Thankful Thursday: Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mother’s birthday, and a great day to ponder a fact that influences nearly all of my political beliefs.  That fact is that I lucked out in the mother sweepstakes.  Not only has my mother has given me unquestioned love and support for thirty nine years.  She also was hands on in my education ... which by the way was not at all limited to school hours.  She helped me when she could, argued on my behalf when she had to, encouraged me to follow my interests when the opportunity arose, and gave me an  open minded, loving, and curious role model.  The fact that my father did many of the same things makes me doubly lucky.  Not everyone’s parents are like that.  I try to keep that in mind when I consider issues like school reform, gun control, the future of welfare, and the role of the Government.  I think if more people thought like this we would not be as far apart as we are on the big problems facing this country and as far away as we all are from solving them.  I am an incredibly lucky person.  I wish everyone could be so lucky, and I can't help but think it's worth doing whatever we can to make that wish a reality.  Today, what I'm going to do is thank someone who has done and continues to do her part.  Thank You Mom.  And ... Happy Birthday!

W-etiquette Wednesday: Don't Lie

Lying is bad, unless you are being confronted by homicidal maniacs regarding the whereabouts of your children.  I think a lot of folks (Tea Party organizers, Republicans in Congress, and the leadership of the NRA) think the rest of us are homicidal maniacs asking about their children.  Otherwise, how do you explain all the lying they are doing.  Now, they will say that they aren’t lying, but if you aren’t telling the truth what are you doing?  A simple way of demonstrating that the answer in this case is lying is to look at some of the fun graphics the Tea Party and affiliated groups post on Facebook.  Almost every one of them involves a lie.

Example one is right on the front of the Tea Party Facebook page.  The quote is: “When the people fear the government there is tyranny, when the government fears the people there is liberty.”  It is attributed to Thomas Jefferson.  The problem is that there isn't a shred of evidence that those words ever came out of Thomas Jefferson's mouth.  (for the proof, check out the Monticello Website).  These words actually seem to come out of debates about socialism in 1914, and were not attributed to Jefferson until 1994.  When you lay them over top of an image of the Constitution and in front of Thomas Jefferson’s name on the front page of your Facebook page, that is a lie. 

Example two is a wonderful little portrait of George Washington, underneath of which is a great quote.  You can see it below.  The problem here is the same as above.  George Washington said this in the same way that he chopped down that cherry tree.  Here is what he actually said: “A free people ought not only be armed but disciplined; to which end, a uniform and well digested plan is requisite: And their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories, as tend to render them independent on others, for essential, particularly for military supplies."  Just in case it needs to be said, when you change the words someone actually said or wrote to suit your purposes you no longer have a quote.  What you have is a lie.

I love example three, because it is funny, sarcastic, and anti-elitist.  Now, Jefferson actually did write the words attributed to him in the cartoon below.  They appeared in three drafts of the Virginia Constitution  but not in the final draft.  Nowhere on here, however, are we told that these words hit the cutting room floor.  Plus, in the background we have three snooty Supreme Court Justices promising to go against these words.  It is a great way to stir up anti-elitist sentiment, but doesn’t quite jibe with the fact that these same gun hating justices recently recognized an individual right in the Second Amendment that no one had ever found there before.  So, when you misrepresent quotes and suggest things that aren’t true in order to rouse people’s anger, you lie.

Example four is a great one too.  It connects the people opposing a ban on assault rifles with the founding fathers and the people supporting such a ban with the British oppressors.  It is brilliant, but ridiculously misleading at best.  First of all, a musket is an assault rifle just like a bang snap is a nuclear missile.  I mean, if you can’t see the difference you shouldn’t be allowed to have a gun.  Second, there are a few differences between the British Monarchy and the way it ruled its colonies during the second half of the eighteenth century and the Obama administration.  Third, to suggest that there is reason for revolution now is absurd.  In short, what we have here is not a lie … but a couple of lies.

Examples five, six, and seven aren’t great at all.  The idea that world leaders are either Stalin or Jefferson is idiotic.  The idea that there is something that connects Hitler, Stalin, and Mao to Obama is not only idiotic and patently false, it is offensive.  Is the suggestion that after banning assault rifles and mandating background checks Obama will round up and kill millions of people? This isn’t only a lie, it is a disgusting slap in the face to the millions of people the world over who have faced real oppression at the hands of real life brutal tyrants.  Maybe some folks should spend a month in Afghanistan or the Congo.

Example eight is not as hideous, but it is still silly and it is still a lie.  In what way would Obama qualify as a king?  Really.  If you are going to say it, let’s hear some support.  Are we talking about a constitutional monarchy?  Are even those kings elected?  Do kings risk falling off of fiscal cliffs?  You don’t have to agree with the president, but when you disagree and spout lies I assume you don’t have a real position and are just being obnoxious.

