Oh, you know. Just a normal Friday night.
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Friday, July 08, 2016
Sunday, June 12, 2016
We are never completely powerless
I posted the picture above on my Instagram today (drawn by the artist Sask), in response to the shooting in Orlando this morning.
I'm not going to take the picture down, but after reflecting a little longer, I wanted to say that I do not feel completely powerless, because:
1. I have the power to keep living my life the way I want to, without being cowed by terrorists who may want me to hide in fear or change my ways of thinking/acting.
2. I have the power to vote for politicians and support public figures who are trying to reduce gun-related violence.
3. I can do something. I can donate money to help Orlando hospitals and people who lost loved ones.
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Friday, October 02, 2015
Trying to look on the bright side
After reading about the most recent mass shooting in Oregon and a discussion in the New Yorker about the aftermath of the Charleston, NC shootings, I am pretty much ready to cry my tired eyes out this Friday afternoon. For me, gun control is really one of the most frustrating and troubling problems we are facing in this country right now. The main thought I have is: Will we EVER enact laws that start to put a real limit on the ability of Americans to buy guns?!
This article helped me to feel a little better. It was written three years ago, in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, and in it, Adam Gopnik argues that 1. It is very easy to significantly reduce the number of gun-related deaths by simply making guns just a little harder to obtain, and 2. we, as a country, will probably enact legislation to do just that before too much time has passed.
Gopnik writes, "It's always hard to summon up political will for change, no matter how beneficial the change may obviously be. Summoning the political will to make automobiles safe was difficult; so was summoning the political will to limit and then effectively ban cigarettes from public places. At some point, we will become a gun-safe, and then a gun-sane, and finally a gun-free society. It's closer than you think."
I really, really, really hope he's right.
This article helped me to feel a little better. It was written three years ago, in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, and in it, Adam Gopnik argues that 1. It is very easy to significantly reduce the number of gun-related deaths by simply making guns just a little harder to obtain, and 2. we, as a country, will probably enact legislation to do just that before too much time has passed.
Gopnik writes, "It's always hard to summon up political will for change, no matter how beneficial the change may obviously be. Summoning the political will to make automobiles safe was difficult; so was summoning the political will to limit and then effectively ban cigarettes from public places. At some point, we will become a gun-safe, and then a gun-sane, and finally a gun-free society. It's closer than you think."
I really, really, really hope he's right.
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