Comments on: Barack Obama is Lurking in Your Bushes!

By: Catherine (Sarah's sister)

Catherine (Sarah's sister) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:26:46 +0000

Hi Keith,

Calling myself a “folkie” would be a bit of a stretch - my music tends more towards indie/experimental rock/pop. But thank you for the station suggestion - I’ll definitely check it out. I rarely move the dial away from WNYC.

Catherine

By: Rick

Rick — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:04:25 +0000

I once heard this example of the way a child thinks,
If it’s mine , it’s mine. If I think it’s mine, it’s mine. If want it to be mine , it’s mine. If no one else is looking at it, it’s mine. and so on.
This is how some people see racism, simply replace the word “mine” with “racism” It may have nothing to do with reality, just perception. If more of one race are in jails, it’s not racism, it’s who commits the most crime. I saw an article recently about teen girls and STD’s. 25% of them have or have had an STD. The article went on to say that the rate of 40% of teen black girls have or had STD’s. I expect to hear mental giants, like Sarah intially mentioned, to blame this on racism, instead of personal responsibility. People seems to look at the world through racism colored glasses, just to see what they want to see. Sure, there has been, is, and will continues to be racism around our world. I want to let you in on something, there will always be. Check the history of mankind, it has not changed very much in the past 8 or 10 thousand years. We just seem to be a bit nicer and quieter about it in present history, at least in some parts of the world. If we are unable to do anything, it must be the MAN holding me down, black man, white man, corporate man, government man, boss man, old man, rich man , etc. In reality, it’s time for all of us to look at what the problem really is, it’s easier to blame someone or something else instead of taking personal responsibility for our life. This applies to guns, work, education, or racism. There are countries where you cannot improve your lot in life very much, this is not one of them. The example of the man Sarah gave inially is someone “selling” discord for a living, like plowing a field and planting weeds, not really very productive.

By: Keith

Keith — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 04:37:45 +0000

This was an awful incident. Surprisingly perhaps, quite a few cops, even old timers, are not particularly skilled with guns. I have trained with quite a few. Many are very devoted to practice and put in a lot of time, sometimes on their own dime. Others have very little interest and do the minimum that the department allows them to get by with. I don’t understand it, as it would seem to put ones own life in jeopardy, as well as everyone elses. Makes me nervous too.

By the way, I see from your one of your sister’s posts that you are a folkie in NYC. This is my kind of music. Do you listen to WFUV - its my favorite station of all time.

Keith

By: Catherine (Sarah's sister)

Catherine (Sarah's sister) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 04:12:03 +0000

Hi Keith,

(note: the link below was the first one I found when I searched for this story - it’s not necessarily an endorsement or not of The Guardian).
I was thinking about the fact that, even though police officers are supposedly well-trained in the use of a gun, things like this still happen:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/nov/27/usa.julianborger

I am not referring to this story to discuss its racial aspects. I am referring to this story because I don’t understand the necessity of 50 bullets to kill, let alone subdue, one man.
I would say that it’s especially the young, new inexperienced cops with guns that make me nervous, but in this case, it was actually the senior officer who fired 31 of the shots.

Catherine

By: Keith

Keith — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 03:45:34 +0000

Hi Catherine,
You said: “But, you know what, there are also plenty of cops I see walking the street, guns swinging from their hips, and I don’t feel better knowing that their fingers are so close to a loaded trigger.”

I’m not sure what you mean here. Can you explain a bit?

Thanks,
Keith

By: Keith

Keith — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 03:39:37 +0000

Hi Nick,
Good post. I’m also in NYC area and also came from the midwest, though from a relatively anti-gun family. I began doing some skeet and target shooting in my 20’s, but never hunted until my 40’s. I think you are very right about the culture and perception of guns in cities and about young men who do not have older men in their lives. On one point I disagree in part. While guns obviously make it easier to kill than having no weapon at all, I think its pretty clear that hardened criminals do rather well even without guns, especially when they are stronger or outnumber the victim. And as I noted above, the non-gun murder rate in Taiwan is higher than the total murder rate in the US. The other thing that occurs to me is that people who really want to do a lot of killing quickly often use bombs rather than guns, though guns are quite effective too, especially in gun-free zones where little or no resistance is possible. I have often wondered what proportion of criminals’ guns come from what sources. I’ll post if I can find any info on this.

