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The Eclectic Pen - Glitzy Awards, Tarnished Halos

By: LC P. (smallorder)   + 4 more  
Date Submitted: 4/11/2007
Genre: Nonfiction » Current Events
Words: 597
Rating:

Dear Sally, Did you note the "Reverend Rooster" category for Rev. Al Sharpton who joined PETA for all the wrong reasons and went for the fried chicken almost immediately after being released from prison. Or the "Cereal Killer" category awarded to an NYU professor who believes that 19 yo college students are not qualified to chose their own cereals. Well, ok, the 19 yos will probably still chose the stuff with a lot of sugar but I suspect the same 19 yos will chose the same cereal at 50 as well. Or the "Pants on Fire"Award to the Center for Disease Control for publishing erroneous numbers (they knew were erroneous but did it anyway to promote the "right ideas")on obesity. I think it is good to give awards for hypocracy. It lets everybody see their "idols" and/or leader or institutions have feet of clay. I have nothing against capitalism or guns. Making it more difficult to buy guns legitimately will not lower gun usage. You haven't bought a gun on the streets lately, have you. It is cheaper than buying one in a store and much, much easier. I live in a town of apx. 50,000 where there are lots of pick-up trucks driving around with several rifles on the gun rack behind the driver and several revolvers hidden here and there. (MS has a "gunslinger law" which means you can carry a gun without a permit if it is visible and shot anyone trying to steal your car. There is a much lower murder rate than the big cities of the US or elsewhere. We have a much lower crime rate than a good deal of the rest of the country. Guns aren't the problem, really. It's the insane people who squeeze the trigger who are the problem. It's the awful environment/culture that seems to breed in big cities, it's parents who are busy doing everything but spend time with their kids and/or don't say "no" enough to them....and the list goes on. I grew up in Detroit which in the late '60's was called, Murder Capitol of the Country, with the highest murder rate than any place else in the US. The government commissioned a study to find out why the murder rate had increased so much so quickly thinking organized crime was to blame, but it wasn't. It was still doing the same business it always did. What the study showed was after the Detroit riots of 1967, more people bought guns to "protect" their families, therefore there were more guns in homes that had never had guns before. During times of domestic disputes, instead of settling them with yelling or battering the way they had been done in the past, they got the gun out and shot the family up. The guns were bought legally, were registered, and away from the kids. The cause was the American culture of rugged individualism, with strong undertones of violence (which was needed to settle a lot of wilderness way back when, and/or determinism to come to a New World and start a new way of life). Those of us who grew up in the 1950's watched a lot of westerns, police dramas, murder mysteries, etc. on tv. We were the first generation raised on a lot of visual violence that became second nature to us. Our children were exposed to even more violence, sex, and a deteriorating family structure/life. So by the time video games and fantastic technologies came along in the 1980's not only was tv rife with a ridiculous amount of violence and sex, the movies raised it to an art form. Guns aren't the problem, Sally. Good old fashion American values are. With the war in Iraq and Afganistan and who knows where else, it's not going to get any better in our lifetime. {{HUGS}} Smallorder

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