People kill people!
Yah! With guns!
You might as well say that cigarettes don't cause cancer, people cause cancer don't you know?
The reality is that if we didn't have cigarettes there would be a lot less dead people, and if we didn't have guns there would be a lot less dead people.
I had a really crazy day this past friday that somehow involved both cancer and guns, and their respective damages.
I had an afternoon appointment at the clinic for my 5 year checkup. I knew this was the big one because upon a clean bill of health the protocol usually sets you free for good. I went in with a great sense of optimism and after a complete exam, including the dreaded scope up the nose, that optimism was proven well founded. I felt 10 feet tall as I headed for the exit for the last time, but just at the last moment I decided to do a quick tour of the facility just to celebrate. I went up and down all the halls, bounced up and down the stairs, said hello to everyone I met, and just generally basked in my good fortune.
Then I caught something out of the corner of my eye. I don't know what attracted me to the TV set hanging in the corner but something did, and so I stopped and listened to some impromptu press conference that a cop in a big hat was holding. I had no idea what it was about as I caught only the end of it, but I heard the cop ask the media to leave the families of the victims alone. My curiosity getting the better of me I asked another gentleman what it was all about, and of course you know what that was.
I can honestly say that I don't ever remember an occasion where my mood was turned completely upside down as fast as that moment. I went from feeling like the king of the world one minute, to sitting in my car crying within the time it took me to walk the 20 metres.
I assure you that I am not a bleeding heart, left wing, anti everything, kind of guy (just ask Michael) but I can also assure you that I don't see the logic in guns any more than I see the logic in cigarettes. They both just seems senseless to me. The one involves a product that is 100% proven to be carcinogenic, and the other sends lethal projectiles flying through the air at supersonic speeds.
I'm not against guns. I'm against the attitudes that we develop in relation to guns. When weapons become readily accessible to one and all, we stop treating them with the respect they need.....NEED!
Times have changed and we as a society have not changed with them. We can criticize the Americans all we like but I don't really think we're that much different in Canada. We just happen to have less mental health problems than Americans and I think it is undeniable that mass murder of children is not just about guns, but also about mental health
I have been blessed with circumstances that have indeed generated a huge change in my personal attitude over the years. I give you the story of my evolution.
When I was a teenager I had my very own Ruger semi-automatic rifle with a 12 shot clip. It sat in the corner of my bedroom next to the bullets. We lived on the farm and we only shot ground hogs and fence posts. It seemed natural.
Forty years later I live in the country again but this time the very thought of having such a thing in my home scares the living crap out of me. My grandchildren live next door, and the lady in front of us runs a day care out of her home. Can you imagine the kind of prison I would commit myself to if I had a lethal weapon in my home? Don't take advantage of this by coming around to rob me, but we never lock our doors here. I would have to start doing so, just to make sure no one came in to steal my gun, and do something bad with it. I would start having bad dreams about that gun I'm pretty sure. I think as a society the preponderance of available weapons does the same thing. It makes us vulnerable. It commits us to a philosophical prison that does the exact opposite to what many believe it does. It takes away our freedom, our safety, our peace.
Like wise I once thought smoking was natural. After all I did it for 20 years. I now live in awe of the idea that for those 20 consecutive years I purposely drew smoke into my lungs some 20 to 30 times a day....every day...for 20 years!!! Mind boggling!!!
Of course the gun thing is a much a more complex topic, compounded by the fact that gun sports are many and varied, and I happen to believe have many healthy aspects to them. I don't know the answer but I'm pretty sure that I know the direction we need to go. I think the idea of owning a gun for any reason other than sport is absurd, and that we need to start making it extremely difficult for people to do so. Beyond making ownership difficult through regulation, another idea may be to tax the ownership. Not just the original purchase itself, but then some kind of insanely high ongoing "property" tax. I would bet you dollars to donuts that this idea would meet with the approval of the vast majority of Americans and Canadians if he had a vote today.
In closing, if you decide to quit smoking your first task is to get rid of the cigarettes!
And if you find my thoughts provocative just wait. Pretty soon I'm tackling abortion! I have that one figured out a whole lot better. I just need a little encouragement to lay it out there.
On a brighter note I need to give "try not" kudos to Old John who yesterday ran 18.6 kms on the very same leg he almost lost many moons ago. The funny thing is John, I just this minute had a flashback of sister Mary coming out of the back room at the hospital and relaying the doctors verdict that in the long run your biggest handicap was gonna be that knee. I guess he was right eh....or then again maybe he was wrong?
"When a person has a gun, sometimes their mind clicks that this thing will win arguments and straighten people out."---Bill Cosby
"People always come up to me and say that my smoking is bothering them... Well, it's killing me!"---Wendy Leibman
Love
Peter
Yah! With guns!
