Sick of Guns
Watching our local news, Mark will tell you, is not my favorite thing to do. It seems like we have plenty of shootings here - sometimes on the streets of the poorer areas of the city, but usually in what looks like nice, middle-class neighborhoods. The explanation often goes like this: "the shooting (killing) took place after an argument" . . . Whaaa ?
Then there is the man who traveled from Las Vegas down to Georgia to shoot and kill his ex-wife, who had started a new life down in that southern state.
Oh yes, and the nice little "feature piece" on the NBC nightly news the other night about a woman who was a "wife, mother, and corporate executive" (a description, I assume, that is supposed to make her sound respectable) who just loves to go out target-shooting with her automatic rifle.
Several times during the most recent school year, a co-worker confided in me about her family problems - two teenage boys who were back and forth in a "running away from home" cycle. After one of these incidents, she reported that several of their guns were missing. A few weeks later, it happened again, and she just hoped that her husband had "locked up the rifles".
Call it over-reaction, but the main reason I don't put the bumper sticker that I like on the back of my car is that I'm afraid one of the right-wing idiots out there might shoot me.
So, you say, what prompted all this thought after months without using this lovely blog that Rachel and Steve set up for me? Well, it was this quote I came across while reading a professional journal:
"Common sense should tell us that reading is the ultimate weapon - destroying ignorance, poverty, and despair before they can destroy us. A nation that doesn't read much doesn't know much. And a nation that doesn't know much is more likely to make poor choices in the home, the marketplace, the jury box, and the voting booth . . . The challenge, therefore, is to convince future generations of children that carrying a book is more rewarding than carrying guns. "
- Jim Trelease, author, The Read-Aloud
Handbook
Then there is the man who traveled from Las Vegas down to Georgia to shoot and kill his ex-wife, who had started a new life down in that southern state.
Oh yes, and the nice little "feature piece" on the NBC nightly news the other night about a woman who was a "wife, mother, and corporate executive" (a description, I assume, that is supposed to make her sound respectable) who just loves to go out target-shooting with her automatic rifle.
Several times during the most recent school year, a co-worker confided in me about her family problems - two teenage boys who were back and forth in a "running away from home" cycle. After one of these incidents, she reported that several of their guns were missing. A few weeks later, it happened again, and she just hoped that her husband had "locked up the rifles".
Call it over-reaction, but the main reason I don't put the bumper sticker that I like on the back of my car is that I'm afraid one of the right-wing idiots out there might shoot me.
So, you say, what prompted all this thought after months without using this lovely blog that Rachel and Steve set up for me? Well, it was this quote I came across while reading a professional journal:
"Common sense should tell us that reading is the ultimate weapon - destroying ignorance, poverty, and despair before they can destroy us. A nation that doesn't read much doesn't know much. And a nation that doesn't know much is more likely to make poor choices in the home, the marketplace, the jury box, and the voting booth . . . The challenge, therefore, is to convince future generations of children that carrying a book is more rewarding than carrying guns. "
- Jim Trelease, author, The Read-Aloud
Handbook
posted by Mary @ 11:24 AM
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