Gun Control! Mental Health! Government! Oh My!

I am sure most Americans are probably feeling a little overwhelmed on the subjects of gun control, mental health and government involvement right now. It’s the hot topic. Everywhere  you look or try to listen, this is what you are bombarded with. It has been a very difficult time for me. I have friends and family on both sides of the fence and it is hard. I hear such strong opinions that sometimes it just gets to be a little too much. Sometimes it is downright offensive. Some people make automatic assumptions about my opinions because of how I have felt about other issues. That is one thing that really pisses me off. I am like, “Did you ask me specifically how I feel about this? Or did you ask me why I feel the way I do about this?!”

I am an American. I love my Constitution. I love my Bill of Rights. I believe in the right to bear arms. But I believe in some sort of regulations. I am honestly not sure what those regulations should be. I haven’t thought it through that far. I don’t know what it should be. But I honestly don’t believe our Founding Fathers ever had any idea that our nation would be in the condition it is in right now where some freaking lunatic would take assault weapons into an elementary school and gun down innocent children. I don’t believe that was ever a consideration for them. Because as hard as our Founding Fathers fought for this country, I don’t believe they would approve of weapons being available to someone like that.

Sandy Hook was the most recent eye-opening killing spree on a large-scale. From what I have read, Adam Lanza was a young man who was in obvious need of mental health help. His parents failed him by not getting him mental health help he obviously needed. His mother brought heavy-duty guns into their home and taught him how to use them. I’m sorry, but teaching someone who is obviously mentally unstable how to use dangerous assault weapons is beyond anything I can fathom. I am not saying she deserved what she got, but I honestly do not understand what in the hell she was thinking. Maybe she needed mental health help, too. And if she did, maybe the ex-husband should have sought to get the help needed. I don’t know.  But something wasn’t right.

Sandy Hook brought to light guns, though. Boy did it! It opened my eyes. I hadn’t really thought too much about stringent gun control but that really made me think. I am a Southerner and have always been around guns. There was typically always a gun around my home growing up. I understood their power. I understood to leave them alone. I had a healthy respect and fear of them. I know their power. But this tragedy made me question. Why do people want or need assault weapons? Do you really need something with that much fire-power? Where are you really going to use it? On what? These are just questions that came to mind. I’m not arguing. I’m just thinking. And I sure won’t get in a debate over it. These are just things I have thought about.

Then I thought more and more about how mental health issues have been overlooked for so long in this country. You know you have seen that kid in school that made you wonder if you were going to see him on the news when he got older because he killed someone. You have, haven’t you? I did. I used to work in schools with kids with behavior issues and watched these kids and saw some that I wondered if they were going to become killers. They worried me. It troubled me because you never knew what they were going to do. One minute they were fine and then a kid would look at them the wrong way or say the wrong word and BOOM! It was on! You would see pure hatred in some children and wonder if they were killers. Maybe if they were caught early? If they got help sooner?

I have heard people say that they think that teachers should have guns. I am sorry but I think that is ridiculous. As distracted as teachers get in a classroom, a kid could easily gain access to that gun. Do you want your kid going to a place where there is easy access to a loaded gun?! Why not panic buttons in the classrooms? How about security guards? Metal detectors? Tasers? Something besides a damned gun in the school?! I have sat in classrooms and those teachers are too damned scattered and distracted to have a weapon on them in my opinion.

Mental health has always been underfunded. It is always a budget slashed. It’s like people don’t get that if you don’t take care of your brain that the rest of a person isn’t going to be well either. I realize that a lot of people blame mental health for certain problems that they should take care of on their own. But there are true mental health issues that need treatment and without treatment can lead to all kinds of problems. If people don’t end up hurting others or themselves they can end up destroying their lives with their behaviors. It is not always controllable without some sort of help. And not everyone has access or the ability to get the mental health help they need. Isn’t it worth it to look into funding mental health when it could potentially stop something like Sandy Hook from happening again?

