UPDATE: A thought:
When the Orlando nightclub tragedy occurred (remember that? All these multiple gun massacres are starting to blend into one another) the Second Amendment enthusiasts ("Life, liberty and the pursuit of firearms") all opined that the solution to the Orlando Nightclub massacre was more guns. If only liberal, pinko Obama would stop passing laws taking guns out of the hands of good and god and Muslim fearing Americans, then these tragedies wouldn't happen because they would be quickly ended by a good American with a gun.
Query: One nut killed five, trained and armed police officers, and shot seven more. And no one shot and killed him. Why?
Hmmm...
Maybe being armed is not the solution. Maybe removing a few million of the guns floating around the streets just might be the answer. Seems to work in Europe.
“Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart
until, in our own despair, against our will,
comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.
Aeschylus.
The summer of 2016 is turning into the summer of 1968.
This is not good.
Today we awoke to a tragedy in Dallas, where five police officers were murdered, and others have been injured in a cold blooded ambush. Earlier in the week all of us were transfixed, and many of us angered, by the actions of police officers in Louisiana and Minnesota where police officers took the lives of innocent men.
It has to end. Here's how the end begins:
We need to go beyond the labels of police officers, suspects, defendants, civilians, Americans, Muslims, Arabs, Christians or Jews and start with this: we are humans. We wake up in the morning to live our life, love our family, and return home at night to start it all over again the next day. We laugh, we cry, we listen to music, or paint, or cook, or read, and we have hopes, and dreams and desires and fears.
If you cut us, we bleed.
If you smile at us as we pass you on the street, we smile back.
But if you curse us, we get angry.
We all want the same thing- to live a long, healthy, productive , meaningful life, and leave this world a little better off than we found it when our time on this earth is over.
Once we understand and accept our humanity, we can see people as people, and not the artificial labels we place on each other. Five cops didn't die in Dallas Friday morning. Five human beings died. Human beings who loved their family, and who woke up to start their day without any inkling that their life was about to end.
Five human beings died in Dallas Friday morning who had every right to live their life to the fullest. Just like a human being died in Minnesota this week, and another in Louisiana. All of these men are united by one simple fact- they were human beings who had every right to live their life and their life was ended. Their life was ended by evil, or intolerance, or fear, or misunderstanding, because those who ended their lives didn't see them as people- they saw them as cops, or perps, or black males, or suspects.
That's how evil and fear start- by de-humanizing people by applying labels that are meaningless.
We are a nation on edge.
We are a world in crisis.
This has to end.
Where is our Bobby Kennedy?
21 comments:
"Thoughts and prayers."
Bravo
This country is tearing itself apart.
Where is our "Bobby Kennedy"? Really? Considering your voice is so effective and has so much more weight than you realize it is always shocking to me how during a crisis you limp away when you can't find an alpha to compel you to move forward. We don't need a Bobby, or a Jack, or even a King. It is our inner Bobby, our inner Malcolm, our inner Shirley. You look for leaders, but there are such inspiring acts of peace and humanity among the turmoil that you miss while looking up at the empty dais. Stop expecting someone ELSE to stand up at the mic! Put your goddamn American Flag shirt on and grab a mic! You are far from alone! Lock arms with the chorus of people who see through the haze of hatred and TEAR DOWN THE DAIS. You don't need it when your rights are self evident and your happiness is secure.
This is NOT 1968. Time moves much faster now.
The great state of Texas,lover of all things firearm and NRA. The state that wants all college students to pack according to the theory that good guys with guns are the best defense against bad guys with guns. The state that is liberal only in their expanded view of what constitutes a justifiable killing. I'd like to hear what the bullshit is now that a motivated and trained Texan mowed down a dozen of their best guys with guns because he believed them to be tyrannical. As an added affront, the gunman was killed not by a gun but by a grenade tossing robot. A tragedy for sure but a very Texan tragedy. Be careful what culture you live by because it will also be the culture you die by.
One more reason to vote for Trump, we must stop this nonsense instead of pandering like Crooked Hillary and her BFF Pocahantas. #MakeAmericaGreatAgain #KeepAmericaSafe
HEY RUMPOLE I HAVE AN IDEA. YOU CAN MARKET IT AS YOUR OWN. A FAMOUS POLITICIAN ONCE SAID A LOT CAN GET ACCOMPLISHED IF NO ONE CARES WHO GETS CREDIT FOR IT.
IS IT NOT TIME FOR THIS COUNTRY TO HAVE A DEPARTMENT IN JUSTICE OR HHS OR AN OFFICE IN THE WHITE DEDICATED TO POLICIES AND PROGRAMS TO REDUCE VIOLENT CRIME IN THE UNITED STATES. LOOK AT THE NOMINATIONS AND APPOINTMENTS OF ALL THE USELESS CRAP THAT POTUS OBAMA HAS APPOINTED PEOPLE TO, COMMISSIONS AND ORGANIZATIONS.
