Response to a friend's post about the 2nd Amendment...and thoughts on parenting
"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4069761537893819675#
Suzanna Gratia-Hupp's last statement is that the unelected need guns to protect themselves against the elected. Bizarre. We have ballot boxes to protect ourselves from them.
The point of the second amendment is to keep a free state...one where officials are elected in free and fair elections; to protect ourselves from those who would take our country from us (think Great Britain not the very politicians we put in office).
As for Gratia-Hupp's statement referring to what I gather is using semi-automatic rifles as an appropriate means of defending one's property against looters, I cannot imagine how this would be defended by the Second Amendment. First, it states that a "well-regulated militia" will secure of our free state. There is nothing well-regulated about a man on his roof with a lethal weapon. Nor could he be seen as a militia.
As for duck-hunting, this is not addressed either, unless you imagine the militia out in the woods on duty with nothing to eat but wild ducks and nothing to kill them with except their rifles.
All this gets me thinking...
The larger problem is not one of guns. (She is correct, as the adage goes, "guns don't kill people; people kill people.") The larger problem stems from the motivation of anyone to take the life of another human being and more deeply from our understanding of death and life and the meaning of it all. We are, like it or not, deeply dependent on one another in this world- dependent on those we love and those we hate and those we fail to recognize as our fellow humans.
As a mom, I am constantly convicted by the words and actions of my children- they have capacity for the entire gamut of blessings and cursing. We all do. Good and evil are equally available and more than occasionally disguised as one another. In my role as mother, I must take responsibility for teaching my children the lifelong skill of training their own mind rather than lamely attempt to control their actions while they reside in "my" house. Sure, I could make them behave in any way I wanted (Skinner), but there is no use in that.
We ALL must learn to "take every thought captive" so that we are at peace and instruments of peace in the world.
I cannot take my children's thoughts captive, but I can teach them to. As adults, if we did not receive the guidance we need, there are ways of obtaining it now. Not only is there a plethora of self-help practitioners, each of us has the capacity to know, love, and correct ourselves.
At the heart of it all, I believe that pleasure is the point of life.
To enjoy and bestow the pleasures afforded us on this earth must surely please the creator also.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4069761537893819675#
Suzanna Gratia-Hupp's last statement is that the unelected need guns to protect themselves against the elected. Bizarre. We have ballot boxes to protect ourselves from them.
The point of the second amendment is to keep a free state...one where officials are elected in free and fair elections; to protect ourselves from those who would take our country from us (think Great Britain not the very politicians we put in office).
As for Gratia-Hupp's statement referring to what I gather is using semi-automatic rifles as an appropriate means of defending one's property against looters, I cannot imagine how this would be defended by the Second Amendment. First, it states that a "well-regulated militia" will secure of our free state. There is nothing well-regulated about a man on his roof with a lethal weapon. Nor could he be seen as a militia.
As for duck-hunting, this is not addressed either, unless you imagine the militia out in the woods on duty with nothing to eat but wild ducks and nothing to kill them with except their rifles.
All this gets me thinking...
The larger problem is not one of guns. (She is correct, as the adage goes, "guns don't kill people; people kill people.") The larger problem stems from the motivation of anyone to take the life of another human being and more deeply from our understanding of death and life and the meaning of it all. We are, like it or not, deeply dependent on one another in this world- dependent on those we love and those we hate and those we fail to recognize as our fellow humans.
As a mom, I am constantly convicted by the words and actions of my children- they have capacity for the entire gamut of blessings and cursing. We all do. Good and evil are equally available and more than occasionally disguised as one another. In my role as mother, I must take responsibility for teaching my children the lifelong skill of training their own mind rather than lamely attempt to control their actions while they reside in "my" house. Sure, I could make them behave in any way I wanted (Skinner), but there is no use in that.
We ALL must learn to "take every thought captive" so that we are at peace and instruments of peace in the world.
I cannot take my children's thoughts captive, but I can teach them to. As adults, if we did not receive the guidance we need, there are ways of obtaining it now. Not only is there a plethora of self-help practitioners, each of us has the capacity to know, love, and correct ourselves.
At the heart of it all, I believe that pleasure is the point of life.
To enjoy and bestow the pleasures afforded us on this earth must surely please the creator also.
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