the household, caring for Matt and her two children and working full-time.  She was the best caretaker anyone could hope for - she did what was absolutely necessary, but allowed Matt to do anything that he possibly could for himself.  When it became dangerous to leave him alone in the house, she found the best nursing home for him, close to their home so she could see him every day.

Matt's parents visited their son once a year.  His sister, Melinda, visited occasionally, but she had two daughters and a husband and a job at home in a far-away state.  A few weeks ago, Matt suffered a massive seizure and died.  Even though his death was unexpected, no one would have wished that he had lived longer and declined further.

Matthew's family is going to have a small, private service in their home town.  His wife intends to take his ashes up in the mountains where they spent so many happy hours together.  Matt's father and sister want to have another memorial service where they live, even though Matt hadn't been there for over 30 years.  Today they published an obituary for Matt.

The obituary praised Matt for being a wonderful son, brother, father, and uncle.  Wait, I had to read that again.  No husband?  Matt was married when he died, his wife of 20+ years totally ignored.  Then, the obit mentioned Matt being survived by his parents, his sister and husband and two nieces, and a son and grandson - but no WIFE!  How can people be so cruel?  I am so ashamed to call them in-laws.  They are out-laws to me.

Matt loved his wife.  He loved his step-children.  And they loved him.  We visited them several times and saw how happy their lives were.  The only thing tarnishing their lives was the disapproval and nastiness of Matt's family.  And now it continues even after that sweet boy's death.

If Only Every Country Would Do This

CREDIT: 

880

In the wake of yet another mass shooting in America, there are a lot of Australians unhappy with the United States. America has failed, they note, to implement any gun control measures to prevent these recurring tragedies — no background check expansions, no bans on larger assault weapons, no nothing.

But besides expressing disgust and leading by example, is there anything Australians can actually do about it?

One group thinks there is. In an interview on Australia’s Today Show, Gun Control Australia director Samantha Lee suggested a boycott of non-essential travel to America to protest its inaction on gun control.

“We have 2.1 million Australians visiting the U.S. every year and over 200,000 expats in America,” Lee said. “So I believe we have a duty to respond to this tragedy in the U.S. And the way to do this is have a boycott of non-essential travel to the U.S.”

Watch it here:

Though there’s been no indication yet that Australians will boycott travel over America’s inaction on gun control, Australians have been calling out the U.S. for not responding to gun massacres the way their country did two decades ago. In 1996, after a man went on a rampage with a semi-automatic rifle and killed 35 people, Australia banned high-powered rifles and enacted strict licensing requirements.

Since then, Australia has seen no mass shootings, which are defined as five or more people being shot. And millions of Australians still own guns.

In his address to the country following last week’s mass shooting at an Oregon community college, President Obama cited Australia as an example of a country with common sense gun laws. On the Today Show, Lee said Australia should “act as an international community to assist Obama to push those laws through Congress.”

Gun deaths in Australia decreased significantly after the country reformed their gun laws.

“Having criminal record checks, and mental health checks, and increasing security checks in schools,” Lee said. “This is in no way radical in terms of Australia and our gun laws.”

Lee also suggested that Australia ban donations from the firearms industry to their political parties, which she said would “allow us to raise that issue with America to ban donations from the gun lobby.”

The gun rights lobby has spent considerably more influencing U.S. policy than the gun control lobby.

CREDIT: BOSTON GLOBE

“Millions of dollars are donated by the [National Rifle Association], particularly to the Republican party [in America],” she said, lamenting the “cozy relationship” between the gun lobby and politicians in both countries. “In Australia, we need to be cautious that we also don’t take any donations from the firearms industry, and we need to raise this issue with the U.S.”

Led by the NRA, gun rights activists have spent millions of dollars influencing U.S. politics, though more of their money goes toward lobbying for and against legislation than to actual candidates. The top recipients of contributions from the gun rights lobby include current House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), according to the Boston Globe.

But even though millions of Australians have guns, conservatives have been decrying Obama’s attempt to look to countries like Australia for inspiration on gun control. On Fox News on Sunday, Clayton Morris asserted that Australian citizens “aren’t allowed to have guns.” “They also have no freedom!” another host retorted.

The Face of God

Had a conversation yesterday with an old man who has lived here for 50 years.  He told of working with a well driller back a few years who was a genius at finding water.  He was so good, in fact, that they would arrive at a site in the morning, he would decide where to drill, they would set up the rig, and have water by lunchtime.  A quick bite, a pee, maybe a smoke and then off to drill another well before dark.  

