On Memorial Day, Veteran's Day and so many Fourth's of July, we often stop to ponder the men who died so that we may enjoy various freedoms. We know that men died storming the beaches at Normandy for any freedom you can name. Specific rights were never up for grabs or on the table to be lost, mind you, but the general notion is that, if our soldiers had not won, our rights would have gone away. The Vietnam Memorial- "The Wall"- contains the names of 58,267 men who died in the Vietnam war. We lost that war but not any rights.
We average 85 deaths a day from guns. That's murders, suicides and accidents. Over a year that is 31,025 and that was actually for 2010. It hasn't gotten better. It's estimated there are 300 million guns in the US. Amazingly, the NRA, various gun nutters and highly paid congressmen, believe that this number could be more manageable if there were more guns....
That's that good guys with guns bullshit that makes sense to people sitting in bunkers with cans of beans and a wall full of AR15's but it doesn't really mean much to those of us outside of the bunker mentality. And that's most of us. And that's most of the victims of the gun shootings. The unarmed black men shot by cops. The theater-goers and school children shot by madmen. The spouses murdered by the ones who promised to love them until death do they part. The curious children finding a cool toy... The sad people who give up and want to end it quick. All the people who die because there was a gun handy and someone was willing to use it.
These people- these 85 every day- die for your second amendment right to have guns, to have as many as possible. Does "...shall not be infringed" ring a bell? They die far more directly for an American right than any soldier ever sacrificed his life for. Who honors them though? They are anonymous to the NRA and the gun manufacturers they represent.
Trump and the other wannabes are promising to build a wall on the southern border to keep out illegals and, well, make a few bucks. Let's honor all the US victims of guns here in America by putting their names on that wall. And let's put the names on both sides of The Wall so that people who come here might know what the are getting into.
And let's do it now and let's try to stop the madness before we need to build a wall on the Canadian border just to fit all the names.
2 comments:
I am one of the few who can say they live near the border. The Donald has probably never ventured near one. Unless of course he was trying to squeeze a few casinos out of Indian hands. Guess what? borders have big walls. He acts as if nothing has been done to secure our borders. But unless you electrify them, people will climb over them or tunnel under them. I just wish he was a little more concerned about human trafficking. That's something that comes through our ports and waterways - ask Wally World. But he wouldn't want to disrupt the roll of commerce.
Immigration is currently the only issue Trump has. Everything else is jingoistic trash talk. Truth be told, illegal border crossings are down under Obama and he's deported 2 million people far more than any other president- ever. That it's even an issue at all speaks to how pathetically weak this season's crop of GOP presidential prospects is. People might see the walls as jobs but, for who? You can't let the Unions get stronger so you'd have to get cheap immigrant labor in order for it to be profitable- and if it's not profitable, well, that's fucking socialist....
But, even if you could deport 14 million people (many of them Americans) it would be sooooo ridiculously expensive and frankly, I don't think poor people can afford it! And, since it's physically impossible to tax wealthy people, who is going to pay for it? We could put it on a credit card, I suppose.
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