Victim Blaming... The all american pastime of the US

Victim blaming for both rape and murder...

Americans have so many national passtimes... Baseball, flag obsession, racism, sexism, religious zealotry, appropriating the name "football" from the rest of the world and repurposing it and renaming the original sport bearing that name "soccer", bombing innocent bystanders and failing utterly to actually kill the person they're aiming for, and - at the forefront of my mind today - victim blaming. It's been an interesting year for us living in the amazing US of A. We've had Donald Trump turn from an amusing sideline of the election into an actual threat who could possibly have control over nuclear weapons in the not-so-distant future. We've had rapists left-right-and-center getting ridiculously pathetic short sentences, rape victims being disbelieved and slut-shamed. We have had news reports virtually every week about police shooting people all over the place - usually unarmed black kids and adults, the Black Lives Matter movement gaining incredible momentum - and of course opposition. We've had a football player kneel during the national anthem in protest of police shooting unarmed black people and white people going back to the overt racism we saw when the KKK was a popular club to be in, and then that same football player be called a muslim, a terrorist, received death threats, told he's a communist, should both kill himself and allow others to kill him, etc... 

Pretty much the US is a fucking insanely stupid nation at the moment. It's scary to live here, and i'm a privileged middle-class white girl. If i'm scared, I can only imagine how people who are actually in danger from this shit that's happening feel. I'd be fucking terrified to even leave my house. I'd become a hermit and only come out at like 4 or 5 am when almost everyone is asleep and there's less chance of me becoming a target for someone's racist vendetta. 

The US has an interesting history of blaming people for things they can't help. When the British "discovered" North America, they blamed the Native Americans for defending themselves, and punished them by slaughtering them, scalping them, and killing them (admittedly unknowingly) with diseases. When the Dutch and British started the whole slave trade, white people in the US enslaved Africans simply because they had a different skin colour, language, culture, etc... When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, the Government rounded up all the Japanese (and even Chinese) immigrants they could and shoved them into what were basically concentration camps without the whole gassing chambers part. For thousands of years, women have been considered "unclean", "stupid", "hysterical", and "too delicate" for pretty much everything except embroidery for the simple fact that we have vaginas and periods.

But we seem to have entered an all new low period in our history when we blame women for being attacked and raped, and black people for being murdered. The girl who was sexually assaulted behind a dumpster "had it coming" to her because she was intoxicated, and therefore we cannot even consider punishing her rapist because "it will affect HIM for the rest of his life..." Never mind that she will have to live with the memory for the rest of her life, knowing that when she was helpless someone took advantage of her and tried to stick his penis inside of her... No, the rapist's life and future are what we have to protect right now, obviously...

When it comes to rape the first question is not, "what the fuck did the parents teach their fucking rapey kid growing up?", it's what was the girl wearing, was she revealing too much cleavage, how short was her skirt, did she flirt with the guy, was she a "tease" or "leading him on", did she consent to kissing or fondling, because if so she was definitely asking for sex too, how much did she have to drink, was she wearing makeup, did she tell him she had a boyfriend, did she have a history of one-night-stands, was she "loose" with her sexuality, did she go to parties often, etc... We don't look at the perpetrator of the rape, the person with the penis who - for some reason - thought it was okay to force himself on a resisting woman. No, we look at the woman and analyse everything about her to decide how much she is at fault for another person attacking her. We give her a score of 9/10 her fault for the rape, and the guy only a 1/10, because he must have just misread the signals. 

Universities don't expel rapists, especially if they're on a sports team. They punish the victim of the rape and force her to go to a school where she sees the person who may have ruined her life, who has given her nightmares, panic attacks, a fear of intimacy with people she cares about, possibly even a fear of hugging her parents or friends, and who knows what other triggers and side effects of being sexually assaulted and abused. Judges give rapey little swimming kids 6 months in prison and then let him out after 3 months because anything else will DAMAGE HIS FUTURE... HIS future, mind you. His father pleads with people to be kind to his kid because 6 months in low-security prison was a "steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action"... Why not teach your kid to respect women and if he tries to rape any of them turn him in yourself or beat the shit out of him until he understands what apparently 20 years under your tutelage failed to teach him in the first place. 

"20 minutes" was 20 minutes too much action. Even 5 minutes is too much, 1 minute, 30 seconds... There is no "amount of rape" that is okay. It's not like there's a line of right and wrong, and when you hit the 30 minute marker you've suddenly gone too far. Like, 29 mins and 30 seconds of rape is okay, but 31 minutes earns you a prison sentence... It doesn't work that way. You don't get a free pass because it was a small time period. That's like saying that you get to murder 6 people without any consequences, but if you murder a 7th, OMG, you done fucked up... 

