YEAH, THEY DO

     "Guns don't kill people, people do."
So we have heard and seen time and time again, but here is the truth - guns kill people. If guns were not so many out there then perhaps we would have fewer killings, certainly fewer mass killings. Yes, they are inanimate objects, but the same as we do not want people wandering about with massive butchering knives, we do not want people wandering around with assault rifles and weapons.
     There is another fallacious statement that seems to be making the rounds and supposedly proved itself in Texas - that the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Yes, a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy, but the point is that the bad guy should not have the gun in the first place! And by the time the good guy used his rifle, 26 people were dead and countless others were wounded, some grievously. And a family was almost totally wiped out with a hero of a mother who gave her life trying to shield her four children.
     We are the only western country which allows so much gun freedom. Again, yes to the Second Amendment but also yes to simple and common sense restrictions. I honestly do not know why it is so difficult to understand that and look how easy it is to slip thru the cracks. Go to a gun show. Order on line, deep web, or have someone forget to put in some info on a bad dude, or even buy in a state where there is no background check or one that disappears with the passing of some green bills from one to another. And these guns kill people! They certainly do.
     How many more mass killings are we going to have and what will be the end result. Will we turn a blasé eye to them, ho humming as we tsk tsk and turn the page as so many do on the constant huge bombings in Afghanistan and Iraq? Are we going to become a country which eats her citizens? Weapons are deadly and they become even deadlier in the hands of the untrained, the mentally ill, the evil and the careless. They kill, yeah, they do. So return to the lists and pictures of those killed in Vegas, in Texas, the little ones, the young men and women starting out, the parents, the grandparents and ask - where does it end?
     I do not expect great results when we have a madman say that it is a mental issue, that the person was deranged. Yes, anyone who contemplates killing so many and then acting on that is mentally deranged but the point is that without that assault weapon there would not have been such a slaughter. So the point is, the question is - why are we taking our lead from one who himself needs help in the mental area, who cannot think a thought all the way thru without digressing into off balance remarks. Answer me that one. If you can.
     What else is new under the sun for us? Well, let's see. Aha, the new oh so beneficial - NOT - tax plan, the welfare for the wealthy, wherein the middle class will be paying millions more in taxes and that number only goes up as the years go on, but those rich dudes, oh, how happy they will be buying their umpteenth house or yet another fancy plane. And yet, the Republicans in the House keep on a pushin', blind to their own self destruction, to the total ruination of a once grand and honorable political party. 
     Today Trump is at 36% and all that comes to mind are the words from the limbo song - 'how low can you go". It seems there is no downward limit for Trump, no bottom, as all his numbers grow in the wrong direction. So what do we do? We fire a woman who flipped him or his motorcade, the bird. So what? Free speech, but her company decided that they own her private time for the salary they paid her and they fired her. Yet others do the same or similar thing; it is unfortunately part of America political reality today, so do we now have to censor ourselves according to our bosses? Are we losing freedom of speech or is it granted only to the extremists of the alt right? Where does this end? How do we end this without giving away all our rights.
     And all this bother over one whose close compatriots are under a deep shadow re Russian collusion. Concern among Americans polled is showing an increase and people are not so able to brush this off. Are we allowing people in the public eye to sell our country down the river for the sake of their adding to their obscene wealth yet more millions and billions? Has the world come to this - tribal loyalties, and wealth loyalties and the whole nationalism, nativism, that these people push are just a thin disguise for what - wealthism? Selfishness? Maximum greed? You pick the title. The name does not matter, only the grievous disloyalty to the people they are supposed to serve.
     I am so tired of all the crap that keeps getting pushed down our throats and seeing pictures of Melania in yet another obscenely expensive outfit standing there like a statue, no facial expression, simply does not cut it - not for me nor for many others.
     So yeah, guns kill people. People kill people. Indifference kills people. Laziness and selfishness kill people. Indifference kills people. Hey, Rohingya anyone? Human trafficking anyone?
     It is a bitter and harsh world out there but at least we should try to improve it where we can. We need to start somewhere, anywhere. Be active and get out the vote and vote oneself when the time comes. Stand up to hatred and selfishness. If we do not, no one else will do it for us.