Political Nutrition

I hate guns. And I am not afraid to say that. I'm really not big on pandering to gun owners. All of this malarkey about "hey I respect your right to own a gun" stuff isn't for me. I really don't. I've said I understand it. I tolerate it. But I just will not say I respect it. Why are we so afraid to make guns a necessity rather than a status symbol? Soldiers need them. Cops need them. But personally, I'm neither and I see no purpose in my life for them. If I were afraid, and felt the need for protection, I might get a gun. And I'd hate it. I'd hate having to own one. I'd hate the fact that I was forced to live in a society that pushed me to that point. I'm hoping never to get there. I've gone over half a century without one. Never touched one. Never wanted to. There are those who do need them though. Victims of abuse certainly. Of course if society did more to protect them, maybe they wouldn't. Just the other night a young woman i...

When a neighborhood has a "drug" problem... we go after the drug dealers. Well our neighborhood, The USofA, has a gun problem, and we ought to go after the gun dealers. It's just that simple. Let's start talking about who sold the gun, who manufactured the gun, who made the bullets. Let's name names. Let's start shaming them into a new business. Since that's what it is. It's a business. And it kills. Used to be cool to smoke. Sophisticated to smoke with a martini in your hand. And socially acceptable to do both, in someone else's living room... then drive home. Do it now and you'll never be invited back. Used to be exciting when there was a fight on the playground. Now it's grounds for expulsion. Used to be ok to refuse to serve someone who might be different. Different color. Different body type. Differently abled. Now it's against the law. So what changed? We did. We decided enough was enough and we as a society didn't w...

I was doing the ordinary today. Making a bowl of tuna salad. Carefully putting the exact amount of mayo. Exact amount of just right sized celery. Chopping and stirring to the perfect balanced texture. Exactly as my daughters like it. I thought about it because they come home from college in a few days so it was natural to think about how they always told me to make it. Truth is my younger daughter's been telling us what to do since she was knee-high. I know. We all know where this is going. How many parents in Newtown are going to face these ordinary, mundane everyday tasks and suddenly realize the magnitude of what they will no longer have. They won't have those moments. Many of us think in big terms. They won't see their child graduate. Get married. Have children. But it's the everyday that perhaps for me would be devastating. If I no longer could use that litte tuna moment in my life to remind me how much I want to see my daughters home again. And I will. I am ...

Enough Enough Enough. Seems like I was just here writing this last week. Oh wait I was. I thought I'd spent all the tears I had over this. Seems not. Seems our society just cannot seem to understand the value of a human life. The gun worship goes on, and the senseless slaughter continues. I repeat myself here, I know. But yesterday I felt something I should never have felt more than once in a lifetime. That gut wrenching moment when you hear there's a gunman on a rampage, and your children may be in danger. It was as if I was right there with them. I knew what that felt like. I felt it the day a madman picked up a 9mm in Tucson and began his slaughter of the innocent. Yesterday, too many parents had that moment. And for many it will never end. They didn't get the whoosh sigh of relief when their kids were back in their arms. They never will. I cried more tears yesterday than I have in a lifetime. And then came the pundits.... this isn't the time to talk about gun...

The following rant may offend some folks. Ooops. Sorry. But try taking it in the spirit in which it's written and you may just appreciate some of the irony. Maybe not. Here it comes... last chance to stop reading. Ok all you "It's Merry Christmas" not happy holidays people. Posting your signs on Facebook declaring it's CHRISTMAS. Or that you will express whatever greeting suits YOU. That's fine for you isn't it. Because it seems the holidays must be all about YOU. It isn't very generous of spirit now is it. Nope, not so much. Better think this through. CHANNUKAH STARTS TONIGHT. So no, it's not Merry Christmas this week. Not even next week. Right now, we're going with Happy Holidays. Because we aren't exclusionary. And of course Channukah is followed quickly by the Winter Solstice (you know, the whole tree thing) and then Christmas which is quickly followed by Kwanzaa, then Mawlid-al-Nabi (Mohammad's birthday) in January as well...