I'd like to point out a few facts that the general media in the USA like
to avoid mentioning:
Juvenile violence, violent crimes by juveniles, or upon juveniles,
has dropped over 27% in the last 5 years -- despite continued
population growth among the "less advantanged" youth.
Accidents, primarily those associated with motor vehicles and/or
alcohol use, remain the leading cause of death among those under age
twenty-five. During the Vietnam war we killed off 20% of our young men
before they reached age 25 -- and we did it on our streets & highways,
not in a jungle in the Far East.
The reporting of violence, no matter where, has become the way that
the broadcast media attempt to achieve & maintain ratings so that they
can make more money from advertisers. Right behind that is natural
disasters in the US -- TV crews sticking their cameras in the faces of
people just pulled from collapsed houses, people who don't even know yet
if they've lost their family. It makes for good, quick,
grabbembytheguts sound bites & photo ops.
More children die in the USA as the result of poverty -- slow
starvation, lack of proper clothing & shelter, lack of proper medical
care -- than die as the result of guns, knives, or other "weapons." At
last count -- and the census may show an increase -- there were 10,000,
ten thousand, one hundred hundred, homeless children in Los Angeles
County California alone.
Politicians and do-gooders love to hop on the "ban the guns"
bandwagon because it is good coverage and they can always blame their
failures on "some lobbying group" or "ignorance of the public." Doing
what is necessary to see that children have enough to eat, a place to
live, a doctor they don't have to wait ten or twelve hours in the
emergency room to see, is much tougher work -- and it involves thinking
and planning and a redirection of governmental resources that don't make
great 15 second news items and might even get some of the "haves" pixxed
off because they might be taxed to accomplish such things.
While Bill Gates is giving a billion dollars toward education [only 5
million a year for 20 years, less than he makes in a month and more
than he could ever spend] I'm collecting and washing perfectly good
clothing someone else threw out, so it can go to the "free store" and
cover someone's body against the weather -- and my son is gathering up
"expired" food stuffs and making certain it goes to the homeless instead
of into the land fill.
So I don't want to hear anyone claiming that gun safety would solve all
the problems of this country, nor that disarmament would solve all the
problems of the world. Unless you, yourself, have lived with the
certainty that you have no idea where you'll spend the night or when
you'll get your next meal or who to associate with in an attempt to
survive the insanity going on around you -- unless you've reached out
your hand, your heart, your time & effort to guide one child or counsel
one lost teenager who no longer sees a reason to live -- I'd advise you
to keep your "simple solutions" to yourself.
Now, that's enough about the military, guns, death and suffering. We
need to start working on increasing world-wide access to the internet.
That way the *truth* can be shared with everyone, and stupid politicians
and petty tyrants won't be quite as able to hide in the shadows and do
their stupid manipulative best to maintain the status quo they benefit
from.
l.d.
-- Arachne V1.60;b1, NON-COMMERCIAL copy, http://arachne.cz/
