CONNECTING THE DOTS
Frosty Wooldridge
More About: Politics: General ActivismARIZONA AND AMERICA: LOCKED AND LOADED—GUNS, SPEECH AND MADNESS
Last week, while heading a ‘Congress on your Corner’ meeting
in a parking lot in Tucson, Arizona, House member Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) suffered a head-shot from a
deranged 22 year old youth named Jared
Loughner. In total, the gun-toting walking
insane-asylum killed six and wounded 13 people.
A bright light of energy, intellect and personality in the
House of Representatives, Ms. Giffords struggles for her life in an Arizona
hospital. Loughner sits in a jail cell with the demons swirling
in his head.
Media pundits scream from the tops of their lungs for gun
control, more police and better social interaction.
But wait, let’s examine America’s current obsession with
violence, killing and murder:
The majority of Americans support(ed) two wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan for the past 10 years with deaths in excess of 1 million Iraqis and
Afghanistans, 2.5 million refugees, plutonium loaded bombs that create birth
defects for decades and countless bodily carnage for the hundreds of thousands
of wounded:
“Even with the lower confirmed figures, by the end of 2006,
an average of 5,000 Iraqis had been killed every month by US forces since the
beginning of the occupation. However, the rate of fatalities in 2006 was twice
as high as the overall average, meaning that the American average in 2006 was
well over 10,000 per month, or over 300 Iraqis every day. With the surge that
began in 2007, the current figure is likely even higher.” Sources:After Downing
Street, July 6, 2007
Title: “Is the United States Killing 10,000 Iraqis Every Month? Or Is It More?” Author: Michael Schwartz; AlterNet, September 17, 2007. Title: “Iraq death toll rivals Rwanda genocide, Cambodian killing fields” Author: Joshua Holland.
Title: “Is the United States Killing 10,000 Iraqis Every Month? Or Is It More?” Author: Michael Schwartz; AlterNet, September 17, 2007. Title: “Iraq death toll rivals Rwanda genocide, Cambodian killing fields” Author: Joshua Holland.
In other words, Americans condone mass killing on an
unimaginable scale. They don’t question it while their tax dollars support the oxymoron
of “War against Terror.” Americans lack even the slightest clue as to
the mayhem and suffering they caused all those families from all that
death. They supported 2.2 million
Vietnamese deaths in our 10 year Vietnam war while only 58,300 of their kids
returned home in coffins. After 1975, another
175,000 combat troops committed suicide when they returned home to falter
against their own demons. War scrambles
a man’s mind. Yet, this society
continues to operate as if war must continue in cycles, i.e., Korea, Vietnam,
Desert Storm, Afghanistan and Iraq. No
doubt, our politicians and generals will contrive another war at some point in
the future.
Thus, today in America, we condone and encourage incredible
violence. If you visit any packed video
arcade at any mall in America, you will see our youth shooting, stomping,
murdering, slashing and killing endless numbers of human beings on the video
screen. A visit to the cinema in the
same malls depicts half of all movies featuring gratuitous killing.
Those same kids return home to video games on their own
computers like “Doom” and “Zombies killing spree” where they see peoples’ heads chopped off among
other atrocities. By the time they
finish with murdering and mayhem on their computers, they click on their
televisions with “CSI: Miami”; “CSI: Los Angeles”; “CSI: New York” ; “Detroit 187” ; “Law and Order” ; “Criminal
Minds” ; “Vampire Diaries” and many other shows featuring diabolical violence.
Any doubts that a percentage of those youth will turn into
cold blooded murderers?
In the January 24,
2011 Time Magazine, Michael Grunwald wrote a piece, “Fire Away!” Every year in America, 31,224 Americans die
from guns. Police intervention, assaults, murderers and suicides account for 100,000
Americans being shot annually. A mind-numbing
17,352 Americans shoot themselves to death annually. Eight children die from gun violence every
day in America. A whopping 86 people die
from gun violence 24/7!
Where cities grow more compact, tempers grow more irritated,
people shoot each other with uncommon consistency.
If they don’t shoot each other, they drink themselves into a
stupor before jumping into a 4,000 pound missile and drive down the highway to
kill another 26,000 people (1982 figures) annually , now down to 13,000 people in
2009, with the biggest bullet in America: a car!
Millions drive drunk everyday in America!
If we can’t secure a gun, we use a knife! In 2008, even as gun killings fell, the
number of killings committed with knives or other “cutting instruments” rose 50
percent in New York City. Thousands of
Americans kill others with knives annually.
Let’s face it; as we compact ourselves more and more into
cities and urban areas, we face accelerating human densities not normal for the
human animal.
“Tell me what you will of the benefactions of city
civilization, of the sweet security of the streets—all as part of the natural
upgrowth of man towards the high destiny we hear so much of. I know that our bodies were made to thrive
only in pure air, and the scenes in which pure air is found. If the death
exhalations that brood the broad towns in which we so fondly compact ourselves
were made visible, we should flee as from a plague. All are more or less sick; there is not a
perfectly sane man in all of San Francisco.”
