Thoughts On Orlando
There seems to be a lot of pressure to respond to the shooting in Orlando on Saturday night. The Moderator threw something together (a prayer that was more complete than his prose sentiment), and yet someone's eyes seemed to skip over the five letters that are at the heart of this whole affair. On re-examination, they were there, but the first knee-jerk was "you didn't say it right!".
Pulse is/was a gay bar. It was a meat/meet market - show up, drink up, hook up, get up, and wake up the next morning. The man with a Middle-Eastern-sounding name called 911 to say he pledged allegiance to ISIS, then went off and created mayhem. The police who tried to stop him didn't get off a clear shot before many, many people were dead or wounded; I don't want to think about how many were possibly blue-on-blue because of their desperation to bring him down and target-lock on him, without consideration for what/who was behind him. Fifty dead. Fifty-three wounded. We know this much, and that many others might not survive yet because of their wounds.
Because it was a man with a Middle-Eastern-sounding name, fervent cries go up against Muslims again. Of course ISIS claims him! His act pushes all who identify as Muslim closer to them, as non-Muslims lose their minds again.
Because it was an act committed with an assault rifle, the Second Amendment comes into question again - should ordinary folks be allowed to purchase military-grade weaponry? In fact, as I watch certain YouTube channels, I see assault weaponry that never saw a military hand! People aren't buying military surplus M-16's; they're getting AR-15 clones and derivatives that were built last week by gunsmiths all over the States. Should this continue? "They're coming to take our guns!!" The truth is, anyone can become a "terrorist". Anyone can become a shooter. Anyone can become a killer. It's not about the guns. It's about security, and the feeling of security. And America is creeping ever closer to the point where they will trade freedom for security (and, to paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, achieve neither).
Because the targets were homosexual, it's an assault on SSA folks as a community, as a subsection of humanity, or however you want to look at it. Responses must be supportive of the LGBTQ folks... which is why our good friends at Westboro Baptist and the shitstain in Arizona are pissing me off again. "It's the wrath of God!" they scream. Homosexuality is put on a level with pedophilia, which of course it is not!!!, and while they skirt around praising God directly for taking their heathen, blasphemous lives, it's pretty clear where they fall. Arizona would gladly march every homosexual in America into either a gas chamber or in front of a firing squad, and WB will be out to picket every funeral with a "message of God's love" that strangely falls on the ear sounding a hell of a lot like hate, bile, and vomitus.
America is going to be nuts over the next few days. Trump will blast off against all Muslims again (he should really check the history of Christians - maybe only a few of us have gone really nuts over the centuries, but the brush can be rather broad!). Hillary is frothing (I think rightly, personally) about firearm sales without background checks - internet sales, gun show sales, selling one of yours to a buddy, that kind of thing - and the screams from the open-carry states are starting to swell. Obama apparently didn't say something right in his first response - omitted something that observers felt was critical. Justin has said something, as have other world leaders. From what I understand, though, most of it boils down to, "Do you not get it yet, America?!" And no, they do not.
My heart goes out to all those who just want to go out to a club and have a good time, maybe meet someone, maybe get some, maybe find someone truly special, and yet there's the tinge of fear that will be at the edge of everything for the next while: what if the next nutcase comes here? He chose a gay bar; he could have chosen a straight bar just as easily, as the meat/meet market mentality would be pretty similar. But it's a fear bomb, plain and simple - "No one is safe, no one is exempt, no one can control what will happen from one moment to the next."
But to the families in Orlando and elsewhere who are now dealing with this loss: Hang in there. Most of us are praying for you.
Pulse is/was a gay bar. It was a meat/meet market - show up, drink up, hook up, get up, and wake up the next morning. The man with a Middle-Eastern-sounding name called 911 to say he pledged allegiance to ISIS, then went off and created mayhem. The police who tried to stop him didn't get off a clear shot before many, many people were dead or wounded; I don't want to think about how many were possibly blue-on-blue because of their desperation to bring him down and target-lock on him, without consideration for what/who was behind him. Fifty dead. Fifty-three wounded. We know this much, and that many others might not survive yet because of their wounds.
Because it was a man with a Middle-Eastern-sounding name, fervent cries go up against Muslims again. Of course ISIS claims him! His act pushes all who identify as Muslim closer to them, as non-Muslims lose their minds again.
Because it was an act committed with an assault rifle, the Second Amendment comes into question again - should ordinary folks be allowed to purchase military-grade weaponry? In fact, as I watch certain YouTube channels, I see assault weaponry that never saw a military hand! People aren't buying military surplus M-16's; they're getting AR-15 clones and derivatives that were built last week by gunsmiths all over the States. Should this continue? "They're coming to take our guns!!" The truth is, anyone can become a "terrorist". Anyone can become a shooter. Anyone can become a killer. It's not about the guns. It's about security, and the feeling of security. And America is creeping ever closer to the point where they will trade freedom for security (and, to paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, achieve neither).
Because the targets were homosexual, it's an assault on SSA folks as a community, as a subsection of humanity, or however you want to look at it. Responses must be supportive of the LGBTQ folks... which is why our good friends at Westboro Baptist and the shitstain in Arizona are pissing me off again. "It's the wrath of God!" they scream. Homosexuality is put on a level with pedophilia, which of course it is not!!!, and while they skirt around praising God directly for taking their heathen, blasphemous lives, it's pretty clear where they fall. Arizona would gladly march every homosexual in America into either a gas chamber or in front of a firing squad, and WB will be out to picket every funeral with a "message of God's love" that strangely falls on the ear sounding a hell of a lot like hate, bile, and vomitus.
America is going to be nuts over the next few days. Trump will blast off against all Muslims again (he should really check the history of Christians - maybe only a few of us have gone really nuts over the centuries, but the brush can be rather broad!). Hillary is frothing (I think rightly, personally) about firearm sales without background checks - internet sales, gun show sales, selling one of yours to a buddy, that kind of thing - and the screams from the open-carry states are starting to swell. Obama apparently didn't say something right in his first response - omitted something that observers felt was critical. Justin has said something, as have other world leaders. From what I understand, though, most of it boils down to, "Do you not get it yet, America?!" And no, they do not.
My heart goes out to all those who just want to go out to a club and have a good time, maybe meet someone, maybe get some, maybe find someone truly special, and yet there's the tinge of fear that will be at the edge of everything for the next while: what if the next nutcase comes here? He chose a gay bar; he could have chosen a straight bar just as easily, as the meat/meet market mentality would be pretty similar. But it's a fear bomb, plain and simple - "No one is safe, no one is exempt, no one can control what will happen from one moment to the next."
But to the families in Orlando and elsewhere who are now dealing with this loss: Hang in there. Most of us are praying for you.