By SJ
Otto
After 11
people were shot at the Tree of Life synagogue, in
Pittsburgh ,
this nation then goes through the usual pattern of hand ringing and other
predictable routines. There is a call by various politicians and citizens for
new gun laws. Every politicians in the nation calls out for a discussion on the
various gun laws and possible changes to the gun laws.[1] As
can be predicted, these calls fall short of any action and they go silent
shortly after the passion of the event (usually a shooting at a church or
school) cools down. By now, no one has followed through on any kind of change.
It’s a pattern and it has persisted now for years with absolutely no
variations. No new gun laws have been enacted and we can expect nothing to
change.
Here in Wichita there are groups of people who want to roll back
the Kansas gun laws that allow people to carry guns without a permit. A
lot of people want to require permits before a person can carry a gun. I oppose
that because changing it would allow those who have the money for permits to
carry a gun while poor people could not carry a gun. The permits are expensive.
That means only wealthy people can carry guns if those changes are made. I
would rather see the efforts made to roll back the “stand your ground” laws.
Those laws seem to shield a reckless person so they can carry a gun. As it
stands, a person can shoot the wrong person or kill them over a frivolous
reason. Just recently
a white man shot an unarmed black man in
a fight over a parking space.
Another
problem that may contribute to these church and school shootings is the
division and politically charged attitudes that politicians are creating.
People are getting fire up from the political rhetoric from speeches and
written opinions.
Consider
President Donald Trump’s tweets and speeches at his rallies. At first Trump
agreed to “ratchet down” the rhetoric that has enflamed people across the
country. The nation is deeply divided and people are passionate about their
political points of view. Some say that such divisions are responsible for
those who have acted out violence, such as Cesar
Sayoc who allegedly mailed out all those pipe
bombs to Democrats and supporters of Democrats. Then there is the Robert
Bowers, who allegedly shot up the Tree of
Life synagogue. Acts of hate against Jews and other minorities seem to be way up over the last few
years.
At first
Trump said he would “ratchet down” his rhetoric against the Democrats and
minorities. Some
folks are blaming Trump for the rise in hate crimes and verbal attacks by
far-right hate groups who feel at ease to attack minorities, such as gays,
blacks and foreigners. As Trump crosses this country trying to rally his
supporters to support Republicans who are running election campaigns this
season, his rhetoric has gotten nasty. For example Trump
tweeted:
“There is great anger in our
Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the
news. The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People, must stop the open
& obvious hostility & report the news accurately & fairly. That
will do much to put out the flame...”
Trump
just can’t seem to shut his big fat mouth or his thumbs as he tweets his angry
and hateful messages. It is not surprising he has made a cluster f**k out of
trashing foreigners and aliens who want to come here, such as that
big caravan that is coming from Central America, but he has also attacked
the news media, calling them “fake news” and “the enemy of the people.”
There are
legitimate reasons to want to put the brakes on people who want to come here
illegally and join our nation. Trump goes way overboard. He accused George
Soros and other Democrats of paying people to come here from Central
America . Such an accusation is totally false and completely
absurd. He is trying to use these baseless accusations to motivate his base of
support to get out and vote. He is trying to create an atmosphere of fear and
hate. It is working.
We all
have problems with the mainstream news media from time to time. But to insist
that they are “fake news” and “true enemy of the people” is a ridiculous
accusation. These are obviously made because Trump has thin skin. He can’t
handle criticism. The news media may make mistakes, but they have reported on
his idiot actions and his downright stupidity and there is nothing fake about
that. We can be thankful that the news media is watching Trump and reporting on
his mistakes. If any institution is an “true enemy of the people” it is him. We
would all be better off if Trump just kept his big mouth shut about a lot of
the things he talks about.
We all
know Trump is not going to do that. He will keep on tweeting and mouthing off
on things he either knows nothing about or he just makes things up. As long as
he is president we can count on Trump to fan the passions of hateful people who
take their politics just too passionately.
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