Keith

By: arlo

arlo — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 03:23:24 +0000

This reminds me of an article that suggested every time a man had sex with a woman was another example of male oppression. While it was invisible to most of us, the learned Women’s Studies PhDs were able to spot it and decry it for what it was. Every baby born was another indication of man’s tyranny over women. Oh! The humanity…

Great work if you can find it. Instead of doing actual work, I think I’d have a better life doing the “raising social consciousness” gig.

By: Catherine (Sarah's sister)

Catherine (Sarah's sister) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 02:33:22 +0000

Thank you, ny nick, I thought your post was very thoughtful and informative.

By: John D

John D — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 02:14:07 +0000

Catherine, guns are things that you never need until you do. Kind of like insurance.

I have lived all over the world. I have carried guns, I own guns, but I have never had to use one, other than on the range. I hope never to have to. But if the day, or night, comes when I need one, I have it.

By: Pantera

Pantera — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 01:23:55 +0000

hey Maybe this proffesors right and everyone in the united states is a closet racist. That’s why we have a black man who seriously looks like he could be president.

By: ny nick

ny nick — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 00:15:29 +0000

About the issue of guns. I can see both sides of it because I grew up in Nevada where guns were part of the culture. Everyone I knew had a gun by the time we were about 10. Mostly we hunted ducks with shotguns but as we got older we all hunted deer and elk and owned more powerful rifles. Safety was stressed by the adults who taught us to hunt. If you were unsafe in any way while out hunting the adults would take your gun which was emasculating. You would be seen as a baby who couldn’t keep up with your peers. Not a pleasant experience for teenage boys trying to become men. That usually worked. Now, I live in NYC and the culture of the gun means something a whole lot different here. Guns in the hands of young men who do not have meaningful adult male role models are a recipe for violence. Young males are wild and adventurous and need to have older men around them who enforce some basic code of conduct. Sadly, that’s not just not how things are in some places. Guns are not the cause of violence but the do allow some people to cause enormous amounts of damage that they would not otherwise be able to do. I’m not sure what the answer is. I know that the two sides of this issue are way to simplistic in their positions. We shouldn’t think we can control what a responsible person does with his right to bear arms but we also shouldn’t think that the guns that end up being used by teenagers in drive bys ended up there by magic. There is a supply chain that runs from manufacturer to end user and in there somewhere is an unscrupulous seller. Not always, but more often than not.

By: Keith

Keith — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 23:29:41 +0000

On the issue of familiarity vs. fear: One of my kids was terrified of learning to drive. She was afraid that she would cause an accident. One of the things we discussed during that period was that even though cars are extremely dangerous as she correctly perceived, perhaps the most dangerous thing she will ever encounter, she had the ability to learn how to handle them in a safe manner. In the end it took familiarity with driving and confidence in her own ability to convert my daughter’s fear of cars into respect.

As much research has shown, people’s assessment of the actual risk of various things is way off. The number of accidental deaths in the US due to cars is between 30 and 40 thousand a year. If I recall correctly, the number of accidental deaths due to guns is very far down the list of causes of accidental death. For young children its fewer than the number of bath tub drownings I believe. The vast majority of gun related deaths are intentional (that is, occur during crimes), not accidental, and associated with drug-related crime. As the English have discovered, enacting draconian gun laws that remove most guns from private hands does not make anyone safer, except criminals, something they very much appreciate of course. Its interesting that the rate of violent crime in UK is now the highest in the developed world, higher than in US. Criminals when interviewed say that guns in the hands of civilians is a very substantial fear. This keeps the number of hot burglaries in the US far below the rate in UK. Hot burglaries you will recall are when the homeowner is at home - a very dangerous situation for the homeowner. Its also interesting to note that the rate of non-gun murders in some countries, Taiwan (at least during the 90’s) for example, is higher than the total murder rate in the US. One of the problems with disarming ordinary citizens is that criminals, with or without guns tend to be very tough. A gun is typically the only thing that gives an ordinary citizen half a chance.

Keith