People get taken to court and stripped of their life savings because they bumped the car in front of them and the other driver falsely claims whiplash, when they still have an open cup of water in their cupholder that didn't spill a drop. We can consign a person to bankruptcy and strip them of everything they own because some dude wanted a fat payout by suing, but god help the person who suggests that we legally punish a rapist. That's "cruel and unusual"...

Similarly, all people seem to do these days is blame black people for their own murders at the hands of cops. They don't look at the little kid that was playing in the park with a toy squirt gun, they look at the dude who called it in and said there was a black kid with a gun. The cops didn't investigate what was going on, they just tore up to the park in their cruiser, flew out of it, and shot a little boy dead. No questions, no "put the gun down", no consideration that this was a little kid playing in a park. White people look at a grown man that was shot by the police and they ask "Was he wearing a hoodie? How tall was he? Did he look angry? Did he put his hands up immediately, or ask questions first? Did he resist arrest? Did he follow instructions? Did he have past convictions? Was he doing anything illegal?"... They tell black people to just "follow the law and do what they say and you'll be fine"... Well, obviously not! I'm pretty sure that by now some black people just drop to the ground with their hands out the minute they see a cop, regardless of what they're doing at the time, even if they are just selling girl scout cookies... It's no longer about keeping your nose clean, going about your business, and being safe. It's about assuming you must look like a criminal 24/7, so you have to always assume someone's going to try and shoot you.

And then when it comes to the protesting, the black community can do nothing right. Either they protest by trying to get laws passed to protect themselves, or they go to court to get punishment for the murdering cops, and nothing gets done. Protesting via the court system isn't effective. So they try getting support from the communities and politicians around them. But no one is interested, or even sees that there is a problem. So they get mad and sit down in the middle of roads and conduct peaceful if disruptive protests. They get attacked by white bystanders and the police, even though they are exercising their constitutional right to protest. Next they get really angry and hold violent protests, marches, smash windows, destroy public property, anything to get the attention of the world and highlight the very real problem that their community faces every single day. Discrimination, racism, hate from white people, unequal opportunities, lack of resources and lack of quality education in their communities... The list goes on and on. Even when a single black person protests in a completely non-disruptive, non-violent, not in your face at all way - by taking a knee during the national anthem at a football game - he is held up as an example of a "dangerous, disrespectful black man". Called hateful names like communist, devil, told to go back to where he came from, told to leave the US if he doesn't like the way things are... 

We blame the victims of crime all the time. We blame rape victims for being too provocative. We blame the victims of cop murder for being ex-cons or just looking suspicious (i.e. having darker skin caused by more melanin pigmentation), we blame regular murder victims for pissing the wrong person off, being disrespectful, refusing to do something for someone, not having better house security, etc... We blame pregnant young girls killed by their boyfriends because they wouldn't abort for getting pregnant in the first place. We blame women killed in childbirth for getting pregnant in the first place, even though they tried to have an abortion for their own health and safety. We blame young LGBTQA people who commit suicide for being LGBTQA, and say that if they could only just have tried to be "normal" heterosexuals then they wouldn't have been unhappy enough to kill themselves... 

When horrible things happen to good and innocent people, we blame THEM for it. Not their murders, or their tormentors, not their rapists and their torturers, not the abusive boyfriend or the religious fanatics, not the unfair court systems that pass laws preventing women from terminating pregnancies that threaten their lives... We blame the very people we SHOULD have been helping. We allow this disgusting victim blaming culture to not only perpetuate, but to thrive. 

Why? I have no idea. I cannot comprehend how little compassion a person has to have not to feel the pain of these needless deaths or feel sorrow at how their lives ended.

The Orlando Nightclub Shooting

The Real Issues Here, not Fear Mongering

My thoughts are with the survivors of the Orlando Pulse shooting, the families and friends of the deceases, and the souls of the murdered. There is nothing that can be said, no comfort that can be given after such a horrific event, and all I can say is that I am so sorry for their losses.

I am once again sickened and horrified by the latest shooting event in the US. This has become an every week thing, if not more often. 2 shootings in 2 days. One was a rising talented youtube singer at a concert shot by a supposed unbalanced fan. The other was the largest mass shooting event in the history of the US resulting in the deaths of 50 people with another 50 or so injured, some still in surgery and in critical condition.

