Gunfight at the We're Not OK Corral

Not to be negative, America, but we are not ok. 

It is not ok to get armed far beyond the teeth or eyebrows or cowlicks, and shoot as many people as possible. 

It is not ok to perceive every person who might be different from you as an immediate threat to Life As We Know It.

Some mistake in the brain's wiring, some horror repressed from an abusive relationship, something becomes not ok in the thinking of the deranged. I recently wondered, given the discovery of knowingly lead-poisoned water in one city's water supply - and the seemingly monthly massacre shootings we are confronting - how many cities across America for how many decades have had tainted water supplies? 

Lead poisoning at low levels - especially in the young - have critical consequences, as noted here by the World Health Organization:

"Blood lead levels that were considered previously to be safe are now understood to compromise health and injure multiple organs, even in the absence of overt symptoms. The most critical consequence of low level lead toxicity in utero and during childhood is damage to the developing brain and nervous system. The immune, reproductive and cardiovascular

systems are also adversely affected by relatively low levels of exposure to

lead ...

The consequences of brain injury from exposure to lead in early life are loss of intelligence, shortening of attention span and disruption of behavior. Because the human brain has little capacity for repair, these effects are untreatable and irreversible. They cause diminution in brain function and reduction in achievement that last throughout life."

Nationally, easily more than 100 cities have aging water supply infrastructure that's likely also supplying lead. And that's just one potential source of toxins that could permanently damage cognition and other vital mental functions.

It is not ok for a society to be consumed with warfare for as long as we have been - and again, perception is filtered through a distorted lens. Military weaponry, tactics and strategies surround us. 

It's not ok to execute a death blow to someone being arrested for traffic violations, even if the person is later learned to be a felon, because the death penalty is only to be exacted after the judicial system has examined the person. And while we're talking judicial system, it is not ok for prisons to be run by corporations for profit. The corporations demand inmates to make money, my god that's barbaric.

It's no ok to be a racist. A racist is not just ignorant, but actually dangerous to those around them, threatening social stability at every level. A racist politician is an even larger threat. It's not ok to be silent when you encounter racism - the ignorant who reveal such a characteristic desperately need education.

On a personal aside here, the recent weeks have been so very strange because the news of the day is so similar to a futuristic science-fiction dystopian society short story I wrote in my early teens. The tale followed events as a sniper, for some un-named protest, began shooting at random, but everyone is armed and some are eager to join in a gunfight because the media of the day celebrates the vigilante. The tale was gruesome (i was writing for shock value, and not that well). The society was constantly under fire, the population medicated with anti-anxiety pills, political views were always punctuated with a bullet. I'm horrified beyond words that the actual world I see today resembles in anyway my childish paranoid view of the future. That isn't ok either, the world deserves so much better than such a poorly written narrative.

Lastly, the jingoistic claim that all it takes to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun is now a proven ridiculous notion. A giant chunk of armed police on the scene in Dallas when one shooter appeared could not prevent the killings.  It is not ok to live every day like vengeful Earps and Clantons warring in the middle of town. Picking a side and joining in battle will never end the violence, it nurtures violence.

Heading For Doomsday Say Clock-Keepers

Historians could likely determine when and where humans began to ponder on The End of The World As We Know It – when folks felt some inexorable urge to hang over the heads of humanity the demise of all existence. Today, perhaps, one could sit at a keyboard and monitor and search the Internet to explore that mystery.

Fortunately, or not, for the last 70 years, Western Civilization has had a metaphorical clock to measure the approach of extinction – the dire-named Doomsday Clock.  Thursday, clock-keepers alerted us that we are now at 11:57, three minutes til midnight, aka Doomsday. It’s a two-minute leap since the last move of the clock’s hands in 2012.

I’m not sure what purpose the metaphorical timepiece serves – to insure we all accept the inevitability of our collective demise despite our actions to prolong Life? Is it to signal us, like a football game’s 2-minute warning, that the Terminal Last Call approaches so that we can … what? Hunker down? Hug loved ones close? Launch some Kal-El into the vast depths of space?

Maybe it’s akin to that school teacher warning the class that everyone will get detention unless “you straighten up and fly right, Buster?”

