The outcome, very much, matters.
And while we will delve more deeply into this conundrum following this month's national party conventions, today, as I sit with my first cup, the dulcet tones of the live Tour de' France feed emanating from the boob tube, and preparing to celebrate our nation's 240th birthday, my thoughts are drawn to what we, as American citizens, can do today to help save a nation so desperately in distress.
An acquaintance from high school, Rick Sanders, posted the following on his FB timeline, yesterday...
"Have had this rolling in my head the last couple days and interested in other's feedback ...
I appreciate and respect the freedoms we have in this country to practice our religions. But I was left feeling really uncomfortable when I encountered I am assuming was a woman in full Burka, only thing visible were her eyes. She was in full stride with a purpose. Her frame rather large and I thought to myself, that could easily be a man under there.
I've tried to look at it from her religious rights but still am not comfortable. 🤔
If you were standing in line at the bank, supermarket or even BART, would your comfort level decrease if someone walked up in full Burka?"
For a number of reasons, this may be the single most cogent, productive, and truly "pro-American" question I have seen asked, anywhere, on the general topic. Cogent; because it opens up a dialogue about what actually, factually, regarding our nation security needs to be fixed. Not what we're hearing, but what is actually happening here that needs to be addressed. Productive, because it gets us to ask ourselves what tangible actions will result in the greatest good. What can we do that will actually fix the problems we defined in our first question. And, "pro-American", because it asks, quite plainly, what each of us can do, within the confines of our daily lives; in our homes, our communities, and just every day inter-action with our fellow citizens, and visitors, to make our country the best we want it to be. What can we do to help point our country in the direction we grew up believing it had always resided., and where we would like it to be headed now?
Our National Security...has got to be the single greatest increase in ad revenue for cable news since Linda Tripp ratted out her buddy Monica for performing in the Oral Office. But a look at the facts shows us the following are absolute, proven, fact:
* The number of American citizens killed on American soil by foreign terrorists in the last decade is...24. The number of Americans killed by toddlers using a handgun in the past 12 months...26. The number of Americans killed in violence-related gun deaths in the last decade...280,024.
* In 1995, American citizen and member of a radical, right-wing, Christian survival group from Michigan, killed 168 and severely wounded more than 300 in an explosion of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, using a homemade bomb made of diesel fuel and fertilizer. Since that time, restrictions on the amount of fertilizer an individual may purchase have been enacted into law by the US Congress, and strict accounting of the stocking of such material is required by retail stores. In December of 2001, while flying to Detroit, British ex-pat Richard Reid tried to explode a makeshift bomb he had tried to stuff in his shoe. Since then, American citizens are required, by law, to remove their shoes (and often, more) via a TSA inspection). In 2013 (a reliable average year for the last two decades, as per the CDC) firearms were used in 73,505 nonfatal injuries (23.23 per 100,000 U.S. citizens) and 11,208 deaths by homicide (3.5 per 100,000), 21,175 by suicide with a firearm, 505 deaths due to accidental discharge of a firearm, and 281 deaths due to firearms-use with "undetermined intent" for a total of 33,636 deaths due to "Injury by firearms. During that same period of time, the United States Congress has passed zero federal laws to help restrict the sale of guns to felons or the mentally ill, or of accessories that make the number of human deaths higher, or to increase the responsibility and accountability of citizens to adequately store their firearms, to prevent the obscene number of child-related deaths due to gun use. Zero.
They have done nothing.
National Security should focus on...wait for it...the security of our nation. Not the profit margins of Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, or General Dynamics, by way of the campaign coffers of our elected officials. And while we are endlessly inundated by unprovable warnings and claims by orange-haired morons, the number of deaths (or crimes, for that matter) by illegal immigrants into this country is so far below the number committed by "legal" Americans, as to be laughable. Sadly, when discussing the greatest, truest threat to our "national security", will be found in the mirror. We need to fix ourselves, people.
What can we do?...is the next, best question in need of an answer.
First, let us reassure the chicken-little, over-zealous gun nuts...no one wants your guns. Unless, of course, you are a convicted felon (or have been convicted of a domestic violence crime - excellent work, Mr. President!) or have been deemed mentally unfit to own a firearm, or are suspected of being a terrorist.
Then, let us accept the unassailable fact that every right afforded us in the Constitution has limitations. You can't yell fire in a crowded theater unless one (a fire) exists). Law enforcement may conduct a search without a warrant, if they have probable cause. And while we are afforded freedom of religion, no religion may be espoused or portion thereof included in a public school, where children are required by law, to attend. The Second Amendment is no different. Add to this fact, that no where in the 2nd does it state that every citizen is afforded the right to own a gun for self defense.
And finally, let us move forward; not to restrict law abiding citizens from owning and bearing common sense weapons for reasonable, lawful intent and use, but to enact common sense, reasonable, guidelines of accountability for both ownership and safety.
Let us keep guns out of the hands of felons, domestic abusers, the mentally ill, and suspected terrorists, and let us hold accountable those who aid those persons in violating that restriction. Let us further hold accountable legal owners who, through lack of effort or consideration, allow firearms they are legally responsible for to be used in the commission, legal or accidental, of an injury, death, or crime. And let us, finally, hold responsible the gun manufacturers, to make all firearms incapable of being converted to automatic capabilities, by prohibiting them from manufacturing "tally-enhancing" accessories whose only objective is to take as many human lives as possible, and for no longer being able to make weapons originally designed for military use, available to the public.