All day yesterday and today all that has been reported on the radio is the connection of the shooter in Orlando to ISIS, Trump's insinuation that Obama is in some way to blame for the shooting, the constant obsession over the ethnicity and religion of the shooter, etc... The internet is full of forums of people talking about how the shooter was an immigrant and we need to close our borders, how our decreased military presence worldwide is why this tragedy happened. People are liking posts about how it's Obama's government that has led us to this point and allowed such a thing to happen, people are retweeting disgusting comments about how the shooter is the hero for killing gay people. This is reminiscent of the shooting that occurred several months ago at a Planned Parenthood, where people were applauding the nutjob who shot up a waiting room, claiming he was a hero saving babies lives. I wrote a blog post about that as well when it occurred, disgusted by the so called "Good Christians" outpouring of hatred against dead people, and how they somehow deserved to die for aborting helpless freaking babies.

Now, instead of focusing on what the real issues here are, the media is completely ignoring the real reasons why this horrible tragedy happened. Homophobia and a lack of gun control. That's the real root of this shooting. I am the first to usually look at religious extremism as a motive, and yes, that may be the reasoning behind the homophobia, but it's the homophobia that resulted in the shooter choosing this particular target. A club that is frequented mainly by the  LGBTQ community and it's allies was the target, and if this is not put down as a hate crime then i'm not sure what the hell the media is doing anymore. It was a hate crime committed by a domestic terrorist. Not an international terrorist working for ISIS, not a muslim immigrant, but a U.S. citizen born in the U.S., raised in the U.S., who didn't like gay people. That is domestic terrorism - the same cause of the Planned Parenthood shooting - and homophobia.

What I want to know is when is enough going to be enough? There have been 998 mass shootings (where 4+ people died) in the 912 days since the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting on December 14th, 2012. In 912 days 1,105 people have been murdered by guns in mass shootings, and another 3,929 people have been physically injured - not even counting the emotional damage from being in this situation, the PTSD that some survivors must have, the impacts on the family members and friends of those killed. In just over 2 years since the first "wake-up-call" shooting we have done nothing to prevent this from happening. We blame it on mental health issues, which undeniably have had a hand in these shootings in some cases. We blame it on immigrants and Islam - which also have played a role in some of the cases. But when have we ever blamed it on christian-based motives and "morals"? When has anything actually changed to make the acquisition of a gun more difficult? When have we had the nerve to call it what it really is: Domestic Terrorism? When have we looked at the perpetrator and said the words that really show the underlying motives? Pro-life, Homophobic, Christian, Islamic, Pro-gun, white supremacist, racist. 

First, people manage to somehow confuse hate crimes with mental illness. Sandy Hook can be attributed to a combination of mental illness and developmental/behavioural issues and was probably not a "hate crime". On the other hand, the shooting at a Charleston Church with a predominantly black congregation can probably be classified as a hate crime brought on by racism and the perpetrator there seemed obsessed with white supremacy. And therein lies the difference. On one hand you have a person with actual mental and psychological deficits, and on the other you have a person with an intense hatred of a specific group of people. Once again, after the Orlando shooting, republicans are calling for more mental health awareness but saying that there is no need for gun control. Because obviously every person who uses a gun inappropriately must have some mental illness. It can't be for any other reason. The mass shooting in Orlando was not a crime committed due to mental illness, rather a crime committed due to homophobia and hatred against the gay community.

Second, there is the discussion of the shooter at the Orlando nightclub and how he has connections to ISIS and international terrorism, rather than domestic terrorist and his homophobia. The man's own father says he showed his disgust and hatred of men who liked other men. There has been no link found between the individual and ISIS. ISIS put out a statement congratulating the shooter and saying how wonderful it was that so many had died. ISIS exists to monger fear, to sow distrust, and to turn us against one another to make it easier for them to cause havoc. The media says that this statement shows the terror group "claiming responsibility" - which it does not actually claim - and this just gives more weight to ISIS's campaign to terrify everyone. But, it has nothing to do with the shooting event itself. NOTHING has been found to indicate any connection between the shooter and ISIS other than his religion. As far as the information shows, this was purely a crime against the LGBTQ community and was a hate crime. Discussing connections to international terror groups distracts from the real horror of what happened and diminishes the suffering of those injured, the families and friends of those who have died, and those who survived the traumatic attack.