Then there is the role of government in all of this. I realize that of course it’s going to piss people off that the government has said something about all of it. But honestly, if the President didn’t say something then people would be pissed about that, too. (You know I am right.) What else could he do?! This was a tragedy that affected the whole nation! It touched all of our hearts and he has kids! If it didn’t touch your heart, then maybe you don’t have a heart and you need to see a doctor ASAP! I’m not defending all he has said or done. Nope. But I am saying that of course the government is getting involved. It would have under any administration, democrat or republican.

We all need to get over our political party lines and look at this as a national problem. Quit being so stubborn and start looking for answers. When you close your mind to anything but your own ideas and opinions then you are shutting out a lot of opportunities for making things better. Remember that while Sandy Hook happened in an elementary school, tragedy can strike anywhere.

Related articles

• The President and NRA agree on gun control proposals – well, mostly (ricksroute66.net)
• Mental Health Changes in New York’s Gun Laws (wnyc.org)
• Mental health a thorny issue in gun control debate (metrowestdailynews.com)
• Day of Action to Stop Mental Health Profiling (genomega1.wordpress.com)

Some Reasons I DO NOT Like Newt

My dislike of Newt Gingrich is not a recent thing. No. I disliked him a long time ago in the days of the Clinton Administration. Why? He was constantly screaming or crying about something. He was always pointing out flaws in the Clinton White House but didn’t want to accept any blame for his own. He wanted accolades for the first balanced budget in 30 years. Yes, he and Bill Clinton and many others worked on creating that balanced budget. It was truly a historical moment.

Newt and Kenneth Starr also kept looking for everything they could to say ugly about the Clintons. I’m not saying that Bill Clinton’s presidency was perfect. Not at all. But I have never seen such a public scrutiny by the Speaker of the House and his minions. I think that if Newt thinks he is going to be the poster boy for family values that he should have thought about that before divorcing twice and marrying successively younger women. And by the way, didn’t he cheat, too? Hmmm…didn’t he talk about how terrible Bill Clinton was for doing that same thing? Pot, this is kettle and I’m calling you black!

I think we should also remember that, yes, Newt Gingrich brought both sides of the political aisle together years ago. How? When ethics charges were brought up against him. Republicans and Democrats voted to reprimand him. This was the first time in the history of this nation that the Speaker of the House was reprimanded for ethics violations.

Don’t forget that he also shut the government down December 16, 1995 to January 6, 1996, for a total of 28 days. I bring this up because so many Republicans were raising hell when there was the possibility of the SAME thing happening during the Obama administration. If shutting down the government is such a terrible thing, it should have been then as well. People had families to take care of then, too. Why is Newt trying to act like he was such a bad-ass and yet he and others were so condemning to President Obama? Again, pot, this is kettle…

Now for some current things. His issues and his mudslinging. Did you know that he wants to reward girls for graduating high school a virgin? There are a few things that bother me about this. First, how are we going to determine if she is a virgin? Are we going to take her word for it? If so, that is stupid. What teenage girl is going to tell the truth on that one?! Second, what kind of reward are we talking about? Third, isn’t this a little sexist? Are we just offering this incentive to girls? What about boys? Again, how are we going to decide if he is a virgin? That whole trust issue is naïve and stupid. Fourth, what if the girl had been raped? Are we going to actually punish a girl for that? So all in all I hope others can see the stupidity of this issue.

I understand that in politics there will be mud-slinging. There always is. But I would like to see a politician actually have the courage to say what their beliefs are and how they plan to do it. Yeah, yeah, Newt and a former president worked together to balance the budget years ago. How do you plan to do it again? Do you see the problem with health care? Do you see that there are Americans that have no health care coverage that are in dire need of it? Do you see that Americans do not want to hear your mud-slinging? What are your thoughts on education? Are you going to do something about the current state of our educational system instead of just try to pawn kids off on different schools? There should be some educational reform instead of just shifting kids from here to there! The majority of parents do not have time or money to transport kids to different schools! Think about that and keep kids in the schools they are districted for and make the teachers teach at an acceptable level! Dumbing down the system or moving kids is not an option.

Newt Gingrich likes to bring up old catch phrases such as flip-flopping and family values. I think he fits those phrases very well. He pulls them out when they suit his needs. I’m sorry but that doesn’t work for me. I am not anti-Republican but I am not a Newt Gingrich fan and will not vote for him. I hope people will not forget his past record.