The old man said he had thought long and hard about God in his life, and had learned working with the driller that Water is the Face of God.  Nothing lives without water, Water is the trinity: vapor, liquid, solid.  We are composed of Water and a few other chemicals, everything you see outside your window contains Water.  He said he goes to church for the music and the food sometimes, but when he wants to feel the presence of God, he goes for a walk.

Get Your Act Together Before It's Too Late

An acquaintance back in New Jersey has been involved in a volatile, often abusive, relationship with one of those striking Italian brunettes that are native to the Jersey Shore.  He has threatened more than once to pack up his van and get out of Dodge (or Little Egg Harbor, in this case).  But, like in the Sopranos, every time he's almost out, "they pull me back in." And off he goes on the roller coaster again.

Recently, however, there was a new twist to the soap opera.  The Jersey girl was hospitalized with an aneurysm.  Her brain was swelling so that the doctors had to remove half her skull.  She has been in a coma for three weeks now.  Of course, Jersey Boy has been distraught, fearing that his sometime wish to have her out of his life might really be granted.

The feeling of helplessness he's experiencing has expressed itself in the decision to have her name tattooed down his arm from shoulder to wrist.  A friend who obviously knows the history of this on-again, off-again love affair posted on Facebook: "And nobody ever regretted a decision like that."  I wonder if Jersey Boy even got it.

I have walked around this planet with my eyes and ears open long enough to have learned a few things, and here is one of them.  You spend the first 18 years just growing up, going to school, rolling along to adulthood.  Then, you spend from 18 to about 30 figuring out who you are and learning what not to do.  This is also when you pair up with someone and pass on your genes to the next generation.  From 30 to 50, though, is when you actually get your shit together.  Your career is established, you accumulate assets, you realize your parents aren't going to live forever and you will step up to the plate, and you learn to take comfort in good friends, beautiful sunsets, and the fact that you have only put on an extra 15 pounds since your college days.

Now Jersey Boy is pushing 50, so it's beyond time to break the addiction to drama.

NOT ONE MORE

FYI

There are bumper stickers on both Zazzle and Cafe Press that simply say, "Not One More."  Buy it here:

Richard Martinez pleaded with a do-nothing Congress to act so that "Not One More" person is suddenly taken away by a gunshot.

Mr. Martinez, Gabby Giffords, Moms Demand Action, and others, like Jon Stewart, who are simply fed up with the daily shootings in this country, should make their voices heard in every way they can.

Is There a Right to Life? And I'm Not Talking About Abortion

Guns and Mental Illness

Editorial Page New York Times

Joe Nocera 

It is difficult to read stories about Elliot Rodger, the 22-year-old man who went on a murderous spree in Isla Vista, Calif., last month, without feeling some empathy for his parents.

We know that his mother, alarmed by some of his misogynistic YouTube videos, made a call that resulted in the police visiting Rodger. The headline from that meeting was that Rodger, seemingly calm and collected, easily deflected the police’s attention. But there was surely a subtext: How worried — how desperate, really — must a mother be to believe the police should be called on her own son?

We also learned that on the day of his murderous rampage, his mother, having read the first few lines of his “manifesto,” had phoned his father, from whom she was divorced. In separate cars, they raced from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara hoping to stop what they feared was about to happen.

And then, on Monday, in a remarkably detailed article in The New York Times, we learned the rest of it. How Rodger was clearly a troubled soul before he even turned 8 years old. How his parents’ concern about his mental health was like a “shadow that hung over this Los Angeles family nearly every day of Elliot’s life.”

Constantly bullied and unable to fit in, he went through three high schools. In college, he tried to throw a girl off a ledge at a party — and was beaten up. (“I’m going to kill them,” he said to a neighbor afterward.) He finally retreated to some Internet sites that “drew sexually frustrated young men,” according to The Times.

Throughout, said one person who knew Rodger, “his mom did everything she could to help Elliot.” But what his parents never did was the one thing that might have prevented him from buying a gun: have him committed to a psychiatric facility. California’s tough gun laws notwithstanding, a background check would have caught him only if he had had in-patient mental health treatment, made a serious threat to an identifiable victim in the presence of a therapist, or had a criminal record. He had none of the above.

Should his parents have taken more steps to have him treated? Could they have? It is awfully hard to say, even in retrospect. On the one hand, there were plainly people who knew him who feared that he might someday harm others. On the other hand, those people weren’t psychiatrists. He was a loner, a misfit, whose parents were more fearful of how the world would treat their son than how their son would treat the world. And his mother, after all, did reach out for help, and the police responded and decided they had no cause to arrest him or even search his room, where his guns were hidden.