Third, there is a ridiculous amount of emphasis being put on the fact that this man was a Muslim and followed the religion of Islam. People seem to think that his religion dictated that he must go and kill gay people. This could have easily been a white Christian man, and no one would dare insinuate in that scenario that he would have been following the orders of his god and Jesus by killing gay people, even if he chanted that very thing as he shot people. While the shooter was probably motivated by the belief that his religion taught against homosexuality, it doesn't actually matter what his religion actually was. All of the major world religions teach against homosexuality; Christianity, Islam, Catholicism, even some sects of Judaism and Hinduism. The fact that he was religious and was taught that homosexuality is wrong by his religion is of note because it was a religiously motivated hate-crime but the individual religion is completely unimportant here.

Fourth, hate crimes in this country have been increasing since extremist views about race, religion, and sexual and gender orientation have come to the forefront of our countries politics. Donald Trump is a political figure running for the highest office in the U.S. who is openly homophobic, racist, sexist, and who feeds the rabid masses foaming at the mouth for vindication that their hatred against certain groups of people is justified. He eggs on his supporters to violently assault people that don't agree with him. He promotes the illegal barring of an entire race from entering the U.S. on the basis of "they might be terrorists". And he regularly slanders people based on race, religion, and gender. All of the extremists out there now have someone to rally behind and they are becoming more and more comfortable expressing their views in physically violent ways. With a person like Donald Trump running for President, it's no wonder that we have a racist kid shooting up a black church, a radical pro-lifer shooting up a planned parenthood clinic, and a homophobic man shooting up a LGBTQ community gathering place. 

Fifth, we once again have a discussion on our hands about gun control. All the things that have been pandered about different communities; "good guy with a gun" nonsense, the "guns don't kill people, people kill people" argument, "the liberals are trying to take away our guns" diatribe... What we "liberals" want is for more people with sketchy backgrounds not to be able to get ahold of dangerous weapons that can cause this amount of damage to other humans. We want the system to be improved so that people with histories of narcotic convictions or domestic abuse or mental disturbances that could lead to psychotic breaks or extremist viewpoints about sexual identity, race, religion, women's choice, etc... won't get ahold of deadly weapons. If you are a sane person who has no history of violence or drug related charges and who shows no inclination to violently attack someone because of their race, gender or sexual orientation, religion, or life choices, then by all means go ahead and buy a gun. But something needs to change in the system now, not in 10 years when even more people are dead. 

And Finally, can we please acknowledge the insanity of people CONGRATULATING the shooter on killing people. It doesn't matter if these people were gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, other, or even straight... they were living breathing human beings. For people out there to celebrate their deaths is disgusting and horrifying. Sure, it might be a small group of people out there that feel this way, but the fact that they exist proves that we have a broken society. They wouldn't have this intense hatred if people didn't tell them that it's okay to hate gay people, that it's okay to believe they should "burn in hell" or "die for their sins". If prominent individuals (pastors, priests, ministers, preachers, rabbis, reverends, imams, politicians, government workers, parents, groups like WBC, etc...) did not actively promote homosexuality as evil and abnormal and sinful and wrong, then these extreme viewpoints would not exist and we wouldn't have evil little fuckers making comments like the ones below. Just read them and let it sink in that the things that you might think most important in your world (god, religion, holy texts, preachers, etc..) can cause people to actively celebrate the deaths of 50+ people and congratulate mass murderers.

  

 

 

 

 

The "Rights" of the people...

  So earlier this month I was talking about the ideas of governmental tyranny and how people seem to think that is the reason they need their guns. Now I want to talk about this idea of "the rights of the people" in all of it's many ways, shapes, and forms...

The Rights of The People

  This is something that I both find very annoying and very important. There are a few major groups of "rights" that I want to go over right now: Bearing arms, staying alive, free speech, making our own choices. 

  Lets go over the Bill of Rights quickly. These are the first 10 amendments added on to the Constitution in 1791:

1.   “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the 

     free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the 

     people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances”

     Pretty much freedom to worship whatever you want, or not to worship as you choose

• The right to assemble
• Freedom of speech and press
• Freedom to protest peacefully 

2.   The right to a regulated militia, i.e. the right to bear arms

3.   Government cannot force you to house an army

4.   The police cannot search or seize your property without a warrant

5.   The right to keep from saying things that might land you in jail

6.   The right to a quick trial with a jury of peers

7.   If being sued or suing someone, you can opt for a trial by jury rather than judge

8.   No excessive bail or cruel & unusual punishments

9.   There are certain rights, not specifically written down, that all people are entitled to and 

      cannot be taken away by the government

10. Any power not given to the federal government is given to the people and the states

The Right to "Bear Arms"

  It is a sad fact that the right to own and use any gun you want is a thing in this country. There are very few regulations, and even less oversight. Now the gun-toting louts that run around screaming how the liberals are trying to "take away their rights" are completely ignoring the loss of life because they are so afraid that their "rights' are being infringed upon. As mentioned in a previous post, the government has at no point EVER said they are going to start taking away guns. What they have said, which seems to fly right over the heads of the screaming rabble is that they want gun "CONTROL". That doesn't mean taking them away, that means oversight and better management. They want background checks before you can buy a gun. They want gun shows to have background checks as well. They don't want a deranged person with a agenda to kill people to inherit his great grandfather's 17 guns, his father's 12 guns, and then go on a killing spree.

