ALL OVER THE MAP

Sometimes I feel like what I'm writing matters, and then sometimes, when something huge happens out there in the world, my little struggles seem terribly insignificant. Who cares if my hip hurts when people are being shot to death just for getting up in the morning? I don't even know what anyone can say about this issue that makes any difference. Action is required, on a massive scale. I think we feel helpless. But are we really?

We need a revolution in this country. I'm not speaking metaphorically. I mean a revolution. We simply have to turn our current systems and our legislators and politicians UPSIDE DOWN.

I'm not the most education voter, but I'm earnest. I don't align with one party, I listen to debates, I follow the media's coverage on current candidates, but I can't say I go to the trouble of accessing all the information I can, to make a truly informed decision. To some extent I vote viscerally. I think I'm smart enough to know when someone is lying. And when I vote I feel like I'm a responsible citizen, doing my part, paying homage to the suffragettes force-fed by the patriarchy. But I am also jaded. I feel like my vote doesn't really matter. Don't even get me started on the Electoral College. One vote, one voice. I don't think so. But that's for another time.

I don't think the senate and congress in this country truly represent the views of their constituents. When groups, organizations, and lobbyists can buy favor and influence, it destroys the illusion that your vote matters. Money, greed, and power are the engines behind our system of government. I'm not saying there aren't good people out there. But I don't believe they can prevail over the current configuration of our political system. Maybe I watch too much House of Cards. The issues that come up, over and over again; term limits, campaign reform, fundraising caps, lobby reform, never really move forward. When Americans say we want this changed or that changed, we still have to rely on the people whose behavior we are trying to modify to effect those changes. That doesn't really work, does it?

How are we going to change the way Americans legislate gun ownership?

President Obama said in his speech last week, find out how many people have been killed in terrorist attacks vs. gun deaths. I did. Here is just one old look at those stats, according to CNN:

"In 2010, 13,186 people died in terrorist attacks worldwide; in that same year, in America alone, 31,672 people lost their lives in gun-related deaths, according to numbers complied by Tom Diaz – until recently, a senior analyst at the Violence Policy Center." (Bolds are my emphasis.)

I'm reading that 31,672 people were killed by guns here in one year? This is incomprehensible to me. How many since then? No one can possibly believe at this point that our white, slave-owning founding fathers envisioned or wanted this; this wanton slaughter of our fellow citizens.

I know some responsible gun owners. I'm not saying no one should be allowed to own a gun. But our current system of regulation is woefully inadequate to assess who should be allowed to have a gun, and clearly, from these horrifying statistics alone, NOT EVERYONE SHOULD. And for those people out there who try to wrap themselves in the Second Amendment, I can't even find words to describe my disgust. If, in the face of the carnage we've seen just in the last few years, your focus is on protecting your rights as a gun owner, your priorities are completely fucked.

Bottom line: if you have a history of mental illness, or violence, or a criminal record, you should simply never be able to get your hands on a weapon, especially one that can kill another person as easily as a gun. Yes, people kill with knives and hammers, but guns make killing easy. Killing should never be easy.

When I try to sort out what we need to do first, I get an epic headache. Because how can you stop your neighbor from raising their child to be a hateful, racist, judgemental asshole? You can't. It's a free country. I was talking to someone a while back who believes that racism will eventually just die out, that its time will pass. I couldn't believe my ears. Foreward movement requires profound changes in thinking, in understanding, in action. And a desire and willingness to go there.

This disease of hate, to my mind the single-most important malaise facing our country and our world, and the primary cause of all of the recurring violence here and abroad, continues to be spread from generation to generation. The focus of hate may change. Now we have the Kim Davises of the world believing that there is a new subset of people who are "less": less deserving of equal treatment, less deserving of understanding, less "human", (with a host of religious supporters whose God, ironically, has only two key messages: LOVE ME. LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR.)

Davis has children. And she's raising them to think that LGBTQ people are LESS THAN. Like our shameful national history, here in good ole 'Murica. Like the Native Americans, the Irish, the Japanese, the Chinese, the African-Americans. Oh, and let's not forget women. LGBTQ is just a new group to subjugate, to judge, to demean, and devalue. The engine is the same. Some are better, some are not. Some are worthy. Some are not.That's ~ism. It doesn't really matter what kind.

I wish I had answers.

If only by saying it we could make it happen: stop hating, stop judging, stop pretending that you are better than, that you deserve more, that you're special. I know I'm preaching to the choir. The people who read this blog are my friends and family, and you already, to me, represent the very best of humankind.

So, I guess, just be you. And hope that your particular disease, of acceptance, compassion, and love, is equally as catching.