Once again, a mass killing has triggered calls for doing something to keep guns away from the mentally ill. And, once again, the realities of the situation convey how difficult a task that is. There are, after all, plenty of young, male, alienated loners — the now-standard description of mass shooters — but very few of them become killers.

And you can’t go around committing them all because a tiny handful might turn out to be killers. Indeed, the law is very clear on this point. In 1975,the Supreme Court ruled that nondangerous mentally ill people can’t be confined against their will if they can function without confinement. “In California, the bar is very high for people like Elliot,” said Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, who founded the Treatment Advocacy Center. In a sense, California’s commitment to freedom for the mentally ill conflicts with its background-check law.

Torrey believes that the country should involuntarily commit more mentally ill people, not only because they can sometimes commit acts of violence but because there are far more people who can’t function in the world than the mental health community likes to acknowledge.

In this, however, he is an outlier. The mainstream sentiment among mental health professionals is that there is no going back to the bad-old days when people who were capable of living on their own were locked up for years in mental hospitals. The truth is, the kind of symptoms Elliot Rodger showed were unlikely to get him confined in any case. And without a history of confinement, he had every legal right to buy a gun.

You read the stories about Elliot Rodger and it is easy to think: If this guy, with all his obvious problems, can slip through the cracks, then what hope is there of ever stopping mass shootings?

But, of course, there is another way of thinking about this. Instead of focusing on making it harder for the mentally ill to get guns, maybe we should be making it harder to get guns, period. Something to consider before the next mass shooting.

WHAT ARE THOSE NRA BOYS AFRAID OF? NERDY SCIENTISTS?

We see once again with more dead students, this time at the University of California, Santa Barbara, that gun violence in America is an epidemic.

This is a fact of life seen everywhere except the National Rifle Association, the most dangerous lobby in this country or any country, and by the elected officials who regularly pimp themselves out to it.

We are talking here about all those in the Senate and in the Congress who represent gun companies even more fiercely than they do their states or their districts, those who hide behind the Second Amendment, something conceived and written for a world of muskets, the way cockroaches hide in similar dark places.

These are people who do not only fight what they call “gun grabbers.” They also fight any legitimate research into the whole complicated subject of gun violence by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is only allowed to spend around $100,000 a year because the NRA and its tame politicians act as if education is some kind of threat to our basic freedoms, instead of a way to understand the connection between the insane number of guns in this country and the people who keep dying as a result of them.

Nobody is saying that the NRA, or legitimate gun owners — you must differentiate between them and the gun nuts who act as if the government is about to roll into their driveways with tanks and take their rifles — are responsible for what happened this weekend in Isla Vista, Calif., or at Fort Hood last month, or Virginia Tech, or Newtown. But to ignore the growing problem of gun violence, to resist thoughtful and scientific — and nonpolitical — research into its causes, is no better than looking away when more innocent people are gunned down.

It reminds you of the old story, told by Jimmy Breslin, about when F. Lee Bailey was defending a New Jersey doctor named Carl Coppolino, accused of murdering his wife. At some point in the runup to the trial, Coppolino told Bailey one day that he hadn’t killed his wife.

And Bailey said, “Well, yeah, Carl, but it’s not like you did very much to keep her alive.”

Now Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York are introducing legislation that would give the CDC $10 million a year “for the purpose of conducting support or research on firearms safety or gun violence protection.”

They will be fought, certainly, by the NRA and those in Washington who provide cover for the gun manufacturers and their lobbyists. We will once again be told they are just preserving and protecting the Second Amendment, even as these people constantly shame the Second Amendment, as if they’re all knuckle-draggers like Joe the Plumber. But it is Markey and Maloney who are fighting an honorable fight here, in the shadow of another mass shooting in America.

“In America,” Maloney said in a statement the other day, “gun violence kills twice as many children as cancer, and yet political grandstanding has halted funding for public research to understand this crisis.”

She is already being called a grandstander by the NRA and the bullhorn media that too often genuflects in front of it. So is Markey. But maybe this will be a time when they can actually get something done on responsible research into this subject for the first time in 20 years.

Reasonable people know enough to be afraid of a gun in the wrong hands in America. But ask yourself a question: Why is the NRA so afraid of research on gun violence unless it is afraid of what that research might tell us? Even since Newtown, any kind of gun control has been fought in Washington by gutless politicians, so many of them from the right. Now they act as if they have to go get a gun to protect themselves from research, in what is supposed to be the most enlightened country on Earth.