  Is it so terribly out of the realm of possibilities to just have a little bit more responsibility in the gun industry? They (and I mean the government) and we (the people) are asking for 3 major things here:

1.   Background checks & management

2.   Fewer people dying

3.   Proper gun safety

Now what do I think that we actually need in gun reform?

1.   Background checks for EVERYBODY who wants to buy a gun

2.   Mandatory gun safety training with every weapon you purchase to be signed off on by an 

      official, including understanding of proper storage safety and when to use a gun on 

      a person.

3.   Regular gun license renewals every 1-5 years that include:

• Checking serial number against license to ensure legal ownership
• Gun check for proper gun parts and firing safety
• Safety training renewal for all licensed weapons
• Proper storage safety training renewal
• Run-through of when it is appropriate to use a gun on another person

4.   And then finally your license for each weapon should be renewed

  This method of periodically checking that gun owners are using their weapons responsibly and safely has been successfully used in other countries. It's not just a pipe-dream that liberals wish for. It is a real possibility. While it would make owning a gun a little more difficult, complicated and irritating, it would probably save lives. 

  Is putting up with an annoying process worth it if it will save innocent people's lives by making sure that the wrong people don't get their hands on dangerous weapons? Isn't it worth it? Or is having a fun and easy hobby really more important than people? 

  Do you really think it okay for your hobby to cost so much in blood? If you had to meet those families that have lost people to gun violence, would you really be willing to look them in the face and tell them that you valued your easy fun over their children, parents, siblings? 

  My question to all gun owners... How can you live with yourselves when you vote against life-saving legislation? Especially when that legislation is really only asking for background checks, because so far that is all that has been proposed? Truly, how in all good conscience can you vote against that legislation when its not going to impact responsible gun owners or result in any changes to your weapons cupboard?

The Right to "Be Alive"

  

  You would think that this one would be a no-brainer. You would think that this is a "basic human right". But to listen to some of the candidates running for office, it is your own fault if you get shot by a gun, because you obviously didn't try hard enough to stay alive. You didn't fight back enough. You should have definitely taken the time to galvanize the room with a great speech about how everyone should rush the attacker. Thank-you Ben Carson. Before you, I was quite sure that a gunman would shoot me down if I even talked or twitched. But now I know that I can have a democratic discussion with the room, take a vote, and then have everyone move away from the desks so they don't get in the way, and then we can rush the guy pointing a gun at us and overpower him with minimal loss of life.

  The urge to stay alive is an animal instinct that every creature in the world is born with. We fight to live the best life we possibly can, we fight for resources, space, money, our children, our future and theirs, etc... Staying alive is the ultimate goal, and if we can make that cushy enough, even better. When I was little all I thought about when I considered the future was how many cats I would have and what colours they would be. As I grew up I realized I wanted a little more from life. I wanted a nice cottage in the woods away from other people where I would have peace and quiet. When I came to college I thought about what my future career would be. I've always been a little odd when in classrooms and sat in the seat with an optimal way out of the room in case of a fire... rare, I grant you that, but possible. Now, I sit in the seat with optimal access to the doorway, but also with a hidey-hole that I can dive into in case a shooter enters the building.

  I find this concerning. That while I am supposed to be listening to a lecture and absorbing all this information that will be on a test later in the term, I am actually planning what I would do if someone tries to kill me. I jump about a mile when I hear a book drop in the hallway or a shriek outside the window. What if that thump was actually a body hitting the floor? What if that scream outside is someone who just watched their friend die in front of them? What used to be a nice distraction from the monotony of learning puts me on high alert. And why? Because I fear for my life, and the lives of those around me. I fear for my safety. I analyze the room security and plan escape routes because I anticipate, almost expect that I will need that knowledge in the near future. I anticipate that there is a pretty good chance that I am going to die.

