Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Can we at least agree on this?

Obviously people are fiercely attached to their opinions on the gun issue, one way or the other. But it seems obvious that people with known, documented mental health problems and a history of arrests for violent activity should be banned from buying guns.

It seems that if we can't even come to a consensus on that much, we're screwed.

Monday, September 16, 2013

And more on guns...some serious questions

Here are some questions nobody ever asks. And if anybody did ask, nobody would answer anyway.

1. If you don't plan to commit a mass murder, why would you need to buy a military-grade assault weapon? (What else are these things good for? Deer hunting?)

2. Why is it legal to sell weapons of war to civilians? When there is no possible legal use for such weapons outside of a war zone, wouldn't it make sense to, you know, NOT SELL THEM to the general population? We don't allow tank manufacturers and nuclear weapons manufacturers to sell their wares at Wal-Mart. Shouldn't the same hold for assault rifles?

3. Even if you support the idea that people have some kind of inherent right to have guns (which I absolutely don't) what possible reason is there not to institute comprehensive background and mental health checks BEFORE the gun sale is allowed to go forward?

4. Why for Christ's sake are those "no questions asked" gun shows legal? What possible justification is there for this, from a legal standpoint?

5. Why are we as a nation so unconcerned about the fact that stuff like this happens constantly?

I won't hold my breath waiting for answers.

Mass Shooting of the Day

I'm getting pretty tired of reading stories like this.

So, today we've had yet another mass shooting. This time at an actual military facility. (What happened to the "good guys with guns?" Somehow they never manage to show up. Even when the Bad Guys with Guns start shooting in places where everybody else is armed.)

What I want to know, as an American citizen, as a voter, as an educated person, and most importantly, as a mom, is when will this society decide that it has had enough of this shit? What will it take for people to realize that the widespread availability of military-grade firearms is one of our biggest public health threats in this country?

And when will people start calling it terrorism? Because if this isn't terrorism then I don't know what the fuck it is. And I'm sick of it.

For months now I've been thinking about the post I want to write about Newtown. All these months later I still have not wrapped my head around that. Like, I would imagine, many other parents in America, I still think about that day all the time. I still remember the crashing panic attack that ensued when I heard the news. The one that lasted a full week.

The events in Newtown, for me, were far more personally traumatizing than 9/11 even began to be. I lived in downtown Boston when the towers came down, but I didn't feel anywhere near as personally threatened on 9/11 as I did on the day when Adam Lanza killed those little children and those teachers -- those warrior women whose names should be remembered forever.

I hope that doesn't sound harsh. Of course I understood the horrible reality of 9/11 and grieved the mass slaughter, in all its incomprehensibility. But that was exactly the point. It was incomprehensible. Terrorist airplane attacks on skyscrapers haven't exactly been a commonplace event. Mass shootings by heavily-armed maniacs happen continually in America.

I don't want this to be the country my kids grow up in. We can do better than this. We HAVE to do better than this.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Writing, once again, to please myself

Well, that was a bit of a long hiatus. Once again I find myself at a career and mommyhood crossroads. A ton -- and I mean a ton -- has changed since I last posted here. Not the least of which being my little Peanut achieving Big Sister status. I somehow need to catch up on the highlights from the three years since our latest addition, the Cutie Patootie, was born.

It was so long since I logged into this site that I wasn't even sure it would even still be here. But I'm glad it is. I have a lot to talk about, and time on my hands now to do it. As I said when I started this blog in 2005, I intend to write to please myself. Once again.