It is discomfiting to realize humans may actually possess both the weapons and the will to demolish humanity.

Perhaps it’s akin to those dreamy notions of Nostalgia – everything was better in Times long past, only despair and death are ahead, and the Now is merely longing and regret and dread.

Mass Murder, Guns and Americans

The Misunderstood? (via)

In the face of deadly events and violence aimed at children, it seems the most sane response is the expressed desire for it to never happen again. Prevention is far more difficult a task than most might imagine. The causes and cures aren't easy. But as so many have said in the last few days, it's a grim task but we must attempt to rise to it's challenges, to discuss a myriad of problems and solutions with a goal of improving our world.

I offer a few links to explore below. 

 -- Just prior to the massacre in Newtown, CT, Mother Jones magazine provided an overview of mass shooting events from 1982-2012, noting among other aspects that "Of the 142 guns possessed by the killers, more than three quarters were obtained legally. The arsenal included dozens of assault weapons and semiautomatic handguns."

-- As recently as August of this year, residents in Newtown debated adding restrictions to the growth of shooting ranges in their town. Complaints were growing as many of the ranges began loading shooting targets with Tannerite, which can create large explosions when struck by high velocity ammo:

"Something needs to be done,” said Joel T. Faxon, a hunter and a member of the town’s police commission, who championed the shooting restrictions. “These are not normal guns, that people need. These are guns for an arsenal, and you get lunatics like this guy who goes into a school fully armed and protected to take return fire. We live in a town, not in a war.

"I’ve hunted for many years, but the police department was getting complaints of shooting in the morning, in the evening, and of people shooting at propane gas tanks just to see them explode,” Mr. Faxon said."

One of the nation's largest political lobbying groups for gun ownership, the National Sport Shooting Foundation located just a few miles away from the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, sent a spokesperson to the city council debates on restrictions. He said:

"Among the speakers was a representative of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, who was described as saying he believed there was a greater danger of swimming accidents. “No privileges should be taken away from another generation,” he said. "No safety concerns exist"

-- Those who call for more guns as a problem-solver, as an expression of liberty and freedom are making a critically flawed argument. An opinion piece by Firmin DeBrabander provides this viewpoint:

"This becomes clear if only you pry a little more deeply into the N.R.A.’s logic behind an armed society. An armed society is polite, by their thinking, precisely because guns would compel everyone to tamp down eccentric behavior, and refrain from actions that might seem threatening. The suggestion is that guns liberally interspersed throughout society would cause us all to walk gingerly — not make any sudden, unexpected moves — and watch what we say, how we act, whom we might offend.

"As our Constitution provides, however, liberty entails precisely the freedom to be reckless, within limits, also the freedom to insult and offend as the case may be. The Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld our right to experiment in offensive language and ideas, and in some cases, offensive action and speech. Such experimentation is inherent to our freedom as such. But guns by their nature do not mix with this experiment — they don’t mix with taking offense. They are combustible ingredients in assembly and speech."

Both in Newtown and earlier this year in Aurora, CO,  the killers used a semi-automatic weapon, variants of the AR-15. In Aurora, the killer used a Smith &Wesson M&P 15-22 model of this rifle, outfitted with a 100-round drum magazine. The American Rifleman magazine writes of this military-styled weapon this way: 

"It has many of the features of a tricked-out AR tactical rifle, but is light enough for easy all-day carry on small game hunts for squirrels, rabbits or prairie dogs. It's also really fun to shoot in informal training exercises in an attempt to get to know this tactical-looking .22 rifle.

"The M&P 15-22 pointed easily and with its 25-round magazine, chewed through ammunition. It was so easy to send multiple rounds downrange that one shot just never seemed enough."