John Muir 1874
As we allow more “parenting” by television violence, mall viciousness-video
arcades, movie brutalities and aggression within homes from angry parents—a
growing percentage of our citizens cannot help but express themselves as the violence template that we condone.
What can we do to obviate such U.S. atrocities as Tucson, Columbine,
Texas University, University of
Virginia, Oklahoma, Unabomber, ad infinitum?
1. Stop
killing people in ‘enemy’ countries by withdrawing from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Leave their civilizations to their people to solve their problems by their cultures
and choices. After 10 years, more ‘war’
is not the answer! This would bring a
measure of peace to the world ‘mind’ and human race.
2. Take
the $12 billion monthly war bill and inject it into America’s school systems to
foster education and better mental health assessments. Discover at-risk children at an early age for
remediation and support to families. (As
a retired math/science teacher, I know the value of student/teacher ratios.)
3. Better
to build a healthy young man or woman than try to repair a broken one like
Loughner or Lindsey Lohan or any of our tortured military with PTSD.
4. Normalize
cities by moving toward “stabilized population policies.” We cannot keep up with our youth in our
overpopulated and overwhelmed city schools where violence, isolation and
frustration become the norm.
5. We
must question, debate and move toward emotionally healthier television. I grew
up on “Father Knows Best” ; “My Three Sons” ; “Leave it to Beaver”; “Captain
Kangaroo” ; “Mr. Rogers” ; “The Muppets” . Offer intriguing shows that entertain by
stretching the mind and imagination.
6. Provide
high school students with mandatory family, relationship, child rearing,
compatibility and means courses to move them toward a positive future with
children.
Finally, what have you done to
stop the Iraq and Afghanistan wars?
Answer: nothing, right?! That’s why they continue 10 years later! This Republican form of government is not a
spectator sport. You provide the vital
ingredient to make it work. Why does
violence continue on such a horrific and prolific level in the USA? Answer: we apathetically set the paradigm and we reap
the obvious results. Your convictions
without action equals nothing but horrific entertainment.
##
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2 Comments in Response to ARIZONA AND AMERICA: LOCKED AND LOADED—GUNS, SPEECH AND MADNESS
I sorted the garbage this morning and found this one.
Frostytute’s navigation of violence and madness was on course until he detoured to "What can we do …" portion and once again bumped on his nemesis – the false issue of overpopulation that in his mind would cause the destruction and disappearance of the United States from the map! All the violence and madness is kind of sick because to him it’s always due to overpopulation, a falsehood the public now puke instead of swallow hook and sinker!.
"… [S]tabilize[d] population policies …" he bawled. "We cannot keep up with our youth in our overpopulated and overwhelmed city schools where violence, isolation and frustration become the norm. [emphasized]
Once again, he is caught lying, as usual. At least in high school, classroom-overcrowding policy is strictly enforced in the U.S. It hampers education. Here is a high school model that belies overcrowding practice in school – in compliance with existing policy. I am printing it here in toto …
I.
The Alleged Current Overcrowding
1. Are we currently experiencing overcrowding at the high school?
No. According to our analysis of documents provided by the school administration, the high school is well managed and has ample room for population growth. The overall average class size at the high school is 19 (this excludes homeroom, special education, basic skills, independent study, physical education, performance groups, and health). Even with no construction, the average class size would only go up modestly. There are 152 sections of under fifteen students, or 18% of the total sections.
By track, average class size is eighteen in Advanced Placement classes, 20 in Accelerated classes, 19 in College Prep A classes, 16 in College Prep B classes, and 15 in the few combined track classes. By department, average class size is 21 in English, 20 in history, 20 in math, 19 in science, 17 in world language, and 16 in the combined fine & related arts, business, and music category. These are all excellent ratios, especially given that the district has highly motivated students with few discipline problems, and they compare well to private schools.In addition, unlike at the middle school, there are no significant pockets of circulatory congestion at the high school.
2. Are we currently experiencing overcrowding at the middle school?
Not in classrooms. First, as one would expect given that an addition was recently completed, there is no overcrowding in the middle school classrooms. At the middle school overall average class size, is a perfectly appropriate 20 (this excludes homeroom, special education, basic skills, independent study, physical education, performance groups, and health). Even with no construction, the average class size would only go up modestly. By subject, average class size is 20 in language arts, 20 in math, 21 in science, 21 in social studies, 19 in world language, and 21 in the cycle courses. These are excellent ratios for a public school in a suburban area with no student discipline issues of note. There are no academic classes with more than twenty-six students at the middle school. Consistently, no one seriously claims that overcrowded classrooms are a current problem at the middle school.
WeLoveMillburn.com. November 6, 2005 http://www.welovemillburn.com/faq.html
One small step we can take to back us out of the mess you've described is
to bring back the draft.
With the re-introduction of the draft the number of people who will be concerned of our military status will greatly increade. Right now it seems the
only folks concerned are the defense industry and the people fighting these
wars.
Thanks and Good Luck