Instead of telling Sandy Hook families to "go to Hell" like one right-wing radio talk show host did last week, worried as he was that their collective grief would cause an impingement on his gun rights, 2nd Amendment activists need to frame the conversation in terms that all human beings can understand. If they were smart, they would leave "left vs right" politics and race-baiting out of the discussion and win hearts and minds the way they always do, by using extreme fear tactics.
After I spent weeks hoping for expanded background checks and limits to the amount of ammunition in a clip, etc., I saw a photograph that made me want to run straight to Bass Pro to buy up any and all automatic firearms and as much ammunition as I could fit in the car (if they have that sort of thing there). This picture was so terrifying, I forgot all about background checks, wondering if it was legal to buy hand grenades online. I said to myself, "This is what the 2nd Amendment crowd needs to drive their point home!"
So I'll share it with you here. Instead of being mean and spiteful and driving sensible people away from your cause, gun rights folk merely need to circulate this photograph and the fight will be over. They could probably get Pfizer (or whoever makes Xanax and Zoloft) to sponsor a billboard campaign using this image and they would never again need to worry about anyone wanting to take their guns away. You'll have to scroll down for the picture... If you are faint of heart or prone to anxiety or are of a nervous disposition, please turn away and do not look at this photograph. Professor Joyboy will have some sensible solutions in the coming days about gun issues, but for now, scroll down if you dare...
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In the 1990s I knew a man who was so worried that President Clinton was going to "take his guns away" that he spent thousands and thousands of dollars buying firearms, not only to take a stand for the Second Amendment, but also to protect himself from "government tyranny." It was only a matter of time, I was assured, until government troops led by the United Nations would be going door to door to disarm Americans, and this man was going to be ready. He would not stand by idly and watch Bill Clinton usher in the New World Order. Not arming one's self against tyranny, I was told, would be "unpatriotic."
Little by little the warm feeling of security that gun ownership used to bring him was slipping away. Each new piece added to the arsenal brought with it a growing sense of paranoia. As the Clinton years were winding down and most of us were enjoying a booming economy and futuristic technology this man was pacing the floors and peeking out from behind the curtains, no doubt certain that at any given moment Janet Reno would arrive personally to pry his treasured weapons from his cold, dead hands.
There were no gun grabs, no door-to-door searches by UN troops, nobody was listening to his phone calls, and those black helicopters that he found so troubling as he hurried home from work every night were in reality news choppers covering local traffic conditions.
He could breathe much easier during the Bush years, in spite of having a president who conducted warrantless wiretaps, built secret detention facilities all over the world, used torture and rendition, and sent our troops to invade countries that never attacked us. That was okay, you see, because THAT president was a Republican and criticizing the President of the United States, I was told, would be "unpatriotic."
Here we are 20 years after Clinton took office and just like a re-run of a bad TV show that nobody liked in the first place, hysterical Right Wing Paranoia is making a resurgence at a fevered pitch. Facebook and Twitter are exploding with photographs of people posing with their weapons and vowing to lay down their lives to protect their right to have dangerous firearms lying around the house, in spite of the fact that nobody's trying to take that right away in the first place.
If you're a right winger who's too young to remember the Clinton years, please learn from my old friend and don't waste the economic recovery that will usher in the best years yet of the 21st century by pacing around nervously and becoming delusional. Nobody in the government is going to give a crap about you or your little arsenal, unless you start acting like this guy:
Also see my new Tumblr blog: Right Wing Paranoia: Unhinged in the Face of a Dying Ideology
I was standing in an unfinished loft that will soon be an office, looking down on some magnificent landscaping that will soon be an outdoor wedding chapel next to a vineyard. Prof. Ulichne was chatting about local history with our host, whose family had been among the first settlers in Jackson County decades before our own grandparents came over from Europe. I was somewhat overwhelmed and speechless at everything I was looking at.
The wedding chapel and reception hall were news to me. I was trying to get a grasp on all the things our host had accomplished since the last time I'd seen him...Vice President of the Board of Education, whose name I'd seen in the news from time to time, always proud when I'd read of his accomplishments. I'd heard good things about his vineyard and local wine. But to me he was somebody different...
To me our host had always been the kindly pharmacist I only saw when I was sick, back when I lived in that town. Matt's Medicine Store has prospered for more than 20 years, in spite of being located across the street from a discount chain drug store giant. As a pharmacist, he was so kind and knowledgeable that it gave me an idea of what pharmacies used to be like back in the days before Walgreens and CVS.
Looking out at the vineyard and the wedding grounds, I kept thinking, "Matt Mallinson is literally and seriously invested in the future of this town!"
After years of being depressed about the decline of my beloved Sugar Creek, Missouri, here is someone who's creating beautiful things and making the town a better place. He sees the potential and beauty that anyone who's ever loved Sugar Creek knows so well, and he's making it a better place, "for the future," he said that day. "That's why we do everything, right? For our kids and our grandkids."
Congratulations to Matt Mallinson, the new mayor of Sugar Creek! Democracy is strong, and I'm so very proud :)
I'm sorry to interrupt your Easter, if you're celebrating, but this is really important.
In the race for Sugar Creek mayor, there are three candidates. Mayor Stan Salva, the 14-year incumbent, is running against successful pharmacist/Independence School Board Vice President Matt Mallinson. But there's a spoiler in the race named Leonard Fullbright, running for office for the sole purpose of taking votes away from Mallinson. In an Examiner article last Friday, Fullbright had nothing but good things to say about the job Stan Salva has done as mayor. Why didn't the Examiner mention that Fullbright has actually filed a civil rights lawsuit against Mayor Salva and the City of Sugar Creek in federal court? Look:
I haven't found any information on what this case is about, or if it's ever been settled, but how does a person go from suing the City of Sugar Creek to praising the mayor as he's running against him in an election? And nobody in the press mentions that fact? (Herb Soule is the Chief of Police, by the way)
Please don't let this spoiler steal the election. The taxpayers of Sugar Creek will be left holding the bag if this case gets settled for a hefty amount should the spoiler deliver this election to the incumbent, unless they already have. I have no idea where this case stands, but I think voters have a right to know when one candidate is either suing or has sued the other candidate for civil right violations on the taxpayer's dime.
The election is Tuesday. We only have two days to demand answers about this. Please inform your Sugar Creek family and friends. And if you've got a few minutes, here are contact links for the Star and Fox 4 and KMBC and 41 Action News and KCTV and KMBZ or whatever media outlet you think could find out answers about this and let people know.
And if you're celebrating today, I hope you enjoy your holiday.
I meant to spend the last few weeks beating the drum about this but I put it off, and now the end is near. The deadline for voter registration, if you want to vote in April's election, is Wednesday.
There may not be an election this April where you live, but there will be in Sugar Creek, Missouri. Just like the presidential election of 2012, for Sugar Creek residents and the people who love them, "This will be the most important election of your life!"
So if you live in Sugar Creek, please make sure that you're registered to vote. And if you don't live in Sugar Creek but know somebody who lives there, call them and make sure that they're registered. And tell them to call people, post it on Facebook walls, offer rides... anything short of a bribery to get the unregistered citizens of that community (or any community, for that matter) on the voter rolls and ready to participate in the democratic process the second Tuesday of next month!
Register to vote at City Hall, the License Bureau, any of the Mid-Continent Libraries, the County Courthouse, the Health Department, the Unemployment Office, or Family Services. Pass this info along at once, please!
And once that's done, sit back and get ready for some REAL politics... an exciting election filled with intrigue and allegations that people will be writing about for years to come (well, Professor Joyboy and I, at any rate).