You might as well say that cigarettes don't cause cancer, people cause cancer don't you know?
The reality is that if we didn't have cigarettes there would be a lot less dead people, and if we didn't have guns there would be a lot less dead people.
I had a really crazy day this past friday that somehow involved both cancer and guns, and their respective damages.
I had an afternoon appointment at the clinic for my 5 year checkup. I knew this was the big one because upon a clean bill of health the protocol usually sets you free for good. I went in with a great sense of optimism and after a complete exam, including the dreaded scope up the nose, that optimism was proven well founded. I felt 10 feet tall as I headed for the exit for the last time, but just at the last moment I decided to do a quick tour of the facility just to celebrate. I went up and down all the halls, bounced up and down the stairs, said hello to everyone I met, and just generally basked in my good fortune.
Then I caught something out of the corner of my eye. I don't know what attracted me to the TV set hanging in the corner but something did, and so I stopped and listened to some impromptu press conference that a cop in a big hat was holding. I had no idea what it was about as I caught only the end of it, but I heard the cop ask the media to leave the families of the victims alone. My curiosity getting the better of me I asked another gentleman what it was all about, and of course you know what that was.
I can honestly say that I don't ever remember an occasion where my mood was turned completely upside down as fast as that moment. I went from feeling like the king of the world one minute, to sitting in my car crying within the time it took me to walk the 20 metres.
I assure you that I am not a bleeding heart, left wing, anti everything, kind of guy (just ask Michael) but I can also assure you that I don't see the logic in guns any more than I see the logic in cigarettes. They both just seems senseless to me. The one involves a product that is 100% proven to be carcinogenic, and the other sends lethal projectiles flying through the air at supersonic speeds.
I'm not against guns. I'm against the attitudes that we develop in relation to guns. When weapons become readily accessible to one and all, we stop treating them with the respect they need.....NEED!
Times have changed and we as a society have not changed with them. We can criticize the Americans all we like but I don't really think we're that much different in Canada. We just happen to have less mental health problems than Americans and I think it is undeniable that mass murder of children is not just about guns, but also about mental health
I have been blessed with circumstances that have indeed generated a huge change in my personal attitude over the years. I give you the story of my evolution.
When I was a teenager I had my very own Ruger semi-automatic rifle with a 12 shot clip. It sat in the corner of my bedroom next to the bullets. We lived on the farm and we only shot ground hogs and fence posts. It seemed natural.
Forty years later I live in the country again but this time the very thought of having such a thing in my home scares the living crap out of me. My grandchildren live next door, and the lady in front of us runs a day care out of her home. Can you imagine the kind of prison I would commit myself to if I had a lethal weapon in my home? Don't take advantage of this by coming around to rob me, but we never lock our doors here. I would have to start doing so, just to make sure no one came in to steal my gun, and do something bad with it. I would start having bad dreams about that gun I'm pretty sure. I think as a society the preponderance of available weapons does the same thing. It makes us vulnerable. It commits us to a philosophical prison that does the exact opposite to what many believe it does. It takes away our freedom, our safety, our peace.
Like wise I once thought smoking was natural. After all I did it for 20 years. I now live in awe of the idea that for those 20 consecutive years I purposely drew smoke into my lungs some 20 to 30 times a day....every day...for 20 years!!! Mind boggling!!!
Of course the gun thing is a much a more complex topic, compounded by the fact that gun sports are many and varied, and I happen to believe have many healthy aspects to them. I don't know the answer but I'm pretty sure that I know the direction we need to go. I think the idea of owning a gun for any reason other than sport is absurd, and that we need to start making it extremely difficult for people to do so. Beyond making ownership difficult through regulation, another idea may be to tax the ownership. Not just the original purchase itself, but then some kind of insanely high ongoing "property" tax. I would bet you dollars to donuts that this idea would meet with the approval of the vast majority of Americans and Canadians if he had a vote today.
In closing, if you decide to quit smoking your first task is to get rid of the cigarettes!
And if you find my thoughts provocative just wait. Pretty soon I'm tackling abortion! I have that one figured out a whole lot better. I just need a little encouragement to lay it out there.
On a brighter note I need to give "try not" kudos to Old John who yesterday ran 18.6 kms on the very same leg he almost lost many moons ago. The funny thing is John, I just this minute had a flashback of sister Mary coming out of the back room at the hospital and relaying the doctors verdict that in the long run your biggest handicap was gonna be that knee. I guess he was right eh....or then again maybe he was wrong?
"When a person has a gun, sometimes their mind clicks that this thing will win arguments and straighten people out."---Bill Cosby
"People always come up to me and say that my smoking is bothering them... Well, it's killing me!"---Wendy Leibman
Love
Peter
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