Questioning the Sanity of Our Elected Leaders
At the top of the list of reasons I believe this, I was mildly surprised to read about a new bill proposed by Arizona Senator Karen Johnson that would allow students to carry firearms on college campuses. Then I went on to be stunned as I read that she initially wanted the bill to cover all public schools, kindergarten and up. "I feel like our kindergartners are sitting there like sitting ducks," she rationalized.
Whoa, I thought. Could there be something in the water or air in Arizona affecting both senators from that state? I mean, imagine getting six-year-old Johnny ready for his day at school by asking him if he has his homework, his lunch and his 9-millimeter loaded. Merely picturing a scenario such as this, and across the country, is terribly frightening to me-having experienced growing up in North Philadelphia and teaching in Watts. This is surely not the vision our forefathers had in mind when they wrote the second-amendment.
Also, in light of the tragedies in Columbine and on the campus of Virginia Tech--where students attending those schools were responsible for so many deaths--I have a wealth of questions I'd like to address to Senator Johnson and anyone else who thinks her bill is a good idea.
Will all students be allowed to pack weapons or only those with leaderships skills? Would students with higher grade point averages be granted permission to carry weapons with more firepower, say, than those students who have questionable grades? Should any kindergartner be trusted with a firearm anywhere at any time?
About the same time Johnson was most likely penning this absurd bill, nine third-grade students in Waycross, Georgia, brought handcuffs and a knife to school in a plot to kill their teacher. Fortunately, they did not have guns, which would have made pulling triggers the easy solution to getting rid of their unsuspecting teacher.
More significantly, it has occurred to me that the best way to assure less violence in our schools and on college campuses has nothing to do with force or weapons. It's a matter of this society's lack of common courtesy and a sense of brotherhood, compassion and etiquette. It's about coming closer together as a united people and not about the distance created by preparing our children to kill from afar.
But what would most senators and other leaders know about the people outside of Washington and the mansions they live in? How many of them actually rub shoulders with their constituents? Not many, I presume. They are too busy passing pork-belly measures, having three-martini lunches and dinning with lobbyists from the National Rifle Association.
Therefore, how can these elected leaders be expected to know about the pressures that trickle down to the children of "ordinary" people who have found it almost impossible to believe in the American dream of hard-work as the way to an assured better life for themselves and their children. That's why I am all for psychological testing for all of these jokers on a regular basis to make sure they have a modicum of contact with reality and the real needs of the people they were elected to represent.
Published by Charles Shea LeMone
I am a published author of novels, short stories and poems. For more of my work see: allwordman.com My latest novel, "Corner Pride" is available at Multicultural Educational Publishing Company and has been... View profile
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7 Comments
Post a CommentThis woman has to be stopped. This country is way too violent and to advocate young people bringing guns to school, what's next? Everyone should be working on counselling our youth and teaching them right from wrong without the use of violence. If I lived in Texas I would move out immediately. I think all elected officials who have this kind of power all the way up to the Presidency should be psychologically tested by someone who can't be bought off and have to take a morals, values and ethics test and lie detector. They say what you want to hear then get into office and off comes the campaign garb, and out come their true colors.
But then Obama is being criticized for those remarks because it makes him appear elitist. As for carrying firearms to schools, as a teacher obviously I think that's ridiculous. The argument always seems to be very circular when it comes to gun control: we need guns to protect ourselves from people with guns. Gee, maybe if fewer people had guns, that wouldn't be an issue. Or, as you pointed out, if people knew means other than violence to solve their problems, or if people had jobs that would prevent them from needing to commit crimes, etc..
Senator Obama's remarks yesterday in Indiana seem to suggest that he understands the correlation between antipathy, guns and a government that has failed the people.
"You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them," Obama said.
"And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
Fear has always been a tool used my politicians to garner votes. It's the old us against them mentality, which has been at work for so long we take it for granted as being just part of the campaign process. Consequently, we build up more and more walls of alienation rather than seek means of reconciliation and understanding. So it should come as no great surprise that our children adopt a sense of entitlement and group narcissism.
Then there is the recent trend of parents reading books that list ways of how to develop smarter children. Maybe we should spend more time figuring out what circumstances drive our youth to become mass murderers. It's like to old saying goes, it's the squeaking wheel that needs the oil.
"It's a matter of this society's lack of common courtesy and a sense of brotherhood, compassion and etiquette." Omigod an intelligent writer and voter! If you ever run for office, you have my vote already. I am amazed how people can not see the rise in violence among our youth with he rise of violence in our country. Hating Muslims became socially acceptable during the Bush administration. During Clinton's the Supreme Court gave the Ku Klux Klan a free pass. Hillary's supporters think her verbally abusive attacks make her tough and follow suit. I definitely agree that elected officials need to pass a psychiatrist evaluation, be drug tested and hooked up to lie detector machines when campaigning for office. Children do not need guns for self protection, they need to learn how to settle differences without resorting to violence.
This is profound information. I have thought for a long time that Lou Dobbs is right when he says our elected leaders have lost their minds. This is more proof he is right.
That is the most ridiculous thing I've heard in a long time. And you know it's got to be true ~ who could make up a thing like that? I'd like to know how this woman got elected and by whom. Who knows, maybe her constituents need testing, too!