After the Oregon School Shooting and Coverage, the Question I Hesitate to Ask

Not sure I should ask this question, but…

Friday I heard some coverage of the Oregon school shooter.

(No, I don’t want to name him either, Sheriff Hanlin. Or see him, or read a warped manifesto. Why give evil a stage?) I also read, Sheriff, you obstinately insisted earlier, after Sandy Hook, you would not enforce more strict gun laws, such as universal background checks. (Oath Keepers? Oath to whom?)

Also:Red Assault Rifle

  • I saw that the shooter asked victims if they were Christians, and if they said “yes”, he shot them in the head, instead of the legs.
  • I heard Glenn Beck railing against people who argue for gun control.
  • I heard Rush Limbaugh revving up the faithful – usually his conservative R’s – with the usual pro-gun, pro-gunster bumper-sticker arguments, and – as is his talent – forcefully, eloquently, but somewhat venomously and truth-bending-ly. Certainly his gun-worshiping ditto-heads absorbed, and locked and loaded, his preaching ammo.

Stand and Fight? Fight for whom? For gun manufacturers? Gun dealers? Lobbyists? The NRA? For even more gun sales? Again? Really? Leading to even more school / movie / mall / street / road / home shootings? And no, contrary to the line we’re fed by some, more guns mean more gun violence, not less. Fight for more hate-filled loners (like the recent SC, VA, OR losers) to be free to buy AR-15’s and other lethal weapons to be free to efficiently carry out their hate? And no, I don’t mean you who are reading this, but in America, gunfire rains on the just and the unjust, on the angry and the innocent. It affects us all, and the most basic rights of all – to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Some questions:

  • Who internalizes then spills diatribes of hatred?
  • Who selects innocent people for murder based on their faith in God?
  • Who eloquently preaches for the spread of the tools of killing?
  • Who worships man’s laws (2nd Amendment) above God’s (5th Commandment)
  • Who puts their own hobby, or fears, or greed, or politics above God’s commands, including Thou Shalt Not Kill? (And does this commandment extend to promoting and spreading unchecked the tools of killing?)
  • Who rebukes lawful authority for their own fringe political preferences?
  • Who gives evil a prominent stage?
  • Who glorifies violence via entertainment?
  • Who kills a helpless child in a womb?
  • Who rails at helping feed the hungry or sheltering the homeless?
  • Who does this and claims to be a sincere member of a nation of believers, or of a Christian nation, or of a God-fearing nation? Or even simply of a humane nation?
  • Who claims God’s blessings?

And, my question I hesitate to ask, but must:

Is it possible, in addition to bursts, there are slow-motion train-wreck deliveries of evil?

– Jerry Guzi

IMG_6112_MIND 25

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Gun Violence, Rights and Higher Law

In reaction to a story (“Parker’s father: I’m on a mission,” Aug. 28) about Alison Parker’s dad, Andy, working to prevent gun violence, a friend recently commented to me:

Alison Parker and Adam Ward. Photo: WDBJ7
Alison Parker and Adam Ward. Photos: WDBJ7

“Hopefully he spends some time advocating for mental illness treatment also.”

I do, too — for the sake of the mentally ill.

Regarding gun violence:
Unfortunately, all societies have mentally ill people.

Most societies don’t arm them.

We also arm the angry, the violent, the jealous, bad guys, good guys, guys with a beef, good guys-who-turn-bad-guys, the responsible and the irresponsible.
In some cases, does anyone even know who it is we arm?
I don’t worry about the guys I know who own firearms. I worry about those I don’t know — like the guys who just loaded up their pants, cars or vans with guns at the Roanoke Gun Show.
How much injury, death and family heartache is at the end of those roads?

We can’t let mental illness become the red-herring, excuse du jour for America’s gun violence.

And we can’t let America’s promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness be further diminished by those selfishly demanding their preferred, narrow, unrestricted right (sell/buy all guns, for everyone, all the time) at the expense of all Americans’ other rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The right to go to church, school, a movie, work, a mall without fear of getting shot.

We cannot add a Commandment (Second Amendment — to an unregulated extreme?) or subtract one (Thou shall not kill) at the cost of killing thousands, and the unregulated selling of the tools of killing.

Not for hobby, not for fear, not for greed, not for politics.

– Jerry Guzi

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Orange, The Color of Gun Safety. Hunting. Gunfire. Gun Violence. Men. Women. Children.

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Photo: “Meeting of Shadows”, National Geographic Photo of the Day, June 2, 2015, by member Denis Buchel

I wear orange today.

  • For 32 fellow Hokies killed at Virginia Tech. (2007)

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  • For 20 little children and 6 adults killed at Sandy Hook. (2012)

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  • For 7-year-old Shane Nichols (killed 2014), his brother, and his mom, Jamie.
  • For the 11,000+ people killed in gun deaths in the U.S. every year. For their families. For their friends.
  • For their lost potential.
  • For 15-year-old honor student Hadiya Pendleton (2013)
    http://wearorange.org/

For these. For the others.

I wear orange today.

JG Full photo

 

 

 

Jerry Guzi
411US.info

 

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Of America, Leaders and Soldiers, Vice and Virtue

“Vice stirs up war, virtue fights.” – Luc de Clapiers

Not so much about politics, or foreign relations, or the virtue and valor of our military men and women, this article (http://theweek.com/articles/555921/george-w-bush-didnt-just-lie-about-iraq-war-what-did-much-worse) speaks to the soul of America, its morality and integrity.

It is harder on George W. Bush, and softer on Dick Cheney et al, than I would be.

But it is a retrospection of America going preemptive-war mode – a have-to-be-right-every-time mode, in which a moral America would have to be right 1,000 out of 1,000 times. We are 0-for-1.

In addition to critically questioning conservatives (and neocons) and Republicans, for any Americans who may have politically left-leaning  inclinations, perhaps we Americans also should ask our Democratic politicians now how prescient was our decision in 2011 to fully leave Iraq and the Mideast.

Memorial Day
A volunteer with the Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund replaces damaged flags on the Boston Common, ahead of Memorial Day. Photo:The Week, AP Photo/Michael Dwyer

It isn’t rude – rather, it is important, and fitting – that on Memorial Day weekend, when we remember, honor and cherish the courage and sacrifice of those – the virtuous – who have answered the call of duty for our nation, we practice the sacred citizen duty of shining light-of-day information onto the underlying motives and decisions of those to whom we entrust leadership, and of those who lobby, finance and influence them.

Vice starts wars, virtue fights them.
Virtue ends wars.

A sincere, heartfelt thank you to those who have served, and those who do today.

Jerry Guzi
411US.info

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Awaiting Ferguson Grand Jury Indictment Decision

Image: "Unity in Diversity"
Image: “Unity in Diversity”

Awaiting the Ferguson Grand Jury indictment decision …

Is it even conceivable that in a country great in most ways, but where racism or police brutality exist still to even any degree – that the root cause of the failure to America, to Missouri, to Ferguson, to the neighborhood, to blacks, to whites, to his parents – as hard as it is to consider – that the root cause of this failure rests with Michael Brown Jr. himself? (Tragically, dead, shot and killed after attacking a police officer.)

May God bless his soul, his parents, his town, America and her people.

-JG
www.411US.info

Image: “Unity in Diversity”, CanstockPhoto.com

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