Related articles

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Communication

Communication seems to be really hard sometimes. Sometimes we think we say what we really meant and we didn’t. Sometimes people will read things into what we said when we really meant what we said. Sometimes it comes down to miscommunication between the sexes.

What I don’t get about communication is if you see that there is a problem, why not try to fix it? Some people get angry over the problem rather than trying to tackle it a different way. We all have different communication styles so it is a pretty easy concept to get that the way I say something and the way you say it might sound WAY different. But the thing is that when I see that there is a problem, I try to rectify it. I don’t want that miscommunication to fester and become this big ordeal. That’s when it is hard to fix. That’s when it’s hard to say anything at all. I would rather try to fix a problem early on than ignore it or allow it to consume me. I have seen others do the opposite though and with some bad results.

I won’t say that I have always communicated well. There are some people who push my buttons so hard that I want to push their faces with my fist. (No, I don’t do it. Wanting to do something and actually doing it are two different things.) There are also other people who have hurt me to a point where I don’t know what to say. I have tried before with little to no success. It finally made me understand that I won’t always be batting 1000 when it comes to communicating with others. And that is ok.

I now do my best to communicate as best possible and if that doesn’t work then I try a different tactic. If I get a negative response, I take a break until whoever is being negative (me or the other person) can behave appropriately. Then we can see if we can try it again.

I Have Been Watching The West Wing

It was a tv show that ran for a while and had a great cast of characters. The main character was Martin Sheen who played the President of the United States. I realize that the show is a tv show and there are a lot of fictional elements in it. But they did do a lot of research as well to try to keep some things accurate.

What has struck me about the show is how it promoted a respect for the office of Presidency. It recognized bipartisanship. But it still recognized that no matter what your beliefs are that they should show respect to the office and to our Commander-in-Chief. Whether you or anyone else likes it or not, he is still the Commander-in-Chief.

So many of us are quick to point out what the President should or should not be doing. But do we ever truly think about what he deals with on a daily basis? His life and the lives of his family are in danger daily. He has to try to worry about things not only happening within our country but other countries as well. He has to weigh the consequences of any of his actions to see how damaging they would be to the world. Not exactly an easy job.

It is all well and good to sit back and be a backseat driver in politics. But it is a completely different thing when you are the leader of the Free World and are having every aspect of your life scrutinized. I think that before people condemn him and call him the enemy that maybe they should ask themselves if they could handle all of that pressure? It may sound good in theory, but I think in reality it might not be so great. I think anyone who would take that job is extremely brave, no matter what party they’re affiliated with.

God bless America and hail to the Chief!

I Really Don’t Like Ringback Tones

Yeah, I really don’t like ringback tones. They just make me want to scream. I don’t understand why people even use them. It’s a premium feature on phones that you have to pay extra for and the phone holder doesn’t even get to experience it. I wish they did! Maybe then they would stop.

When I want to call someone, I want to call someone. I don’t want to be forced to listen to whatever music they have determined I should listen to. And some of those ringbacktones are so loud. You dial a number and before you know it you are nearly jumping out of your skin because someone is yelling in your ear. I can’t count the number of times I have been startled because of the loudness.

Loudness aside, some of the music just sucks. Obviously everyone can’t like the same music and that is fine. But don’t force me to hear yours. I really don’t want to. I have to make a lot of phone calls in my line of work. I can’t tell you the number of ringback tones I have to endure. It’s like I am being held hostage because I have to contact these people. It’s not an “I really wanna talk to so-and-so” kind of moment. So until they decide to pick up the phone, I am forced to endure horrendous music that makes me wanna scream. I will admit there are occasional times where the music is good and then I am upset that I didn’t get to hear the whole song. Then I am left kind of hanging on. And if I am at work, I can’t just youtube it because I would get in trouble.

Basically, ringback tones are more trouble than they’re worth. Yeah, they were fun when they first came out. Not so much anymore. Now they are just annoying. Can’t we just have a regular ol’ ring?