Just not when it comes to guns. Those who scream about gun grabbers aren’t protecting the Second Amendment, they are protecting gun money. They act like Americans who look in horror at the number of gun deaths in America are like tree huggers, or those who want to save the whales, or members of the Flat Earth Society.

We are constantly told by the people who think the current gun laws and gun culture are just fine the way they are that they need their guns to protect themselves. But more and more you wonder who protects the rest of us from them?

The Centers for Disease Control sponsors all sorts of programs to prevent injuries and diseases, spends money on cancer and HIV, on brittle bones for the elderly. Then they get shamefully nickel-and-dimed on studying an epidemic like gun violence. We know we’re afraid of guns. What are the gun lovers afraid of?

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/research-shed-light-gun-violence-article-1.1809288#ixzz33EHBAqsn

Keep Handguns Away From Teenagers

By TERESA TRITCH MAY 30, 2014 4:23 PM 

In response to the Isla Vista rampage, legislators in California are introducing a bill that would let the police and private individuals ask a court for a restraining order to deny guns to those who pose a threat to themselves or others.

The bill would be an advance in gun-control legislation. Before now, the notion of gun restraining orders had mainly captured the attention of mental health experts and academic researchers, but not legislators.

Still, there is another step California has already taken to keep guns out of the wrong hands that should be emulated elsewhere: setting the age to buy and to own a handgun at 21.

Currently, federal law and most states  let 18-year-olds purchase and own handguns. That flies in the face of research and common sense.  Studies have documented the prevalence of heightened risk-taking among teenagers.  Statistics show  that homicide rates risein the late teens and peak at age 20. A Justice Department studyfrom 2012 found that many young gun offenders incarcerated in states with the weakest gun control laws would have faced bans on gun ownership in states with the strongest controls.

Raising the handgun ownership age would not apply to rifles and shotguns, and would not prohibit parents and children from going hunting together with a long gun. (Most of the states that limit handgun sales to those 21 and older allow 18-year-olds to buy and possess long guns.) Handguns, however, are the weapon most often used in gun shootings and deaths.

Pro-gun lobbyists will invariably point out that rampages like the one in Isla Vista have been committed by people over the age of 21. That is willfully off-point: The idea that gun control shouldn’t respond to obvious gun dangers because they didn’t play a central role in a particular crime amounts to fatal abdication of adult responsibility.

They also say that setting the age at 21 for handguns, as California, New York, New Jersey, and 10 other states have done, punishes law-abiding 18- to 20-year-olds for the transgressions of the few. But all 50 states have set the drinking age at 21 out of concern for increased risk-taking by teens and the threat that poses to them and the public. The same concern applies to gun ownership, and the solution is the same. Raise the legal age for handguns to 21 in every state.

To the Editor:

In “Why Can’t Doctors Identify Killers?” (Op-Ed, May 28), Richard A. Friedman argues that it’s extremely difficult for prospective mass murderers to be identified and stopped before they kill.

Although Dr. Friedman presents a convincing case, the regular occurrence of horrific killings cries out for drastic changes in the way the psychiatric community and the public treat even the slightest oddity in behavior that they observe that might signal a proclivity toward violence.

Virtually every mass killing has been carried out by angry young men, thus significantly limiting in scope the population of people who need to be identified.

The nightmares of Columbine, Aurora, Newtown and now Isla Vista require a nationwide effort to train thousands of people in ways to identify these angry young men and report them to local authorities before they kill more innocent people.

Nothing less is needed if this spate of murders is to be stopped before these mentally ill men kill again.

ALAN SAFRON

Woodcliff Lake, N.J., May 28, 2014

To the Editor:

Re “Campus Killings Set Off Anguished Conversation” (front page, May 27): Counteracting misogyny is a very worthy goal, but it is not likely to have a direct impact on mass shootings and gun-related violence in the United States — nor will the intense focus on one individual’s psychopathology.

The best predictor of violence is a history of violence, and a recent study by Mayors Against Illegal Guns finds a strong correlation between mass shootings and domestic violence. Of the 93 mass shootings between 2009 and 2013 in the United States, 57 percent involved the killing of a spouse, family member or intimate partner, and in at least 17 instances, the shooter had a prior domestic violence charge.

Closing loopholes in current laws prohibiting gun sales to people convicted of domestic violence, as proposed in a bill by Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, would be one small but useful step in reducing gun-related killings.

RONALD PIES

Cazenovia, N.Y., May 27, 2014