The New York Times delivered a first of its kind front page editorial today deploring the proliferation of guns in America. The editorial has been widely praised in the media as if the writing alone would have an effect on gun violence.
John was wondering why he was where he was. After all, he’d purchased the weapon weeks ago.
“And when was it, exactly, that you decided you needed an automatic rifle?” Filling out a form, Marsha, an intake worker, concentrates on her computer screen, making no eye contact with the new admission.
“I don’t know. I saw the ad online. You know. Don’t we all have the right to protect ourselves?”
“Yes. Of course. And how were you planning to use this automatic weapon?” John couldn’t see Marsha’s fingers on the keyboard but he could hear faint clicks as she typed away.
For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
Mencken said it best. But herein, I may just have said it better. I will discuss a variety of specious arguments being made from various groups and collect the points of view. As I’ve stated innumerably, the ability to critically think appears to be a lost art. But as lost artists, we will slog ahead nonetheless. And please note the actual reality and horror supra. That’s what needs to be told. The truth. Reality.
As Americans we fail to understand the impact of ideas and the forces behind them, whether they originate in domestic or foreign contexts. But the contexts merge into global in our contemporary world.
Teach your parents well,
Their children’s hell
Will slowly go by
And freed them on your dreams
— Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, “Teach Your Children,” from their 1970 album “Deja Vu”
Normalised mass violence has become the unmentioned subject of US school syllabi. Teachers’ meetings and academic retreats must be getting longer and more perturbed: How do those in a university setting cope with an armed assailant who will take a dozen lives in a short span, and then perish?
A few minutes into the class we heard these popping noises and we all went completely silent.
— Charlie King, Delta State University student, September 14, 2015
While many people have bought precious metals for moderate profits and even some losses over the last year, guns and ammo keep going up, as for the example in chart 1A, which shows Smith and Wesson nearly doubling in price since last year. However, even more interesting is to note that over the last two years, Ruger’s stock…
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When news of the latest white racist gun horror came up from Charleston, South Carolina last month, I was teaching Michael Moore’s 2002 film Bowling for Columbine. Once again, it seemed, Moore’s apocalyptic vision of an America armed-to-the-teeth and pushed-to-the-edge had proven prophetic. Once more, contrary to war-mongering media and ‘counter-terrorist’ propaganda, we were reminded: America’s terror is mostly home-grown.
The Shawshank Redemption is a movie I could watch a thousand times. By the time the last scene plays, my heart is once again filled with hope. In one prison scene Red tells Andy that hope is a dangerous thing and that it can drive a man insane. Andy, the optimist, believes that hope is the best of things, and that no good thing ever dies. To be clear, I’m not in prison and never have been, but as a citizen of Empire I find it increasingly difficult to keep hope in my heart.