Example nine is catchy, but still false.  The Second Amendment is not a permit.  It doesn’t take the place of a permit.  It doesn’t permit you to avoid having your gun registered or having a background check done before you purchase a gun.  If you don’t believe me, pull out a few Supreme Court cases and a glass of lemonade and have a look see.  In the meantime, delete this one.

Example ten is intriguing.  This picture includes the claim that Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican.  The proof for this is that his niece said so in one interview.  There is no other proof of this.  None.  None at all.  Most scholars dismiss the claim.  It is worth noting that the Republican party of MLK’s time was not the party of Lincoln anymore, as the Republicans had assumed the support of the formerly Democratic white southern establishment.  So, this would be a lie.

I think you are getting the idea, so we can move into rapid fire mode.  Here we have a catchy phrase you hear all the time.  Of course, in real life lots of things stop bad guys with guns.  A working education system stops them from appearing.  So do jobs.  Rehabilitation in prisons stops them from reappearing.  Active community groups do wonders too.  Of course, finding bad guys and good guys isn’t easy since they don’t walk around wearing black and white respectively, and probably don’t even exist.  Plus, it doesn’t take a bad guy with a gun to take a life, unless every person who has accidentally shot someone or killed themselves was bad. 

 This is beyond silly.  Think maybe the President presents an exceptional case?  Maybe?

Yes, there is just one reason.  Keeping track of guns wouldn’t be a reason.  Keeping them out of the hands of the mentally ill wouldn’t be a reason.  Besides, it totally makes sense to argue that guns shouldn’t be registered because bad things might be done with such a list.  We’d better get rid of car registration.  And that whole social security number thing …

So, Obama’s supporters are all unemployed.  Are we still saying this after Romney trotted it out?  Really?

Yeah.  Sure.  All those scientists, every last one of them, is in on it.  Them and the thermometers and the glaciers too.

Let’s review.  No one is trying to take away hand guns and shot guns.  Are we good now?

Yes, the only alternative to owning a gun is to huddle in a corner and wait to be raped.  

So, what we have here is a lot of lying.  To those who post these lies, I don’t see any people asking about the whereabouts of your sister while holding a gun to your throat, so can you cut it out?

Tuneful Tuesday: One

“One Love, one blood

One life, you got to do what you should

One life, with each other

Sisters, brothers

One life, but we’re not the same

We get to carry each other, carry each other”

-U2

This sums it up pretty well.  We are in this together, whether you acknowledge it or not.  Joining together with others to form a society is acknowledging this truth.   Pretending that the act of joining a society is meaningless and involves no sacrifices or obligations and brings no benefits but is instead a sort of accident of circumstances is an attempt to deny this reality.  We are in ‘this’ together, and ‘this’ is a big deal.  Even if you think there is another life, this one that we are in now only happens once.  It is “one life.”  This “one life” is important.  It is certainly important enough to acknowledge that although we are individuals, we only survive and thrive as a group.  We are different … “we’re not the same.”  But we are “one life.”  We will always disagree on what we should do together as a society, but we need to stop disagreeing as to whether we are a society.  “We get to carry each other,” and we need to start realizing what a necessity and what a privilege that is.  

Monday Musings: Guns and Fences?

Guns and fences are not solutions.  At best, they are temporary steps that can be taken to manage problems while solutions are drafted.  The problems of violent crime cannot be solved by putting more guns into people’s hands.  I don’t want to be cowering behind my door with a gun.  I don’t want my children to be under lock down when they are at school.  I want to reduce crime.  Gun control legislation is part of a solution.  Reworking our mental health system is part of that solution.  Reducing unemployment, improving our educational system, and increasing opportunity has to be part of that solution.  It is a very difficult problem that can’t be resolved overnight and that demands a solution that goes beyond more access to gun shows where folks can buy assault weapons without background checks.  The same is true of immigration.  The problem of illegal immigration is not solved by guns or by walls.  Putting a wall up doesn’t do anything to address the reasons why people seek to come to American illegally.  You can’t condition real reforms on stemming the flow of immigration with a wall, the real reforms to our immigration system have to come simultaneously to the wall if not before or instead of it.  I’m not interested in retreating into a heavily armed and walled compound.  I want to solve the problems we are facing rather than hiding from them.  If enough folks agree, we may be able to do something.  We may be able to find real solutions.  

