Friday, December 21, 2012

RESPONSIBILITY

On the BBC radio news this morning, I heard a Brit reporter interview an older "American" couple coming out of a gun shop in Connecticut (next to a liquor store, why am I not surprised) near where the tragedy occurred last week.

The woman had just bought a gun, and the reporter wanted to know if she didn't think that adding another gun to the over three million in U.S. wouldn't just add to the problem. She and her husband expressed their belief that the country was in a terrible state and getting worse because the president wanted to take away the guns of citizens to further his agenda of "socialism and communism"...

It almost made me want to cry, or give up. The rightwing propaganda machine hasn't just created a base of misinformed parrots, they foster and encourage outright ignorance so they can control that base with the kind of fear exhibited by this couple. They aren't worried about an inadequate mental health system, or easy access to semi-automatic military style weapons of mass murder, they're worried our president wants to makes the United States communist!

Thankfully he was reelected by a margin that is turning out (as the vote count continues even now) to be much bigger than any recent Republican has garnered, specifically Bush Junior who claimed "a mandate" with a much smaller win. That indicates to me that there is at least a majority of voters who are educated enough in critical thinking to be able to see reality.

But how can we even consider this country one of the "advanced" nations when so many use as a source of their "news" a network (and not just the broadcast one but the social one they're a part of) that studies have shown those who only use that network for their news are the most ill-informed? We can't, it seems to me. Which is why we need teachers who help students learn to understand and use critical thinking based on facts not propaganda.

  

8 comments:

tom said...

Yeah, the guy who tried to burn the mosque in Toledo said he only knew what he heard on Fox News and right wing radio. I guess we shouldn't be surprised. I wonder if the NRA is planning on paying for all these policemen they want to put in every school? The stupidity amazes me. The evil of it amazes me even more. Jim White has a song - If Jesus Drove a Motor Home. These guys would have one If Jesus Carried a Bushmaster.... But then according to Bushmaster he would have his man card. Sick.

JIm said...
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Anonymous said...

Thank you, Michael, for keeping me from this pitiful loon's distorted filth.

JIm said...
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Robert G. Zuckerman said...

Hollywood, the NRA, the government, the gun and ammo manufactureres and dealers are all accomplices to the murder of the Newtown 26 and to all the other random shootings. The government is complicit for wimping out on gun banishment and prohibition of gratuitous violence in media.

Robert G. Zuckerman said...

Every day now there is a random shooting in a public place. GUNS MUST BE OUTLAWED AND BANISHED FROM OUR LAND. PERIOD. WE CAN LIVE - UNDERSTAND THE WORD - LIVE - WITHOUT GUNS. WITH GUNS, INNOCENT PEOPLE ARE KILLED AND DIE, DAILY. THE GLUT OF GUNS IS NOT PRO LIFE, IT IS ANTI LIFE. CMON, ARE WE BLIND? THERE HAS TO BE ZERO TOLERANCE FOR GUNS, FOR STARTERS. THEN MAJOR EMPHASIS ON EDUCATION AND SPIRITUALITY. THE ONLY HOPE FOR OUR WORLD.

Robert G. Zuckerman said...
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Robert G. Zuckerman said...

"Freedom" is not the same as it was in the 18th century, when there was vast area and distance between people. We live on an increasingly crowded planet and we must live in harmony with all other beings, human and otherwise. Also, the second Amendment in no way shape or form grants unlimited right for everyone to bear arms. The opening phrase is "A WELL REGULATED MILITIA", which we have, in the form our armed forces and law enforcement. It is blazingly clear now that guns are not defending us but rather, are killing us. What we NEED, desparately, is EDUCATION not just academics, but spiritual enrichment. We need to nurture our ability to communicate, to accept superficial differences, to create and navigate mental and emotional roadmaps around the brick walls and obstacles of hate, ignorance and rage.