54th Anniversary Thoughts

54th Wedding Anniversary

 

It was ten years ago that I wrote about our 44^th wedding anniversary pictured at the conclusion of this entry, not the first time I’ve written something about our special occasion (click on “Wedding Anniversary” at the bottom of this entry for all).

 

Why single out this one anniversary entry?  It was merely a postscript to “weekend thoughts,” which featured the subject of our nation’s gun lunacy, and then some light hearted observations about being left handed.  In retrospect it was still a time of some innocence, thinking that by making good arguments about gun control somehow progress would be made, that our legislators will see the light, that the slaughtering of schoolchildren and the fear parents must have about sending their kids to school nowadays would be a thing of the past by this time in the future.

 

And that was in the pre MAGA world; we only had to contend with the Tea Party crazies.  Now it’s full bore madness, in all-pervasive Trumplandia.

 

So the point of commenting on our wedding anniversary of ten years ago is poof, just like that, it is our 54^th.   And to think of the tectonic changes during those years, Trumpism being front and center, with Covid in the backseat, makes me wonder what this country will be like ten years hence.  Small chance I’ll be around.  Didn’t think that thought, at least out loud, back then. 

 

Over the years I’ve written about gun control and politics in this blog and in the press, particularly our local paper Palm Beach Post and sometimes the New York Times.  Here’s the editorial I wrote in the March 2 Palm Beach Post about SCOTUS agreeing to hear arguments concerning Presidential Immunity and therefore delaying the Jan. 6 trial until after the election.  To me it was the final nail:

 

 

We celebrated our 54^th with a wonderful quiet dinner pictured at the onset of this entry. The world may be falling apart, but grateful we have each other

44th Wedding Anniversary

 

 

 

Whose Freedom is it Anyway?

 

I originally wrote this a few weeks ago for the Palm Beach Post as an Opinion Piece.  The paper published others of mine before, but they chose not to in this case.  Perhaps it is because of the ennui of thoughts and prayers on the subject.

 

Therefore I publish it here as the dreaded date of July 1 approaches, when Florida House Bill (HB) 543 goes into effect. This was advocated by the Republican majority and Governor DeSantis, further expanding the 2^nd amendment to allow permit-less carry of weapons in Florida.

 

It will lead to more gun deaths in the state.  I’ve expressed my views on the subject of gun control numerous times in this space and consider this a summation and further expansion. 

 

The very preamble to the Constitution states it was to “insure domestic tranquility.” The proliferation of modern weaponry instead has facilitated a form of domestic dread.

 

Whose Freedom is it Anyway?

 

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union address articulated four fundamental human rights that should be universally protected.

 

    Freedom of Speech

    Freedom of Worship

    Freedom from Want

    Freedom from Fear

 

In 1943 Norman Rockwell immortalized those Freedoms in paintings which were reproduced in “The Saturday Evening Post.” We saw the originals when visiting the New York Historical Museum in 2018

 

The painting “Freedom from Fear” depicts two children safely sleeping in their beds as their parents look on, the wife tucking them in, and the husband holding a newspaper which partially reveals a headline about the Blitz Bombings in London. 

 

That primary freedom we all want for ourselves and especially for our children, and our grandchildren, has mutated into the “freedom” to own and even carry military style weapons.  We now have two “competing” freedoms and a culture that celebrates weapons.

 

In Texas the sound of gunfire, just for the “fun” is so pervasive it is accepted as the norm in rural areas.  The recent Texas Mall shooting was the 199th Mass shooting of this year in the United States.   Next month it will be lawful to carry a concealed weapon in Florida, without a permit and without training.  Expect more gun violence here.

 

This is not the first time that we’ve had “freedoms” square off against one another.

 

At one time smoking was the accepted norm. It was part of our culture, as firmly entrenched as guns are today.  It took decades to remove the Marlboro Man from the popular American Mind.  The tobacco industry’s relentless ads subliminally communicated tough American independence.  Science proved that the ubiquity of 2^nd hand smoke has a detrimental impact on non-smokers. Living in a smoke free environment transcends the freedom of smokers to deny that fundamental right.  Laws were finally changed.  

 

 

Similarly, we have a gun culture representing so called American independence.  Some of our elected representatives even “celebrate” that “freedom” with social network pictures of themselves posing with weapons of war, even with their young children.  This form of indoctrination is not much different than the wide-spread smoking advertising which permeated the media of the past.  We genuflected to the tobacco industry as we now do to the NRA.

 

The time has come for our representatives to recognize that their constituents’ freedom to live in relative safety transcends the rights of gun owners to embrace AR-15s and to legislate against the deadly mixture of “stand your ground” and “permit-less carry” laws.  Recently we’ve seen anecdotal evidence of the consequences of the former, innocent people being shot because they mistakenly rang a doorbell or drove into the wrong driveway.  The gun owner simply felt “threatened.”

 

Furthermore, “permit-less carry” puts impossible demands on our police who now may have to go into a public place where a shot has been fired and suddenly scores of untrained citizens are there with their guns drawn.

 

The widespread carrying of guns simply leads to more deadly gun consequences.  The United States has more guns than citizens; it also has an exponentially higher rate of gun deaths and accidents.  It is a statistical inevitability.

 

One of the standard arguments against doing anything, even by those who agree that something must be done, is that there are so many weapons “out there” it is hopeless.  In the early 1980s we also thought that regulating smoking was hopeless.  It took years, but a civilized solution finally prevailed.

 

It has to start somewhere, sometime.  We need to change the gun culture; our representatives have to either agree or be voted out.  Weapons of war need to be outlawed. 