In Memoriam of The Children and Educators of Newtown, CT

Charlotte Bacon, 6

Daniel Barden, 7

Olivia Engel, 6

Josephine Gay, 7

Ana Marquez-Greene, 6

Dylan Hockley, 6

Madeleine Hsu, 6

Catherine Hubbard, 6

Chase Kowalski, 7

Jesse Lewis, 6

James Mattioli, 6

Grace McDonnell, 7

Emilie Parker, 6

Jack Pinto, 6

Noah Pozner, 6

Caroline Previdi, 6

Jessica Rekos, 6

Avielle Richman, 6

Benjamin Wheeler, 6

Allison Wyatt, 6

Rachel Davino, 29

Teacher

Dawn Hochsprung, 47

School principal

Nancy Lanza, 52

Mother of gunman

Anne Marie Murphy, 52

Teacher

Lauren Rousseau, 30

Teacher

Mary Sherlach, 56

School psychologist

Victoria Soto, 27

Teacher

Defunding Public Broadcasting Represents A Failing America

Plans put forth by Republicans like Rep. Doug Lamborn to eliminate all funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting reveal a basic lack of understanding when considering the value of arts, education, and public discourse for our society.

And the cost currently of funding - some $420 million - is just a bit more than one dollar per year from every American. That's too much to help produce and promote the arts in America? Too much to promote educational programming for children? Too much to provide public debate on the issues of our nation?

What a shame to see so little vision from our leaders.

While I'm sure public broadcasting will endure - thanks to the millions and millions of Americans and tens of thousands of businesses who give financial support to the CPB - this loss of valuing arts, education and much more has a crushing impact on our society.

Beyond the truly meaningless "savings" the Republicans proclaim, what lies at the root of the issue is a cultural emptiness among our leaders in government - to no longer place value on any of the arts - music, film, dance, theatre - and no value on the promotion of literacy for children.

An individual won't get rich on tax dollars working in public broadcasting - but they can enrich the spirit of our nation and our creativity, which seeks something other than celebrity, fame or high profit returns. Explorations of our world and ourselves which are limited to whatever the market allows will present a most hollow, shallow culture.

States, cities and county governments could easily fall into this abrupt dismissal of valuing arts and education, which is barely acknowledged even now. Perhaps even at the best, government funding has only been a token, but there is an acknowledged value - without that, many generations to come will also fail to grasp the importance of arts, education and a richly diverse cultural world.

Such rejection will not eliminate the human desire for more than tangible, bankable products. It will simply mean that America will abdicate being a leader, making us a distant follower, as we are today in science and math.

Sadly, we'll likely see Tennessee's congressional delegation embrace this dumbing down of our culture in hopes of being re-elected. What a high price for their power.

Things We Do Not Need In 2010

Each year culture in America spews out a wide range of meaningless words and certain types of fame and/or infamy, and trends that outlived their viability the moment they were created. So here are a few such things which to my thinking, we need to abandon for 2010.

- Don't ever use the phrase "Man Up". Ever. Just stop it. It is usually used in conjunction with ideas or "news" stories which just make no sense. If you say someone should "man up" about anything, it is a clear sign you are clueless in regards to the topic being discussed.

-- Prime-time cable network talk shows which pretend to be some kind of news show when it is not remotely news, it's mindless gossip, the kind which might be spoken by a dunce wasting time in the company break room. Likewise, the "trial" and/or "investigation" by public pundit whose only job is to be on camera as a featured former something-or-other is likely the very worst American trend of the decade. Same goes for reading someone's email or "twitter" utterance as viable commentary on any topic. It's pure proof that a cable network is refusing to pay anyone with ability to write a news report, and is far more willing to simply tell lurid lies.

-- Texting someone on a mobile device when you are talking face to face with another person. It's a pretentious habit.

-- Advertisements for "hover" chairs. Given the near 24 hour bombardment of this ad over the last decade, I'm pretty sure every single person on the planet who might actually have a need for a "hover" chair already has one.

-- There exists absolutely no reason to mention what Sarah Palin is doing. The woman has no skills, speaks very poorly, thinks even less so and has not been able to achieve any act of merit other than to be a mother -- and she does that poorly as well, being so narcissistic as to exploit her children as tools of self-promotion. See the above: a dunce gossiping mindlessly in the break room. If you are a fan of hers and think her a wise representative of American ideas, it at least tells the rest of us you really should have very few responsibilities in life. Being a fan of hers is reminiscent of those t-shirts popular in the 1970s that said "I'm With Stupid". (The same lack of worth Glenn Beck - the one way to tell if he is lying is if his lips are moving.)

