For What We Have Been Given

Several years ago, I watched on the news the crazed shoppers in the stores on Thanksgiving Day. It just goes to show how fractured the American family has become. Millions of people have so little connection to each other, they have nothing better to do than go shopping on a day meant for the gathering of friends and family to give thanks for all that we have been given. And, it is just another reminder of the greed of Corporate America, that they would force their workers away from their families on Thanksgiving Day. We have fallen hook, line and sinker for the advertisements and the propaganda that bombards us, ad nauseum, offering snake-oil elixirs that fuel our insatiable craving to buy their products. The attachment to materialistic values and possessions has been embraced by too many in our country. It puts our wants and needs above all else. Here we are faced with cuts to food stamps; the drive is on to cut welfare and medicaid benefits; in fact, all the social safety nets we have in place to protect the weakest among us are at risk, so that we can go shopping and buy more and more stuff. To top it off, we force the lowest-paid and most vulnerable workers to leave their families on Thanksgiving Day to satisfy our insatiable need to go shopping.

Into the Belly of the Beast

I was on City Council when a man shot and killed his wife and children just six blocks from my home. I was horrified, felt somehow that I had failed them and decided that I would seek ways to help prevent this from happening in my town again. I reached out to some of the organizations that are aiding women who are abused. I attended a 3-day conference on family violence. There were experts there from all over the country discussing the causes, effect and solutions to violence against women. On the last day, some of us were bused to an intake facility where victims are taken. I saw the room where the women are examined and photos are taken of their bruised and broken bodies. Security is tight, because abusers often return until they have their kill. They are like rabid dogs. I left there and returned home, sickened by what I had been exposed to. I had taken a journey into the belly of the Beast and had come out the other side more determined than ever to advocate for the helpless and the abused. And, do not exclude certain women because of borders. There are no borders when it comes to violence against women. One in every four women in the U.S. will experience domestic violence in her lifetime. An estimated 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year. Access to firearms increases the risk of intimate partner homicide more than five times more than in instances where there are no weapons. In addition, abusers who possess guns tend to inflict the most severe abuse on their partners. Lastly, make no mistake. The NRA is complicit in this scourge on our land. The NRA has consistently opposed legislation that would limit domestic abusers' access to firearms, claiming that efforts in this area could lead to "sweeping and arbitrary infringement on the right to keep and bear arms."

Why Not?

It suddenly occurred to me while reading an article in Stars and Stripes dated May 23, 2014. If we are going to do psychological testing of potential military recruits to "weed out candidates with potentially dangerous mental health issues", why would we not do that same test before anyone who would be permitted to own a gun? The NRA's argument is that guns don't kill people, people do. Then why are we not testing people before they are handed a gun? The military thinks it's necessary before arming a soldier. Civilians should be afforded the same protection.

Bohemian Rhapsody

                                                          by
                                            Jacquelyn K. Thompson
                                                  (click to enlarge)

Paranoid Nation

While addressing the crowd at the NRA convention center, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said "Freedom has never needed our defense more than now...So I ask you this afternoon -- do you trust this government really to protect you and your family? We’re on our own. That’s a certainty." What we are seeing is a fraying of our society... a civilization crumbling. Whereas we came together with a shared dream of a country founded on laws, and assigned to our government the duty to protect both individuals and society as a whole, Mr. LaPierre and others preach paranoia and lawlessness.  When people think they have the right to supplant our Constitutionally-appointed protectors and arbitors of our laws with a gun on their hips and the right to shoot to kill (no questions asked) and to intimidate, then how long will it be before we sink into anarchy?

Our Shame

We are in the midst of the age old battle between barbarism and civilization. The question is, do we continue downward on this slippery slope? Death penalty. Torture. Gun violence. Perpetual war. Who is it that is winning right now? If those of us who long for a more civilized society do not step forward, speak up, become involved, then the barbarians win. What was it Sarah Palin recently said about torture? If she was in charge, waterboarding would be "how we baptize terrorists." And to think, John McCain chose her as his running mate and she could have been a heartbeat from the Presidency. And, I have to ask, where are the Christian leaders on the conservative Right in response to Palin's awful pronouncement? Silence. I have heard nothing from them condemning Palin. Shame on them. Shame on this country.

Silent Parks

Snowmobiles do not belong in our National and State parks. Our parks are pristine areas preserved for future generations. I come to the parks to enjoy nature, see wildlife and to commune with God. I relish the silence. You do not drive snowmobiles in your churches, mosques and synagogues. What makes some think that they belong in God's natural cathedral, Yellowstone National Park, or any other?

We are inundated with noise wherever we go. Our parks are our one haven from the cacophony that surrounds us.

We have to set limits somewhere. Draw the line here. Preserve the beauty and the quiet of our parks.