 

As in New Zealand, Congress needs to provide meaningful dollars for an amnesty period for turning in such weapons of war, paying fair market price for them.  After that period, anyone who is discovered with one (no door-to-door seizures, another fabricated action gun-mongers caution) would be subject to legal recourse.

 

Weapons would have to be registered, just like motor vehicles (the unregulated use of which would make them even be more dangerous).  As with automobiles, those with more than a certain number would be considered a dealer and subjected to another level of registration and scrutiny.

 

“Stand your ground” “permit-less carry” laws must be changed. The freedom to live in relative safety must prevail over the freedom to own (and carry) military style weapons

 

July 4 Ignominy

 

When I started writing this entry, the Highland Park parade shooting was just being reported.  Highland Park, Parkland, Any Place, USA, a land of gun culture.  In the absence of real gun control, our feckless representatives are accessories to the next mass shooting already brewing in America Land.  We fought wars to live safely and freely and now the cancer from within society is our greatest enemy.  This is central to the pieces I read during the “holiday.”

 

Margaret Renkl, a contributing Opinion writer for the New York Times wrote an interesting article for the July 4 holiday, The American Flag Belongs to Me, Too, and This Year I’m Taking It Back

 

Essentially it recounts a dilemma I have felt – our flag seems to have been purloined by the MAGA crowd.  But she had an experience which led her to hang “the American flag again for the first time in years. It’s right next to the front door, and it does not symbolize MAGA lies or MAGA tyranny. We are flying it proudly in honor of our fellow Americans who are fighting for justice of every kind.”

 

To me it is merely an inspirational piece.  Our partisan SCOTUS is just beginning to show its clout.  And the J6 Hearings clearly show Trump’s role in that attempt to overthrow the peaceful transition of power. Where is justice ask the following pieces?

 

Jim Wright’s Stonekettle Station’s wonders where Merrick Garland is in When Good Men Do Nothing,  He used to write these hard-hitting progressive pieces on a regular basis before migrating to Twitter.  Still he writes a monthly wrap-up.  Essentially his piece can be summarized by “Why should I have any faith in the Department of Justice?”   

Another weekender was John Pavlovitz’s When the Law Fails You, Where Do You Go?  He approaches the same topic but from the viewpoint of a humanistic pastor (which he is).  These articles are there for anyone to read, so no further comment on them from me.

 

I’ll add a piece I wrote eight years ago Independence Day Reverie Hard to believe, eight years.  I was startled coming across this as it proves the old adage, the more things change, the more they stay the same.  I was writing about the same issues as today, and this is pre-Trump.  He is merely an accelerant on our national nightmare.

 

It’s Time to Bring the 2nd Amendment Up To Date

 

Predictably, I had to leave out much, even key arguments, to consolidate this Op Ed piece on Gun Control for publication in the June 4, 2022 Palm Beach Post.  The online version invited readers’ comments and I was astonished by the personal vitriol it generated, just more evidence of our broken country.  All those comments were shielded by anonymity.

While the Constitution’s 2^nd amendment gives its citizens the right to bear arms, it has to be open to interpretation and refinement as times change.  With the radical metamorphosis of the “arms” of the 18^th century, its definition (and its original purpose) should have been steadily narrowed; otherwise, at its most absurd extreme, munitions manufacturers could be selling tanks, bazookas, you name it at your local gun shop. Meanwhile, that same Constitution gives States inherent "police power" to protect public health and safety.  One would think that those who do not carry guns should have the “freedom” to live without threats from those who do carry guns.

The freedom concept is not too far removed from one that pertains to tobacco.  Until the full impact of being exposed to second-hand smoke became well known, nonsmokers essentially had no rights.  Smokers “lost” their “freedom” to smoke in public once the tobacco industry lost its grip on the narrative it controlled.  Things must change when public health and safety are demonstrably at risk. Since Columbine more than 300,000 students have experienced or witnessed gun violence at school. It is time for our children no longer have to fear attending school, as well as their parents for sending them. 

My article makes the point of comparing gun registration to automobile registration and regulation.  Both instruments are potentially dangerous and laws governing their ownership and use are needed.  Absurd say the gun lobbyists.  But is it?

Imagine an alternative universe where automobiles were not invented until the last twenty years.  These same people would be arguing that their “freedom” is being curtailed having to register vehicles, getting licenses, being tested, requiring them to obey traffic laws. Having government oversee gun sales would also control how many one person could own without being declared a dealer (as it is with autos), and therefore be subjected to another level of scrutiny.  Mass shooters have a tendency to have arsenals, owning more than one gun and in some cases huge collections. Red flag!

The tired argument against the foregoing is it doesn’t stop the “bad” guys and that it would not immediately eliminate mass shootings.  Agreed!  But over time, the mandate of registration, with laws governing the consequences of the failure to register, report sales to another person, etc. is a more permanent solution.  Australia had a successful buyback program for guns.  Buy them back, no questions asked, putting a premium on assault weapons, banning the purchase of the same.  Anyone possessing such a weapon after the moratorium or selling one would be breaking the law.

Expensive, yes, but it must start sometime, or we will be having a new Memorial Day for school children.  Are their lives worth discarding for the “freedom” to own assault weapons?

YET…Senate Republicans have already said that they will not consider the regulations experts think are central to stopping mass shootings: an assault weapons ban such as we had until 2004, limits on ammunition magazines, and expansions of background checks to cover private gun sales are all off the table. They also say an age limit of 21 to purchase an assault-type rifle like that AR-15 is unlikely. – Heather Cox Richardson, June 7, 2022 “Letters from An American”