I haven't written a post here in quite a while. I do have a reason.
It's not that I don't have things to write about- no, I kind of wish I didn't have so much to write about these days. See, I usually write about either the latest thing that is pissing me off, or I write about a point that I'm trying to make or warn folks about. In either case, it something that is topical.
The trouble right now is that there's simply so many things that fall into that category that I don't have enough energy to write about them. Every day it's something dire- immigration, the military being asked to violate Posse Commutates or the military actually violating it; people in the current cabinet thinking that Habeus Corpus is a power the President has; wanton disobedience to already decided on cases regarding the burning of the US flag; changing of a restaurant logo causing people to lose their damn minds; to another school shooting that killed an 8 and 10 year old boys along with 3 80+ year old congregants who were there to pray....
That last one has taken a huge toll on yours truly. Partially because my health at this time is particularly bad, but mostly because of the absolute waste of all of it. This particular shooting (how gross is it that I can categorize it that way and?) really brought home all of it because it is but a microcosm of the larger problem, in that everybody yells about it, but no one does anything concrete about it. In a few days, we'll all forget that there are 5 lives that were ended in horrendous fashion, and we'll all claim that we forgot about it because of how much shit is going on in the world. That paltry excuse is even more frustrating because it's partially true. There is A LOT going on these days- so much so that no one can draw a bead on any one target before something else gets in the way.
While the shit just continues to roll in, everyone just looks for the problem to be easily explained away and at the same time, we look to someone else for an implementable solution. In my little corner of existence even some people I hold in high regard are way too fast to say something political with no real help. Yes, I am looking at you who say things like "Isn't it interesting that conservatives are more interested in restaurant logos than they are about children being shot in schools". That is an invalid and callous statement that is not true. I'm here to tell you as someone who still considers himself to be somewhat of a conservative (I am not a MAGA guy at all) a proud RINO and even a 2nd Amendment supporter that these two topics have NOTHING to do with each other. That call is pure and utter bullshit. It's cheap and needlessly derisive.
I know, I know- I'll get some heat from that statement. That statement comes from a group of people who never put forth a plan to fix anything. They make hysterical arguments with no path forward. Their opposition respond with nothing more than a distracting, equally baseless argument and suddenly we find ourselves in a no-win/no backsies tangential place and absolutely NOTHING gets done. So please- if your only reaction to what I'm saying is something stupid like that, please cram it entirely up your ass and shut the hell up. Simply put, those statements are not helpful in the least.
I truly believe that the only real answer is to start collecting the guns is going to be the only way to stop this. That is a change of pace for me, but I've always said that when new information is presented, the intelligent person should re-examine the facts as they are now presented and possibly change their minds. The single biggest fact that has been presented now is that the part of the 2nd Amendment that provides for a well-armed state militia has not been observed by those who were most likely to observe it - that is, the NRA type members who said they were protecting themselves from an illegal government - haven't done so. Couple that with the fact that it's just completely obvious that we as a society cannot be trusted with the responsibility of owning firearms means that we should do the responsible of thing of just getting rid of them. Hey- I'm a firearm owner and enthusiast, but if asked to turn mine in, I would. (I'm actually thinking of doing this without being asked) Please don't refer to me as a sheep here. I know what you're gonna say, but this problem or our babies being killed in school and other mass casualty sites is gonna require some pretty drastic measures.
So, I guess what I'm trying to get at is that it seems like all the politicalization of the topics has failed to bring about any change at all, and things like this continue to spiral out and down. No one has any answers, but they sure can sure complain. I've become convinced that no one really wants the responsibility and certainly not the actual work to make any kind of change at all. They'd rather complain, and they'd rather keep complaining. Seems that it's everybody else's need to effect change, and *my* job is to sit here and make pithy, non-active statements and bonus points if you do this to "out" your opposer by use of an overstated political narrative. I feel like I have to explain that last one a bit more, so permit me:
There is simply no actual proof out there anywhere that empirically shows that conservatives want children to be killed from any point of view. Maybe the truly insane might, but the truly insane cross all political boundaries. As such, they are a VAST minority. 99.9% of conservatives share the same sense of grief and shock as the same 99.9% of liberals do. That's not me being naive, that's a FACT. You might decide differently, but you'd be wrong. That same 99.9% wishes it wouldn't have happened at all and merely believe that this is a mental health issue. I find myself in that same camp, but now I'm seeing that this has become more of a responsibility issue. I do not say that because I think of myself as a classic conservative, (I do think that however) but rather from the standpoint that the 99.9% of both parties' memberships are actually thinking, caring human beings. It's a difficult thing to say when it comes down to some people's perception of immigrant children, but I'll stand my ground on this until I see different statistics, at which time and after I've viewed said statistics, and then I might change my mind. (I have to see it that way, because in my heart of hearts I believe that everyone wants this bullshit to stop.) I believe that SOME conservatives don't come from the same point of view as SOME conservatives do and don't see the same driving forces. But bottom line is that no one wants to see children or innocents killed like this.
I guess what I'm getting at as this will never be fixed if the first is, "Well, see? I told you the other side wants xxxx, and that's what makes them stupid/uncaring/evil/etc." We need to come at this based on what we collectively don't want, and we need to eschew these dangerously one-sided arguments about the other. Just image if all the libers all the conservatives and independents were to unite for a single cause. And this one is an easy one to start with, because we are all united on the killing of children, but we can't admit even that.
Now that I've offered a positive in regard to fixing this, I have to say that my outlook on this matter is pretty bleak. I don't think that this is something that we'll ever fix, even though it really could be that simple. I've pretty much given up all hope now. I know I'll never see it in my greatly reduced lifetime. Why do I say this? Because as you've read this, you're trying to find fault with it. "He's naive" or "He doesn't know what he's talking about", or "Dude is a freaking hippy" or "He's a farging libtard" - this is what you're thinking. And someone here reading this is bound to make one of the pithy comments I mentioned earlier as their defense. You can't help it, and yet you could by trying just a little understanding and leaving this shitty practices and statements by the wayside.
But you won't.
