Photo: "Dread or Alive" by Rudy Randa
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First I would like to extend my heartfelt sorrow at not only
the people who passed in the recent tragedy in CT, but also the people who are
victims of gun violence everyday all over the world, whether in the projects of
Chicago, a child of war in Darfur, or soldier in Iraq, death by a bullet is
always unjust and inhumane. I intend for strength and light and Blessings to all
victims and their families during this tumultuous time.
OK. Since I am not connected to Facebook anymore I didn’t
have to sift through the reactionary haphazard call to arms of everyone who was
horrified by the tragedy in Connecticut, but that doesn’t mean I am blissfully
unaware of the diatribe that is filling your newsfeed. I can imagine it now :
“ban guns! look at the
statistics, we need more gun control laws”
then the other side
“we have the right to bear arms, you can pry my gun from my
cold dead body”
Then people start in with their statistics. OH MY,
statistics! So malleable, so easily deceiving these statistics that people love
to shove down others throats.
Here is a statistic for you :
People who own guns are more likely to be victim of gun
violence than people who do not own guns.
I have another :
The majority of forest fires take place in forests.
Meh to statistics. I go by my intuition on this one, and
although I get a some sort of kick out of shooting a handgun or rifle for
target practice, I have never felt aligned with any type of higher purpose or
sensation with a loaded gun in my hand. It is an instrument of death, and I have
never felt like it was good, or right.
WHY?
For starters because I can feel the intentions for which
this instrument was born. And probing deeper, I know what I would do with it. I
would kill if need be. Don’t get it twisted. I do not fear guns, nor am I
entirely estranged from them. Should I feel the need to defend my family, or
myself I wouldn’t hesitate to cut the head of my enemy. However, I would much
prefer not to be put in the situation where I have to choose to kill or maim.
Gandhi once said
“It is better to be violent if there is violence in our
hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence”.
Lord knows I am not impotent; so don’t
mistake my sentiments towards guns as weakness, for it is not. It is a knowing
inside me, that these instruments do not lead to a path of happiness, of love,
of true power or positive fulfillment. So then what is the answer in the wake
of such recent public tragedy? Ban guns ?
If we ban guns, then they will go the way of the black
market, and just like drugs and our attempt at alcohol prohibition, we will put
all the guns in the hands of the police and the crooks. No. No. NO. I’m not
comfortable with that idea. Think about it.
If we eventually eliminated all the ‘crooks’ and only the police and military had
guns, how would that make you feel?
I’m guessing that feeling we
would collectively have is the cloak of impotence ole Gandhi was yammering
about.
Guns and Ammo are a massive commanding industry, and like
tobacco, fast food, prescription pills and other fellow merchants of death,
they have an incredibly strong lobby presence in Washington, DC. A triumph against such a formidable Goliath
would be astounding. Lets say we the people get what we desire, and it is law
that in order to purchase a hand gun or hunting rifle (lets presume we have a
federal ban on assault weapons-that one should be a NO-BRAINER) you must prove
through sophisticated and comprehensive verification processes that you aren’t
psychotic and are not prone to criminal activity.
So then what?
Perhaps you are a mom who collects guns, living in
Connecticut, and you purchase all your firearms legally and use them
responsibly. However, your deranged son steals them from you and kills you and
26 innocent others, among them 20 beautiful helpless children. Yeah, I don’t think that is fool proof
either.
You, like me, have got to be appalled at the recent violence
in Connecticut, just like we were when James Holmes shot up a Colorado movie
theatre dressed like the joker, but are you shocked when this happens
anymore? I am not, and I haven’t been
since 1999 when the Columbine massacre occurred. This is our collective fault.
There are no laws that will have prevented this and there are no laws that will
stop this from occurring again in the future. This is our sickness that we have
developed as humans in American society.
We live in an age where the
majority of 15-40 year old men, stand up and shout “oh that’s so GANGSTER”
during the scene where Al Pacino murders the police captain in the Godfather
trilogy. This is their reaction, and it is said with a longing idolizing pride,
yet they are too fucking stupid to realize that this is where Michael Corleone
signed his own death warrant. It’s a pivotal moment where his life becomes
forever unfulfilled and the message is simply lost on so many of our generations. This example may seem insignificant, but to
me, it is telling in measuring the pulse of our nation and our sentiments
towards violence.
We are a violent nation that was born of rebellion and
bloodshed,
but that does not doom us to a cruel blood-spattered fate.
There needs to be change from within.
The people will demand a change in the laws, and the
slippery politicians will jump at a chance to join this sympathetic cause in an
attempt to look like a champion of good will, but the savvy knew this ploy to
garner votes would play out before this particular tragedy occurred – it’s just
how our present political system works. Guileless talking heads and magazines
will abound with details about the catastrophe. People will build careers and
feed bank accounts off of this, so is their outrage genuine or self-serving?
