Red Writings

Give me that old time depression

Give me that old time depression

After the ride ended and I wished him a safe deployment, I thought about how important it is to get out in the world and meet people different from yourself.

I thought about what kind of person the President might be, what kinds of things he might say, if he actually met the people he so frequently and casually denigrates—if they were not just abstract concepts to him but actual, flesh-and-blood human beings. You can’t have even the brief human encounter I had today and then call someone’s home a “shithole”. You can’t make a connection with another person and then think that their family should be barred from entering the country or deported just because they were born in another place.

This is the fourth month-long “kick the can down the road” resolution Republicans have tried to pass since October because they can’t put together a long-term budget that will pass Congress, despite their majorities in both houses. This shutdown, if it occurs, will be the first time workers will be furloughed by a government run by one party that controls both the Presidency and Congress.

wanting to work hard to make the world (or at least my corner of it) a better place

and

After hearing George Bush’s strong condemnation of nativism and white supremacy, and contrasting it with Trump’s weak attempts at the same (followed by his infamous “both sides” qualifications), I thought about why it was that he and his followers so strongly disliked militant opponents of oppression, like Antifa.

It’s not the violence. I would understand if they disliked Antifa because of violence. I’m wary of them because of it, although I don’t condemn militant resistance to hate as much as I condemn violence in the name of hate (and let’s not forget which side it was that drove a car into a crowd of protestors). But it’s not the violence, because Trump and many of his followers love violence.

Trump boasted that he could “shoot somebody” and not lose any supporters. He suggested that maybe “Second Amendment people” could do something about Hilary Clinton. He told law enforcement officers not to be “too nice” with suspects, suggesting some rougher techniques they could use. He giddily ordered security officers to physically remove protestors from his campaign rallies. Trump loves violence—and so do many of his followers. I heard plenty of jokes about driving cars into protestors before it actually happened. So if it’s not violence they condemn, what is it?

First of all, nowhere does the amendment say, or imply, that citizens should be allowed to own whatever kind of weapon they so desire. What it says is that no law can make ownership of arms entirely illegal (this applied only to the fed gov until 2010, when the 2nd A was incorporated under the 14th to apply to state govs as well in McDonald v Chicago). The fed gov and state govs are entirely within their rights to make certain types of weapons illegal, or to make them illegal in certain places (schools, for instance) and to certain groups of people (felons and people with specific mental health issues). That is a good thing, especially because the 2nd A doesn't even mention guns specifically--it says "arms". A nuclear weapon is an armament. I hope we can all agree at least that no civilian should be allowed to keep or bear a nuke. Second, the original intention behind the 2nd A was to ensure that states could maintain a "well-regulated militia". That was especially important at a time when our national military was not yet the most powerful force ever assembled. Militias are pretty much moot now, but even when they were considered essential, the Framers still thought that a group of guys with guns should be "well-regulated".