YOU AND I KNOW, AS DO DOZENS OF JUDGES, PROSECUTORS, PUBLIC DEFENDERS ETC. THAT HALF THE CRIME WE SEE IS DONE BY HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS GROWING UP WITHOUT A FATHER. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME KFR, OR THE JUDGES, WENT TO THE MIAMI COMMISSION AND ASKED FOR RESOURCES FOR TRUANCY OFFICERS, OR TO BUILD A RECREATION CENTER. I GUESS MOST OF THE JUDGES ARE AFRAID OF BEING TRANSFERRED TO CIVIL IF CRIME GOES DOWN.
WE NEED A GENERAL AS SECRETARY OF EDUCATION, THAT IS HOW BAD THE SCHOOLS ARE. A TEACHER A DAY ASSAULTED IN ONE SCHOOL DISTRICT I WILL NOT NAME.
AFTER 100 SHOT IN ORLANDO HAS ANYONE IN CONGRESS PROPOSED LEGISLATION TO PREVENT 1.3 MILLION MINOR CHILDREN A YEAR FROM QUITTING SCHOOL. ALL THOSE SHOOTINGS IN CHICAGO, BLACK ON BLACK CRIME, KFR HAS 250 PROSECUTORS. SO MUCH OF IT IS PARENTAL ABANDONMENT AND NEGLECT AND A COUNTRY THAT ALLOWS CHILDREN QUIT SCHOOL, ROAM THE STREETS, AND COMMIT VIOLENT FELONIES. NOW LET'S SEE ALL THE FOLLOWERS OF YOUR BLOG TEAR APART MY ARGUMENT. WE ARE GOOD AT THAT IN THIS COUNTRY AND NOTHING CHANGES. AND THE BEAT GOES ON. THE POLICIES OF THE ELECTED OFFICIALS OF OUR COUNTRY AND THEIR INCOMPETENT RESPONSE TO SHOOTING AFTER IS SHOOTING IS THAT THE LIVES OF THE POOR MINORITY CHILDREN GROWING UP FATHERLESS JUST DON'T MATTER. YOUR LIVES DO NOT MATTER.
MAYBE IT IS TIME FOR A GOVERNMENT AGENCY OR CZAR IN THE WHITE HOUSE TO COME UP WITH SOLUTIONS TO VIOLENT CRIME IN AMERICA.
I WOULD THINK A BLOG OF ATTORNEYS AND JUDGES ON THE FRONT LINE OF THE PROBLEM COULD COME UP WITH SOME IDEAS. HERE ARE 2
1. STOP LETTING 1.3 MILLION CHILDREN PER YEAR QUIT SCHOOL.
2. MAKE MEN RAISE, SUPPORT, AND PARTICIPATE IN THE LIVES OF THE CHILDREN THEY BRING INTO THE WORLD. DWIGHT HOWARD, WORSHIPPED PRO ATHLETE FROM A CHRISTIAN HIGH SCHOOL HAS 8 CHILDREN.
First of all, Caps Guy/Gal= NO MORE CAPS= I won't print any more comments in all caps, Okay?
12:05- desperate times call for great men and women. England had Churchill. We had Roosevelt.
The Civil rights movement had MLK, and then LBJ, a southerner, former southern senator, capitalized on the assassination of JFK to seize the moment and push through the 1964 civil rights bill, at great personal and political expense. After the bill was passed, LBJ correctly predicted that the Democratic party lost the south for a generation. And indeed, Nixon- as good a politician as you will ever see- with spot on political instincts, won the white house with the first republican "southern strategy". And from 1968 through 2016, the south has been solidly Republican. Yet it was a price LBJ was willing to pay- it's called being a leader.
1968 was a horrible, compelling, fascinating year. And the moral compass in our country amid the chaos, protests, the deaths in Vietnam; the incessant chanting outside the white house 24 hours a day: "Hey Hey LBJ< how many kids did you kill today?; the hippies, the drugs-tune in, turn on and drop out- the race riots, and the mazing accomplishments of the Apollo program- was Bobby Kennedy. Right up until the time he was assassinated.
We do our part. But we are an anonymous blogger. Unknown and un-elected (and un-electable). There's a Bobby Kennedy out there, somewhere, and we need him now.
What we need to reduce crime is JOBS. We need something similar to the CCC or WPA, paying $15/hr plus health benefits for those who will become defendants. Ideal hands are the Devil's workshop. Whatever program MUST be open to convicted felons or they have no chance to be rehabilitated, they will be left on the sidelines, and out of frustration commit more crimes.
Also benefits for single mothers and families need to remove the restriction of no adult males or fathers living in the household. These do good programs that require no male in the house may very well do as much harm to society than they solve.