We need to give pause and be measured in our response. A
reactionary society literally invites, No, overzealously BEGS for a change,
when they aren’t even sure what the right answer is.
Marcel Proust once stated :
“All our final decisions are made in a state of mind that is
not going to last”
There is a term for this, appropriately called “extinct by
instinct”. Which is exactly what it
means: making a fatal decision based on an emotional gut reaction. I caution
everyone in getting caught up in this.
Besides reforming the laws pertaining to one industry of
death (guns and ammo), the people are in the streets clamoring for better
mental health care. Better mental health care? Like what? More Prozac? The last
5 mass murderers have all been prescribed psychotropic drugs. Perhaps it is
these drugs that help trigger the killing sprees? I cannot say for certain either way, but here
is my intuition on most prescription pills
: they are bad bad BAD and 95% of the people prescribed them don’t need
them. You do not need a pill to escape the shackles of the mind. Please believe
that. Regardless some type of reform for mental health care will also come, no
doubt in a haphazard and misguided form.
But lets just pretend that we the people get all the gun
control and health care laws we desire passed. Does this prevent mass murderers
from existing?
Laws do not erase the tyranny in the hearts of evil men.
Evil does not abide by laws. Should the next mass murderer not have guns
available to him, he will simply build a bomb, commit arson, use a knife, etc
etc. You might feel safer with better laws passed, and while I agree that gun
control reform will slightly improve the situation, it will not solve it, and malevolent
mass murderers will still have their way. Innocent children will still be butchered.
I lived in Chicago for over 5 years, not far from some notorious projects. The
city of Chicago has a ban on guns. Can someone tell me how that is working out
for them? The blood in the streets is literally up to the peoples’ knees and
rising fast, and faster.
So are we doomed? Are we a society that will continue to eat
its own, until there is just nothing left?
NO.
I have an answer.
A lot of you will probably laugh.
You may dismiss it as the hazy notion of a liberal out of
touch hippie (I am none of these things, although I do LOVE the Grateful Dead
and have a certain affinity for hippie music).
It is so simple.
It has never been tried before.
It is just
LOVE.
And I am not talking about romantic love.
I am not speaking about Valentine’s Day.
I do not prattle on about this emotional gooey stuff.
I’m talking about compassion and tough love, a love that
begins by honoring oneself, and our own lives. A demanding love, that once is
in place in the individual, will have no choice but to spread to others. It
will be contagious, like a brush fire in the thirsty Sonoran desert. I believe the term is ‘unconditional love’. Yes,
Love is the answer.
Poo-Pooing Me? Easier said than done?
I don’t believe we as a society have ever tried it. Not
really.
“Faith is taking the first step, even when you can’t even
see the staircase” –
Dr. Martin Luther
King.
We are all capable of love. Love doesn’t need fancy
expensive educational systems. Love doesn’t need free health care. Love doesn’t
need a car to get around or a house to live in. Love doesn’t discriminate from
1st world to 3rd world, from race to sexuality, religion
or age.
I can’t help but think that people who use guns as
intimidation or a means to kill or maim do so because they feel no power within
themselves. From loving yourself, from honoring yourself comes that feeling of
empowerment that pulsates through your body, a much more authentic and positive
feeling than any gun can give.
We live in a society that dismisses love as soft. A society
in which women have eschewed the powerful and necessary feminine energy because
we are obsessed with the dominant controlling male energy. Where compassion in a
male might be viewed as weak. Where we become more and more detached from
reality and humanity and live in 3d violence on the silver screen. No doubt
many of you have life like torture and killing in your HOMES in the form of
violent video games. And yet, when a lonely unloved troubled youth kills 20
children, we act as if we are surprised that it occurred.
So love. Love yourself and all your imperfections. Do things
that make you feel enriched and warm and full inside. Give for yourself and
give of yourself. Don’t be a slave to the mind and the million tricks it plays
upon you. Love unconditionally. Love proudly. Love loudly. Build Strong
communities that nurture and look out for one another. If the majority of
citizens of the United States did this, and did this honestly and purely, I
don’t think we would need gun control reform. We would have collectively and
institutionally changed.
“Power at its best is
love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power
correcting everything that stands against love”
-The Late Ever Great,
Forever missed, but NEVER forgotten Dr. Martin Luther King JR
PS. You are a coward and a cheater if you think you need an
assault rifle to hunt. I don’t care if you are hunting BigFoot. You are basically the Alex Rodriguez of
hunting. Muster whatever testicular fortitude you have and hunt like a man is
supposed to – with a bow and arrow, cross bow or spear. The hunt will be ever
more satisfying, I guarantee it.
