[Magdalen] Right now: Paris.

[Lynn Ronkainen]

There is a point here and I'm not sure exactly what. It caused me to ponder the statistic I read that more people in the U.S. die each year in gun violence than people who died in 911. If some in Europe say that this assault in Paris is the start of WW3 what *does* that say about our inability to work towards solving our own homegrown tragedy of gun violence that is a tinderbox of things left unsaid and unresolved and has begun to escalate in multifaceted sectors of our society? 
I am in despair that any meaningful gun control will ever happen in this country without a 'civil war' breaking out and creating the scenario that all the folks living in remote enclaves have predicted and have been waiting for. 

Remembering that life is lived one day at a time I still think I often have my head in the sand about these issues. 
peace
Lynn

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 15, 2015, at 11:49 AM, James Oppenheimer-Crawford <oppenheimerjw at gmail.com> wrote:

​
> On Sat, Nov 14, 2015 at 8:00 PM, Jim Guthrie <jguthrie at pipeline.com> wrote:
> 
> We are all appalled at the Paris attacks -- as we have been right along by
> suicidal bombers and killers. Not that the death toll in all these attacks
> in a given year is less than the number of gun deaths in the United States,
> but it's those Jihadi Terrorists and not the NRA Crowd.

WTF "we" are you talking about?  Do you refer to "we" as those living in
your house?

I do not have any idea what the attitude in your house might be, as to
right or left, democrat or republican, rational or pretentious pontifier;
if you're talking about your own house, fine.

Do you refer to "we" as all inhabitants of your home city/town? of the USA?
the world? Or are you referring to those who are members of this list?

I don't think you can really make the claim for all of "us", no matter what
brand of "us" you are attempting to mean.
If you are talking about all inhabitants of the USA, or any geographic
region, obviously we know there are folks whose attitudes are appalling,
and those people neither read nor care a whit what you (or I) think, do, or
say, so it seems a waste of bandwidth to bother discussing them.

If, however, you are attempting to refer to members of this list, then you
are so wrong as to lose all claim to any credibility. Obviously, most if
not all of the members of this list are absolutely appalled by the handgun
deaths happening in the USA on a daily basis, and your willful ignoring of
this rather obvious fact strongly suggests you just want to make noise
rather than point to some kind of potential way we might do things
differently. It's a good bet that you're angry about some stuff and this
has very badly clouded your judgment.


> As for ISIS -- the thing that got people's attention was their beheadings
> (including Americans). Let's keep in mind that ISIS has beheaded 65 people
> that we know of this year. Saudi Arabia has beheaded 175 -- and is about to
> behead and crucify a man for exercising what we would call "First Amendment
> Rights." S long as we elect leaders who don’t give a whit about human
> rights and acquiesce to beheadings and crucifixions, exactly what moral
> right do we as Americans have to be appalled at all this?

I personally am appalled by the events in Saudi Arabia, although I think if
you were informed of the history of what's transpiring there, you might not
be so smug in your rush to judgment, but then, seeing as it's you, and you
seem to know everything better than anybody else (or at least that appears
to be your opinion of yourself), maybe not.

Counseling to help you address the anger within, which is poisoning most of
your correspondence, would be an excellent idea.

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy

​