-- Speaking of stupid, when someone claims that people who talk about Global Warming or Green Energy are really just evil conspirators trying to make tons of money, here's a reality check for you: all companies which currently sell energy (oil, coal, gas, etc) are doing it to make money. The real complaint is that such companies will quite naturally turn belly up and die off, like buggy whip manufacturers in the 1900s, as we develop more sustainable and less polluting forms of energy. Duh.

-- America needs to join with the rest of the world and ban advertising prescription medicine on television. No nation save America allows it.

-- And here are a couple of questions for the state of Tennessee -- why make it illegal to smoke inside a restaurant or bar but make it legal to carry in a loaded firearm? And why does every city and county governmental board have to conduct their business in public forums where images and records are made of their actions, but the state government is itself exempt from any such rule or accountability?

-- It's time to reverse the trend of charging the public huge fees and interest rates when they borrow money or use a credit card and pay only the tiniest of interest for saving money.

Neighborhood In Lockdown

A neighborhood is in lockdown, no one is allowed to enter without police checking their IDs and all seeking entry must prove they either live in the neighborhood or have some legitimate business. The neighborhood is in Washington, D.C. - where enormous attention was riveted back in March when the Supreme Court invalidated the voter-approved law regulating gun ownership.

The community, Trinidad, had previously enacted a previous lockdown in early June, following a spree of shootings that left 7 dead. The checkpoint system was halted, but has been enacted again following another spree in the same community this past weekend, two were killed this time, including a 13-year-old boy in the area who was visiting relatives.

Officials have also installed ShotSpotter sensors around the city, which alerts police when gunfire occurs. Of course, once a shot is made, it cannot be unmade, only responded to by police.

A Washington Post columnist, Courtland Milloy, spoke to some of the young kids living in this world, and their best advice is not to be outside once it's dark. The current lockdown is set to end tomorrow and few can say with optimism that the shootings won't start all over again.

Sadly ironic is that the city's gun laws, the one overturned by the Supreme Court, remains in effect. The city is trying to re-write the law and in the meantime, it certainly appears to make zero difference if handguns are banned or not. Or perhaps it might - once a shooting spree starts, more shots might be fired back.

The earnest and devoted attention and discussion which the D.C. v Heller case created is noticeably absent in the nightmarish world in Trinidad, just blocks away from the U.S. Capitol. For those residents, the real questions are how to survive for now and how to create a neighborhood controlled by something more than rage and random violence.


UPDATE: The "military-style checkpoints" will continue for another five days according to law enforcement officers in D.C.

"Nobodies": John Bowe on Modern Slavery

Slave labor is sadly alive and well - and not in some distant third world nation. It thrives in the U.S., puts food and clothing in local stores and restaurants, all documented in journalist John Bowe's new book "Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy" from Random House.

The facts are grim and depressing, and Bowe's book of investigative reporting is nearly impossible to put down once you begin reading. Bowe starts with events in Florida, where companies rely on modern indentured servants to provide products for major companies like PepsiCo, Taco Bell, Tropicana and many more. Herded into hellish camps and manipulated with brutality by labor contractors, one known as El Diablo, human life is worth little. Providing products for sale trumps all other concerns.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, the John Pickle Company, which makes pressure tanks for oil companies and power plants, workers from India arrived only to have their documents confiscated, forced to live inside a factory building and work for three dollars an hour.

In Saipan, the U.S. Commonwealth, workers make clothing for national retail chains like The Gap and Target - yet free from all U.S. labor standards and immigration controls. Labels are allowed to read MADE IN THE USA, thanks to congressional efforts from Tom DeLay. Most of the workers are women, who earn three dollars an hour and are urged to trade sex for green cards.

Bowe's book is scathing, telling true stories of how much the U.S. economy has melded with brutal labor camps, exempt from law enforcement standards and operate with the local and national officials all ignoring the sometimes deadly camps.

You can read an excerpt from Bowe's book here. Bowe is interviewed by Doug Krizner here.

For most readers, "Nobodies" will astonish and terrify. It not only tells the stories of those forced to work in constant fear and poverty, but also reveals how items we consume daily come from such labor.