  I have a right to stay alive. I have a right to go to school without wondering if I’ll be able to go home at night. People have a right to send their kids to elementary school without waiting by the phone for a call that their toddler was shot through the head. That is a basic human right; to be alive and have a family. And yet it is completely disregarded because of fear the government is going to become tyrannical or take your guns. Your right to a weapon overshadows my right to live and breathe. That is not okay. It is not just, it is not right, and it is pure selfishness.

  How dare those people claim to care about human life? How dare they say, "I'll be praying for them" to the families of the dead? How dare they look me in the face and say that my claim to life is less important than their weapons? How dare they.

The Right to "Freedom of Speech"

  This country gives people the wonderful ability to say whatever the hell they want, and not be arrested for it. You can call the president a terrorist, you can say terrible things about your neighbor, you can even threaten to blow up congress if they pass gay marriage. And NOTHING will happen to you (unless you actually demonstrate that you are capable of domestic terrorism). For the most part, you go on with your day as normal. In many non-democratic countries, insulting the government and its leader is a bit of a no-no, as is threatening to blow them up. In fact, that can get you arrested in some places. But here, that is a no-can-do. It's a delightful way of releasing our inner frustration and feeling like we are big and bad, that we can say such horrible things and threaten such crazy stuff and no one can do a thing about it. 

  So you would think that because you can do those things, when people have something constructive to say they would be allowed to say it. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Not everyone is allowed to openly declare their opinions, especially if that opinion is unpopular with the "majority" of this country’s occupants (i.e. conservatives & christians). 

  I always find it interesting how the minute you contradict a person on their political or religious zealotry, they start telling you off for trying to restrict their "freedom of speech", but then they turn right around and try to silence you for your opinions, beliefs, or ideas. I sometimes get the feeling that the "freedom of speech" amendment is only applicable if you are a God-fearing Christian (and by this I mean you think that Jesus was the Son of God, died for your sins, etc... I don't care about what little sect you are or your specific church's take on one tiny specific sentence in the bible. If you believe Jesus was the son of your god, then you are a damn Christian) or a Conservative Republican in this country. I will later do a section on Christian entitlement and their feelings of oppression and their tale of woe and persecution in the US. But for now, I wanted to touch on the idea that only Christians and Republicans are really "allowed" their freedom of speech rights. 

  They all say they are willing to teach you about their beliefs, and you listen because you are trying so very hard to understand where they are coming from. You are trying very hard not to hate or despise them for believing things that you think are immoral. You want to beat your brain into acceptance that they can be good people when they believe such horrible things hidden under the umbrella term of "family values". You listen and you learn and you care and you try to understand.

  But turn that the other way round and you try to explain your beliefs and you hit a solid wall of resistance to any change. You cannot even make a slight hole in their rigid mind where they will see where you are coming from. They may tell themselves they are trying to see your side, but in reality their brains are just saying "you are wrong, you are wrong, you are wrong" with every word that comes out of your mouth. Listening to you and understanding that you have radically different beliefs is uncomfortable to them. And when they are uncomfortable, they stop listening, put in headphones, ignore that there is anything going on around them because they really don't want to accept that there are people like you in the world. 

Sometimes snarky Facebook posts just don't cut it... Governmental Tyranny of course...

Governmental Tyranny

So it has been a while since I have actually used this blog. Still not sure how it is going to go. As for my recipe list, that's gone to hell. I may come back to it, but probably not. I guess the question is, what am I actually going to talk about now? The answer is politics and religion. 

I am an Agnostic-Atheist Democrat in a country filled with christians and republicans. It gets a little trying sometimes, dealing with people I neither agree with or like. On top of having to live around such people, I actually live in the same room with a christian republican, and while I think she's a great person and I love her dearly, a lot of her beliefs and positions frustrate me.

So instead of ruining my relationship with someone I like and would prefer to remain friends with for many years, I'm going to start using this blog as a way to vent my feelings and get my thoughts out there. Sometimes snarky Facebook posts just don't cut it. So here it goes, my new direction...

First topic for discussion, since this has happened so recently is the mass shooting in Oregon this week. Yes, I am diving right into the heavy stuff.

This tragedy really hit hard and i'm not sure why yet. Yes, every mass shooting in recent times is sad and painful and should not have happened, but why this one in particular should cause me such incredible upset and trauma is not clear to me yet. Maybe because I live here in Oregon, so the proximity geographically really brings it home, or maybe because the day after it happened there was  a guy in one of my college classes at OSU that wore a "Keep Calm and Carry a Gun" shirt. I don't know if he was just wildly unknowing about recent happenings, or thought it was a "funny" thing to do, or is so amped up about gun control laws that he felt a burning need to show his support for the NRA and his fear of Governmental Tyranny, but I found that move - of wearing that shirt the day after 10 people died from gun violence - to be absolutely disgusting.

