America is Sick; She Needs Help

223 Bushmaster (a military-style semi-automatic rifle), two pistols; a Sig Sauer and a Glock.

Those are the weapons that destroyed 27 families. In a quiet Connecticut community, Small Town U.S.A. 20 little children with holes blown through them, 7 adults – parents, teachers, friends, neighbours lead projectiles invading and exploding their organs.

And there is a debate about gun control? What is there to debate?

Is the nation of the United States of America so sick in the soul that they fear the shadows and must arm themselves against their neighbours? Or is it a case of penis envy by men and women, so insecure in themselves that a semi-automatic is the only way for them to feel worthy?

Nobody, NOBODY, with the exception of a soldier on the battlefield, requires a semi-automatic firearm. In fact, I question the sanity of anyone who feels the desire to own one. How sociopathic do you have to be, to envision blowing countless people out of their shoes? How mentally deranged do you have to be to feel that you must own one of these disgusting things?

The tragedy in Connecticut illustrates a few harsh truths to America and the questions will need to be answered or will this nation, as it loves to do, sweep it under the rug?

This young man, this Adam Lanza, was obviously very ill. A person in good mental health does not snap in this manner and massacre fellow human beings, worse…little children. The killers in Columbine were sick young men. No one seemed to be able to address their mental illness. Mental illness doesn’t hide, the symptoms are there but too many people choose to ignore them because of the stigma. “My child CAN’T be mentally ill!!” visualizing scenes from the movies – Snake Pit or Cuckoo’s Nest…perhaps one of the Chainsaw Massacre movies. The characters portrayed in these movies, the freaks, the killers, the nutters…these characters, in real life, would be someone’s mother, father, sibling or child.

To admit that one has a child who is mentally ill, seems to be interpreted by society, as a failure in parenting. Ridiculous. Absurd. Ludicrous. This has nothing to do with the parent, mental illness is an ILLNESS. It is nobody’s fault – it simply “is.”

The laws pertaining to mental illness must be changed, they must be progressive and protect the patient but also society, at large. Medications must be taken and if this means that forced medicating is required, then that is the better of two evils. A schizophrenic cannot be left in charge of his/her own health care, a person suffering from bi-polar disorder cannot be expected to understand the necessity of those medications. Society, the medical community and the legislators have no choice now, they need to come together and find a solution to the lack of care given to the mentally ill. We are all at risk when a mentally ill person is pushed to the fringes of society and forgotten. We are all at risk when the care these people deserve is denied them. We are all at risk when the signs are ignored.

The problems are many but if the U.S.A. is as strong as they seem to love to claim to all and sundry – then acknowledging these issues and addressing them should be easy.

Ignore the breast beating of the penile impaired – remove automatic and semi-automatic weapons from every household. Demand that hand guns be registered and licenses issued. Start adding 10 years, automatically, for any crime involving a handgun – whether or not the gun is loaded, whether or not it is a toy replica – the intent to threaten is there – address that threat and add those 10 years.

It will take time to fix the sickness in American society but it can be fixed, it can be cured. No more children need be slaughtered if Americans truly care.

American Idiots on Sodahead; Good-bye

I was a member of Sodahead. It is one of those sites that allows for commentary on anything that makes the news, regardless of how inane. Unfortunately the inanity extended to the vast majority of comments, particularly in the political forums.

The vast majority of commenters are, surprise /surprise, American. The site is also a haven for trolls; those particularly annoying people who feel the need to create discord for no other reason than to create discord. Nothing of value is said, just the usual name calling, racism and overwhelming political ignorance. They do not debate, in fact, I harbour a suspicion that most would be unable to spell the word without a spellcheck in place, that they are, blissfully, ignorant of the definition of debate is a given.

Someone with no knowledge or experience with Americans could be forgiven for thinking the land is made up of people barely able to keep their knuckles off the ground. Thankfully, I do have friends and acquaintances who are Americans and I’m able to discern the American Idiot from the majority of the populace who do understand that the head has a higher purpose than as a place to keep their Budweiser hat.

I love debate. Intelligent debate. I love to learn new points of view. Let me qualify that – I love to learn new points of view that are based on intelligent observation. I suppose this is why I find watching anything to do with the current motley collection of Republican hopefuls so very, very hard to take.

Every morning I would head over to Sodahead, hoping to learn something regarding the American political system, to glean some sort of insight into the possible future leaders of the United States. It was an impossible task. If there were germs of intelligence hidden within posts and opinions, they were lost among the redneck diatribe of the obnoxious white sheeted Republican flag wavers. The barely concealed racism is stomach turning. It does not take much to imagine these people in brown shirts, sporting little black moustaches under their noses, even the women.

I love the concept of freedom of speech but I also love the concept of not having to subject myself to the poison dripping from the fingertips of these trolls and otherwise intellectually dead “contributors”.

And a quote from Thomas Jefferson, one of the American founding fathers, who were – by and large – completely against religion in government.

“On the dogmas of religion, as distinguished from moral principles, all mankind, from the beginning of the world to this day, have been quarreling, fighting, burning and torturing one another, for abstractions unintelligible to themselves and to all others, and absolutely beyond the comprehension of the human mind.”