Saturday Silliness: The World of Tea Party Make-Believe

At the top of the Tea Party Facebook page you find the big problem with the Tea Party neatly encapsulated in one wonderful quote.  The quote is: “When the people fear the government there is tyranny, when the government fears the people there is liberty.”  It is attributed to Thomas Jefferson.  The problem is that there isn't a shred of evidence that those words ever came out of Thomas Jefferson's mouth.  (for the proof, check out the Monticello Website)   The Tea Party wants to wage on attack on 'big' government.  They want to ground that attack in American history.  The problem they face is twofold.  First, the specifics, the facts, are against the claim that government is inherently evil, wrong, and should be done away with in favor of unfettered markets and concealed handguns.  So, they have to stay vague.  Which is why they talk about 'big' government.  Second, the early history of America is the history of the establishment and strengthening of the Federal Government.  The fight against the British was not against government  but against the British Government.  The problem wasn't taxation, but taxation without representation.  The Constitution wasn't written to limit Federal Power, but to increase it in the wake of the failure of the Articles of Confederation.  Essentially, there is no historical or logical support for their cause so they have to imagine and invent it.  I can't fault them for lying.  They have to.  I do, however, fault the rest of us for believing it.  

W-etiquette Wednesday: Wayne La Pierre and Fear

NRA chief Wayne LaPierre is trying to scare folks into opposing new gun control legislation.  He and his organization have decided to oppose any new initiatives, even ones like background checks which he has voiced support for in the past.  This opposition is not being based on logic and reason, but on hate and fear.  The closest to proof that LaPierre gets is to mention the Second Amendment.  He doesn’t go into depth, however, because then he would have to discuss things like the Supreme Court’s obvious willingness to allow regulation and the fact that no right is beyond any limitation at all.  Then he would have to talk facts and that isn’t their strategy.  Their strategy is to paint the president as a man who is out of touch with the common people and out to get their guns.  As LaPierre told a cheering crowd, "[the president] doesn't understand you. He doesn't agree with the freedoms you cherish.”  He is an “elitist hypocrite” whose own children are protected by gun toting folks while ordinary Americans’ kids are left vulnerable.  And he is out to get your guns.  After all "there are only two reasons for that federal list of gun owners: to tax them or take them.”  If people don’t have their guns, how will they defend themselves from the Government?  Of course, many background checks are performed already.  In the rest of the world, very few countries don’t have universal background checks.  Fully automatic weapons are effectively banned now and all assault weapons have been banned in the past.  And gun violence in this country is far higher than it is in much of the rest of the world.  Plus, we register things like cars in much the way that is proposed for guns.  There would seem to be plenty of reasons to give these proposals real consideration, and I have to think people will … unless there they are too angry and afraid.   I suppose that is what LaPierre and the NRA is banking on.  I suppose that is a real reason to be afraid.  

Monday Musings: Dancing With Hate And Fear

It is inauguration day and I am not thinking about ball gowns and Bibles.  It is all the hate and fear that is on my mind … the unadulterated hate and the completely irrational fear.  He’s a Marxist.  He’s a fascist.  He’s going to round us up into concentration camps after he takes our guns.  He’s destroying the Constitution.  He hates freedom.  He bought the election by buying minority votes.  He’s a Muslim.  He was born in Kenya.  He was born in Indonesia.  He is redistributing wealth.  He’s turning the country into Greece.  He’s out to destroy Catholicism.  He wants to take America away from God.  He faked the Sandy Hook shooting to get our guns.  Take a look at the comments to any article about today’s inauguration on just about any network and you will see hundreds of comments like these.  Hell, you’ll see half of them come out of the mouths of congressmen and congresswomen in the next few months.  It’s troubling that it’s all poppycock.  It’s disconcerting that no one bothers to throw out a shred of proof to support this shit.    It’s annoying that most of the people calling our President a fascist, socialist, Marxist, or Muslim have no idea what any of those things are.  It’s more annoying that these folks claim the Constitution and don’t seem to have the slightest idea what it is about.  The underlying racism is certainly oppressive to behold.  But none of it is as troubling to me as the hatred and meanness and abject fear that permeate all of it.  That people would take this much time to be this nasty and heartless is frightening.  Maybe it has always been this way.  Maybe the internet just allows us easier access to it.  Maybe it shouldn’t bother me at all.  But I can’t help but feeling that this hatred is more widespread, more separated from reason, more divorced from any understandable grievance, and seemingly more acceptable than ever before.  Nothing good can come of this sort of shit.  No problems are going to be solved by people who talk this way.  There is no historical justification for it either.  This rabid hatred is not based in the Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere’s Ride, James Madison’s writings, the Constitution, or even Thomas Jefferson’s butt crack.  There is nothing uniquely American or the least bit inspiring or laudable in any of it.  It’s certainly there though.  Even today.  Even covered up by loads of pomp and circumstance.  And I think recognizing that … and recognizing all of it for the unprincipled nastiness that it is … is the first step in a much more important dance than anything that will take place today.