Can't deny good neighborhood Public Schools also would help. More tech/ vocational education is needed in high school.
But who will pay up front to stop most of ( No not all) crimes when it is easier just to lock them up and throw away the key.
The answer is not in the stars but ourselves.
2:22 is the biggest piece of shit on the planet. You're what's wrong with this country.
"We need to go beyond the labels of police officers, suspects, defendants, civilians, Americans, Muslims, Arabs, Christians or Jews and start with this: we are humans. We wake up in the morning to live our life, love our family, and return home at night to start it all over again the next day. We laugh, we cry, we listen to music, or paint, or cook, or read, and we have hopes, and dreams and desires and fears.
If you cut us, we bleed.
If you smile at us as we pass you on the street, we smile back.
But if you curse us, we get angry.
We all want the same thing- to live a long, healthy, productive , meaningful life, and leave this world a little better off than we found it when our time on this earth is over."
I have been reading this blog for years. The above passages are the best I have ever read. Well put Rumpole.
A very learned retort to 222 by 7:15. I don't think 222 opined wether the Texas culture was good or bad. Today I read that genius politician Ben Carson warned against politicizing the 2nd amendment as we need it to make sure that the citizens of this country have the ability to kill the agents of the government when they decide they have to. That is precisely what this dick did in Texas. He followed the right wing philosophy and took life and death into his hands. This is what these right wing lunatics have been advocating and that is what that piece of shit at 2:22 pointed out. You may not like it but it is the truth.
If we wish to address and maybe minimize mass casualty evens, shooting , bombings, terrorism, than we should take a step back , study the root and commonality dispassionately, scientifically, without rancor or politics.
Let the facts lead us to conclusions, not deciding then looking at the evidence.
But, I would bet a dram or two that the common thread we need to address is Mental Illness . So vast a majority of mass killings are done by disassociated, paranoids who latch onto ideology, theology, etc, to try to justify their sociopathic thoughts
Only a psycho leftist, of which there appear to be many, could distort reality in such a way as to equate murdering 5 local law enforcement officers, who had nothing to do with incidents hundreds of miles away, with what a tyrannical government does. There are plenty of examples of tyrannical governments and the kinds of things they do. Perhaps you didn't learn that in your GED program, but you can look if up you care to. Obviously you and 2:22 endorse the murder of these officers. Most normal people don't. Your mommy should really cut your internet off.
Re 346's comment:
I agree that the breakdown of the family until is a critical problem in the United States. However, blaming Kathy is ridiculous. Kathy actually runs a truancy intervention program and an entire division that enforces child support decrees. Regardless, cops and prosecutors are not social workers and they can't force morality. Incarceration is not the solution you seem to think it is.
Unfortunately, law enforcement agencies (including the SAO) are so under-resourced that they can't do what they're supposed to, let alone take on more than they're already doing.
BTDT
Dallas is merely the chickens coming home to roost. Police have been brutalizing black and brown people with impunity since the slavery days. For most of white America, it has been out of sight -out of mind for far too long. The paradigm shift is the advent of camera-phones: cops can't shoot unarmed people and lie about it anymore.
Time for a sea change in policing. The Omerta code of silence among cops needs to go. More money on training cops to deal with situations, other races, and mental illness,and less on military equipment. KKK cops need to be rooted out, fired, and pensions stripped. The Police union needs to be held accountable somehow for their fostering of hate i.e Miami FOP's own Javier Ortiz who opined regarding (12 y.o.) Tamir Rice murder..."if you act like a thug, you get treated like a thug"
Re: Cops
Cops are not supposed to be an armed force occupying a hostile territory. The cops are just folks hired to do what any reasonable person would do when faced with crime. The black community needs to rise up and govern themselves, they need to stop the crime and drug dealing, and not look to the police to do what they themselves should be doing.
We have known since 1829, what it takes to run an ethical police force. If we would simply demand that our police learn and follow the nine principals set out in Lord Peel's General Orders, we would not be having these issues today. Take for example, number 6: "To use physical force only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient to obtain public co-operation to an extent necessary to secure observance of law or to restore order, and to use only the minimum degree of physical force which is necessary on any particular occasion for achieving a police objective." Isn't it the disregard of this principal which has lead to so much recent anguish?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peelian_principles
Has any police organization or policeman, for that matter, condemned or criticized the murders committed in Baton Rouge or Minnesota?
Rumpole, have you become a collectivist? If you don't want to have guns, fine, it is your choice. Don't try, then, to impose your choice on law abiding gun owners who use them responsibly.
I would think that any reasonable person, let alone a law enforcement officer would wait for a verified factual account to come to light prior to voicing an opinion of the deaths in La. and Mn.
PM,SASA
Post a Comment