I have great respect for life, animal life over human life personally, but a deep respect for all life. The miracle that it takes for a two cells to join and grow into a multi-celled organism, the pain and energy that it takes for a female creature to grow that creature and then birth it into the world... Those things are amazing acts and should not be taken for granted or forgotten about. Just because I myself am terrified by the idea of performing that deed myself doesn't mean I don't wonder at the process and respect those who manage to pull it off. Life is not something that should ever be wasted or taken for granted. Every time a hunter takes aim at an animal he or she should always understand that they are not just killing a bag of meat and bones, but they should understand that what they plan to kill is a living, breathing organism that has feelings and instincts, history and family, a life in it's entirety. Similarly, before a human goes to war where their job will be shooting at other people, they should understand that they will most definitely be ending another human being's life. Sadly people often put more emphasis on the human life and forget that animal life is just as important.

But regardless of species life is an incredible and wondrous thing.  These mass shootings are ending dozens of lives at a time, hundreds every month, thousands every year. Over time, the more these events occur, we have become desensitized as a culture. We no longer hear about every event unless it has a high death toll, and then that is related to us in numbers, not in names or stories or family members left grieving. If it's just a number we don't identify as much. If it's just a number we can quickly forget about it and move on without truly understanding what has happened. And so the debate now isn't about how to save lives... It isn't about how to prevent this type of event from happening again. Every time people die, we get some spiel about how mental illness is at fault, and we get backstories on the shooter, but the victims go unremembered, unthought of except as numbers on a list. The fact that lives were snuffed out like candles in a breeze is not even considered because a smear campaign has been started by at least one, possibly both political parties. And those lives are forgotten. The mother's pain is forgotten, the friends and family member's grief is forgotten in favor of sniping at each other and all that is left is a blame campaign.

Now it's important to discuss how to prevent lives being lost in the future, that may be an acceptable deviation from remembering the horror of such a waste of life. But listening to fat, old white men complain about how the democrats and liberals in this country are trying to take away their rights THEIR GUNS has become the every-day occurrence. When did remembering dead people involve selfish thoughts about yourself and your political agenda. It's selfish and cruel and disgusting that when other people are grieving you are only thinking about yourself and how your personal life is going to be affected because of those people's deaths. It leads to resentment of the dead, it leads to the selfish belief that you are at the center of the universe. It leads to a lack of empathy or understanding, and it is not okay. It is not okay to wear a shirt promoting guns right after a mass shooting. It is not okay to start talking about a tyrannical government in the face of such a horrific event. It is not okay to think about yourself and your wants. And yet people do, and that makes me angry beyond belief.

And now, for the last few days I have been feeling more and more helpless, more and more in the minority, and so furious and angry with the political parties we have to deal with, with the republican candidates (specifically Jeb Bush) saying "well, stuff happens", with the people around me who either don't know or don't care about this situation. Naturally - because I love to say rude things about the Republican party and I love to voice my very loud and uncensored opinions on Facebook - I posted something about how ridiculous it is that the basic human "right to life" (i.e. the right to walk around day-to-day without fearing for your life) is being superseded by this ridiculous idea that gun control is the worst idea in the world.

Part 1: The crazy idea of gun control and why its the worst thing ever...

Let me be clear first of all. I do not support guns in any way, shape, or form. If I could, I would obliterate every single gun in the world tomorrow. But this isn't about me, and I realize that my personal views are unlikely to become reality any time soon. However, there is a difference between my take-them-all-away wish and the idea of gun control laws. What so many gun-toting trigger-happy people in this country don't seem to understand very well is that it is RIDICULOUSLY EASY to get your hands on a gun. For instance, take the guy from the OR shooting this week... He had 13 guns... THIRTEEN! His parents didn't know he had all of those, his friends didn't know he was on a warpath, and he somehow got his hands on 13 guns. What the democratic party is asking for, what the President of this country is asking for isn't a complete abolishment of guns in this country (mainly because that would never fly). They are asking for stricter regulation on the sale of such weapons, they are asking for some sort of requirements that would prevent a deranged young man from purchasing 13 semi-automatic weapons and shooting up a community college.

Something in this country has to change. Either better gun registration procedures or follow-ups with gun owners... but something. We cannot have yet more people dying because some dudes are afraid the government will take away their fun guns.

Part 2: That very naughty second amendment...

