Run, Mary Run

This is from The Brilliance. 

Some may find it offensive, but the story of the birth and childhood of of Jesus was anything but peaceful.  It would be easy to write additional verses to this song, lyrics dealing with hunger, homelessness, and exclusion.  The ability to hear the contemporary truth of scripture through careful and faithful contextualization--ancient and modern--transforms people and systems. 

May we have ears to hear. 

Like far too many children today, violence, discrimination, fear, poverty and life "on the run" characterized the earliest experiences of this special baby.

As we worship the Christ child, may we really see him in the children who suffer today, near and far.

Public sold out!

National leaders need to listen to the public about simple, common sense gun control.

 Whatever the intention of the framers of the Second Amendment, I believe we can agree it did not include the right of mentally ill persons, violent criminals or people listed on a terrorist watch list to bear arms.

 Why, none of those people could even join a "well-regulated militia"!

 In keeping with that spirit, here's how the dollar bounces in the U. S. Senate.

Let me tell you, this behavior doesn't play well in the inner city where I live.

http://www.demandaplan.org/

This graphic video speaks for itself.

 No need to add a word.

Time now for action!

Guns and cities

I can't speak for people who reside in rural areas of our nation. 

However, I can speak from an urban context.

 The ready availability of guns, including semi-automatic weapons designed for military and law enforcement actions, destroys our confidence and sense of safety. Tragically, the presence of these weapons all too often destroys families and permanently disrupts lives.

These realities explain why the President's words during his state of the union speech last Tuesday night meant so much to me.

 How about you?

 

The violence must stop!

Anyone who lives in an urban neighborhood should be concerned about the sheer numbers of firearms and weapons that are present on the streets, in the traffic jams, the homes, the business and on countless persons we meet daily.

Clearly, we need a multi-faceted approach to deal with the violence that ruins so many lives every day.

 Gun control regulation will not be the total answer, but it must be part of any answer we come up with, and we need answers now.

 Let me know what you think of the video below.

 I hope you'll get involved in the effort to make our communities safer and more livable.

 

Gun Violence

Preventing Gun Violence in Our Nation

By Neera Tanden, Winnie Stachelberg, Arkadi Gerney, and Danielle Baussan | January 13, 2013

After last month’s senseless shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut—in which 20 children and 6 adults were shot and killed—we need to immediately address the gaps in our current law that enable mass shootings, as well as the everyday shootings that on average claim the lives of 33 Americans each day.

In this issue brief we recommend 13 legislative proposals and executive actions to prevent gun violence in our nation.

These actions are targeted in the following three key areas:

• Better background checks 
• Taking military-grade weapons off the streets and out of criminals’ hands 
• Better data, better coordination, and better enforcement 
•  We discuss these actions in further detail below.

To read the entire report click here.  

Gun violence: Enough

Anyone who lives or works in an inner city community understands something of the problems created by the presence of so many firearms.  Factor in the growing number of rapid fire, semi-automatic weapons, equipped with 30-round clips and you begin to visualize the terror of the problem we face with a gun policy that doesn't provide enough regulation.  

I know the problem extends beyond just controlling the trafficking of weapons.  Cuts in mental health services funding over the past 30 plus years plays a role as well. 

But there is no denying, guns are a huge part of the public safety crisis.  

What follows is a statement  appearing in USAToday on January 7, 2013 from former Arizona U. S. Representative Gabby Giffords and her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly about their new effort to press for real reform in the nation's gun control efforts.  

What do you think?  

Giffords and Kelly: Fighting gun violence

Our new campaign will launch a national dialogue and raise funds to counter influence of the gun lobby.

This country is known for using its determination and ingenuity to solve problems, big and small. Wise policy has conquered disease, protected us from dangerous products and substances, and made transportation safer. But when it comes to protecting our communities from gun violence, we're not even trying — and for the worst of reasons.