Another valuable suggestion might to be stop watching cable news. 99% of it is ideology-based (pick a network), with 100% of it being advertiser-driven (ever wonder why not one network reports, much less focuses on campaign finance reform? If you want to find the root cause of a problem or what is causing that problem from being fixed, find out to profits from it). People I once respected are now deep into their respective network's bandwagon, concerned more about how sensational and controversial their broadcast can be, to up their ratings and hence, ad dollars.
We can look at the facts and accept that we are not at war with Islam. We are at war with a small, radical group who is using the most wrongly interpreted passages from a faith in the most corrupted manner possible to entice followers. Don't believe that? Then refer to the Ku Klux Klan as Radical Christian Terrorists and see how far you get. The only difference between the two are ISIS wears scarves, and our American cowards wore hoods.
This leads us to...the "Pro-American" portion of our show. Since its inception, our nation has always been one, of the people. Until the 1980's, every movement, every c-change, every societal development has been instituted from the ground up. The Declaration of Independence, defeating the secession of the Southern States, Women's Rights, Civil Rights, Voting Rights, Marriage Equality...all these and more came to fruition because of the voice of the people. Now too, we can take small but significant actions to be better Americans; to create a better America. And there's even a little something in here for those of you who do recognize and love God...
Love they Neighbor...be they legal residents or, sadly, hiding in the shadows, everyone who is within our borders is your neighbor. So, we have a choice, embrace them, welcome them, and help them to help make this nation more than it is, or continue to live a life a futile anger and unproductive angst...
Help to Heal the Sick...or, otherwise put, learn basic math. The ACA, for those states which participated, is a raging success. Millions more of your neighbors have access to quality healthcare, the average annual increase to healthcare and insurance costs is lower than it has been in sixty years, and every single American is now blessed with never having insurance denied them for pre-existing conditions, having their insurance cancelled for actually using it, or having coverage stopped because you reached your annual "cap", and NO American will ever again need to file bankruptcy or lose their life savings because of high medical bills. Game over...
Give Aid to the Poor (Learn to add, Pt. Deux)...If you make $50K/yr, less than $9 of your annual federal taxes go toward all forms of public assistance combined. This includes, but is not limited to, cash assistance, food stamps, subsidized housing, and medicaid. And please note that more than 64% of all recipients are either women, children, seniors, or disables (many of those being veterans) and more than 92% of all public assistance goes to a family with at least one full-time employed income. From that very same tax income you generously give each year, more than $4,000 goes, in direct cash subsidies, to corporations in the energy, tobacco, pharmaceutical, agricultural,and insurance industries that post BILLIONS (with a "B") in PROFITS, every year. Question: Do you really think you're angry at the wrong people, or just feeling foolish because you've been led by the nose to believe otherwise by the people for whom you are a happy punch line for their bank accounts?...
Always Pray In Private...Jesus never said a single word about homosexuals. Not one. He never called the poor lazy, and never suggested that people who made bad choices could not go on to make good, productive lives. He never counted how many times a person went to church, or to which, or church, or if you went at all.
But he did suggest we could be better people through sacrifice and compassion, and that any judgement about people who thought differently that we, or who carried a different faith was, by definition, blasphemous, as regardless of name, all are God's children, and every faith should carry equal respect. And, perhaps for that very reason, he commanded us to always pray in private.
For as it states in the first amendment of the Constitution, our faith should be intimate and personal, and should have no place in the running of our society, or the make-up of our government. We should not judge our neighbors by it, nor should it define who we ourselves are. But instead it should guide our individual principles and choices, and through them, and those of our neighbors, we might find common, conciliatory ground, and continue to, day by day, make this a decidedly more perfect union.
So, in answer to my friend Rick Sanders' original question...
"If you were standing in line at the bank, supermarket or even BART, would your comfort level decrease if someone walked up in full Burka?"
No, Rick, not one bit. I would like to believe that I would see this person as just another neighbor. I would feel for them (at this time of year) because of the heat, and want to say something of comfort. But that would be like telling on old catholic woman how sad I feel for her for having to walk around with ash on her forehead one day every year, and my thoughts of pity would turn to those of respect, for her choosing to adhere to her tradition of faith, regardless of the sacrifice. I would remember the Muslim faith is one of interminable peace which, like my own, has early scriptures of horrid declarations and obscene violence. And I would remember that, statistically speaking, I am more likely to be hit by lightening, or shot by an American four-year old, than to be killed by a foreign terrorist.
No Rick. The world is not against us. It is not against me. Or you. And so, to live the best life I can, and to do the most important thing I can, to be a good person, and good man, and a better American, I would offer them the opportunity to move ahead of me in line, so that, just maybe, they might get home faster and be able to seek relief from the heat.
And just maybe, this person would appreciate the gesture, and find a way to move it forward, to someone they meet, one day.
Maybe...you. ;)
Happy Fourth of July to Rick, his husband David, and to anyone who reads this.
And please...share this on your Timeline. Rick asked a great question. One I hope we all have the opportunity to ask ourselves...
Cheers!
-Dennis