And now we come to the 2nd Amendment that we all know and hate. The purpose of this amendment in the constitution when it was written in 1791 was to limit the government's power and prevent it from subjugating the people and taking over, running rampant without any sort of control. The purpose was to enable the people to assemble an armed militia to defend themselves against the government if it got to uppity and started telling them what to do. But in 1791 the government was a little smaller than it is today, so it would have been easier for the common people to rise up and beat the government back into submission. These days, the government has a rather large army with things like bombs, military-grade assault rifles and trained soldiers.

So I am really curious about how exactly these people - who claim that their right to have guns is protect them from Governmental Tyranny - expect to overthrow or intimidate the government in any way... They may have guns, but do they have the organization to band together into a fighting force? Do they have the training to fight against military soldiers that have seen actual warfare? Are they prepared to kill other humans? And how exactly do they expect to get anywhere near the government they fear in order to force them to adhere to their list of demands? The answer to most of those questions is NO. They don't have any sort of organization in place to join together to rise up and overthrow the government, most of them don't have military training or the ability to fight against actual war veterans, and I doubt that many of them are prepared to actually kill people.  There is also no way in hell that they would ever get close enough to a single politician to get any sort of result. Most politicians like a little something called bodyguards and security...

I'm often amazed by how fearful some people are of the government. Yesterday, I had a very angry sometimes-friend compare the potential outcome of gun laws to Hitler's mass murder of thousands of Jews in gas chambers. Apparently, the reason that the holocaust was possible was because Hitler's government passed gun reform laws restricting civilians from having guns. But if the civilians had been able to form their own militia they could have easily prevented the Nazi party from rising and the holocaust from every happening of course. Critical thinking folks, that's what i've been missing all my life... Now that I have this wisdom imparted on me i'm convinced that having an armed civilian population will solve all our problems... Not.

So again, are they really sure that the 2nd amendment is going to protect them against a tyrannical government? Sad fact is that yes, they do believe that. Which is insanity in itself... But lets go a little deeper into this idea of a tyrannical government.

Part 3: The Tyrannical Government that is out to get us all...

At this current point in time we have a Democratic President and a Republican Congress, which is just about the worst thing possible in my opinion. The president can't get no shit done, and the congress is spitting mad if he somehow manages to get shit done... Before that we had a split congress, a Democratic Senate and a Republican House of Representatives. While that was not ideal, it was at least better than what we have now.

Let us review the legal system. There are a few things that have to be done before the president can take all of our rights away. I'm going to use the children's website of "Kids in the House" and their cutsie video to get the basic steps right.

How a Bill Becomes a Law

1. A Representative or Citizen has an idea and writes it down.
2. The writer of the bill gets a sponsor and seeks support from fellow/other Representatives.
3. The bill is introduced by being sent to a side committee of the House. 
4. It is then either revised and sent back to the house to be voted on or sent to a subcommittee for more expert opinions.
5. When the committee has approved the bill, it is sent or "reported" to the House floor in preparation of being debated.
6. The bill is then debated and lots of people argue about ridiculously teeny-tiny changes, usually to try and one-up the party that introduced it.
7. The bill is now voted on in a variety of ways, and if approved by a majority, it is sent on to the Senate.
8. The bill goes through the same arduous process of committees, debates, and votes.
9. If it was approved in the senate, the bill is then sent on to the president, where he either signs it, doesn't sign it and it goes back to the house and senate for a over-the-head-vote, or it dies. There are a couple other ways that it can become law without the president's say so, but those are too complicated to get into right now.
10. The bill is now either a law or it is dead. 

Now that we've gone back to the basics and understand how the government imposes it's will upon us, I think we can all agree that it's not a simple matter for them to just do whatever the hell they want to us... Its a little more complicated than the president standing up in front of a podium and decreeing that what he says goes. That's a dictatorship, and not a viable governmental option in this country at the moment. 

I'd say the republicans are pretty safe from being forced to obey all the liberal's ideas and the liberals are in danger of having all their social rights dictated to them by an oppressive, racist, misogynistic entity like Donald Trump or any of the other republican candidates. But that's just my opinion...

So back to gun control... I don't think it would be very easy for the government to be so mean and take away all the guns because half of the government wouldn't ever let that happen. That same half also wouldn't let nay change happen in this country at all if it could help it. So again, I would love someone to explain to me how exactly having guns is going to protect us all from a Tyrannical Government Dictatorship? I'm really asking here. I want to know why enough people in this country seem to think that the government is going to become tyrannical and why guns are the fails safe solve to that undesirable end...