I was shot in the head while meeting with constituents two years ago today. Since then, my extensive rehabilitation has brought excitement and gratitude to our family. But time and time again, our joy has been diminished by new, all too familiar images of death on television: the breaking news alert, stunned witnesses blinking away tears over unspeakable carnage, another community in mourning. America has seen an astounding 11 mass shootings since a madman used a semiautomatic pistol with an extended ammunition clip to shoot me and kill six others. Gun violence kills more than 30,000 Americans annually.In response to a horrific series of shootings that has sown terror in our communities, victimized tens of thousands of Americans, and left one of its own bleeding and near death in a Tucson parking lot, Congress has done something quite extraordinary — nothing at all.

An ideological fringe

Special interests purporting to represent gun owners but really advancing the interests of an ideological fringe have used big money and influence to cow Congress into submission. Rather than working to find the balance between our rights and the regulation of a dangerous product, these groups have cast simple protections for our communities as existential threats to individual liberties. Rather than conducting a dialogue, they threaten those who divert from their orthodoxy with political extinction.

As a result, we are more vulnerable to gun violence. Weapons designed for the battlefield have a home in our streets. Criminals and the mentally ill can easily purchase guns by avoiding background checks. Firearm accessories designed for killing at a high rate are legal and widely available. And gun owners are less responsible for the misuse of their weapons than they are for their automobiles.

Forget the boogeyman of big, bad government coming to dispossess you of your firearms. As a Western woman and a Persian Gulf War combat veteran who have exercised our Second Amendment rights, we don't want to take away your guns any more than we want to give up the two guns we have locked in a safe at home. What we do want is what the majority of NRA members and other Americans want: responsible changes in our laws to require responsible gun ownership and reduce gun violence.

We saw from the NRA leadership's defiant and unsympathetic response to the Newtown, Conn., massacre that winning even the most common-sense reforms will require a fight. But whether it has been in campaigns or in Congress, in combat or in space, fighting for what we believe in has always been what we do.

Let's not be naive

We can't be naive about what it will take to achieve the most common-sense solutions. We can't just hope that the last shooting tragedy will prevent the next. Achieving reforms to reduce gun violence and prevent mass shootings will mean matching gun lobbyists in their reach and resources.

Americans for Responsible Solutions, which we are launching today, will invite people from around the country to join a national conversation about gun violence prevention, will raise the funds necessary to balance the influence of the gun lobby, and will line up squarely behind leaders who will stand up for what's right.

Until now, the gun lobby's political contributions, advertising and lobbying have dwarfed spending from anti-gun violence groups. No longer. With Americans for Responsible Solutions engaging millions of people about ways to reduce gun violence and funding political activity nationwide, legislators will no longer have reason to fear the gun lobby. Other efforts such as improving mental health care and opposing illegal guns are essential, but as gun owners and survivors of gun violence, we have a unique message for Americans.

We have experienced too much death and hurt to remain idle. Our response to the Newtown massacre must consist of more than regret, sorrow and condolence. The children of Sandy Hook Elementary School and all victims of gun violence deserve fellow citizens and leaders who have the will to prevent gun violence in the future.

Gabrielle Giffords is the former Democratic U.S. representative from Arizona. Mark Kelly is a former astronaut.

ENOUGH!

Children mowed down in their classroom.

Elementary school children.

And teachers at school doing their jobs to guide, educate, shape and encourage our precious national treasure.

Enough!

The time has come, and it's long overdue, for serious action to control the distribution of weapons in our nation.

There should be no argument whatsoever about outlawing automatic assault weapons completely.

Over 40% of the weapons sold in the U. S. today are distributed from Internet websites that require no registration or qualification process.

Have we completely lost our minds?

Is this what the framers of our constitution meant by the Second Amendment?

No, it is not!  

Things have degenerated to the point that a plausible suggestion would be to legalize drugs and outlaw weapons. Such dual action would likely drive the level of violence down so far in this nation that we actually might find a better way to live and a safer place to raise our children.

There is no sensible argument remaining today for the purchase, marketing, manufacture or ownership of automatic assault weapons.

ENOUGH!

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