Guns, Football and Politics (a truly American post)

Dear James, Daniel and Emily,

School Shooting

Another school shooting and all I read in the Gazette is an editorial praising the Sheriff who opposes CSU's ban of guns on school property. In response to the shooting the teachers were far more visible outside of the school this morning when I dropped off the boys. When will this country wake up and realize that an armed populace is not a safer populace, it is less safe? No argument can sway me at this point. I want my children to grow up without having their teachers on the lookout for potential shooters, and having to frisk kids for guns. And the only reasonable solution for that is the Lynyrd Skynyrd line: 'So why don't we dump 'em people, To the bottom of the sea'

Questioning Football

So another former NFL player has died, unknown causes right now, but I am assuming it wasn't due to something like a shooting or accident, since that probably would have been reported by now. This is another player I watched for his entire career, who is only 11 years older than me. And my suspicion is that we will find out that his health suffered as a result of playing football for so long, and indirectly led to his early death. And things like this lead me to question how much longer I can continue to condone this sport, can I morally justify watching people take year off their lives for my entertainment? The Answer for now is yes, but I don't know how long that will last. And I am getting more and more certain I will not allow my kids to play football unless it becomes a huge huge problem to not allow them to play.

Amazing Republican Hypocrisy

So this week we saw what is now typical hypocrisy in the Senate, when a Jobs bill that is mostly Tax Cuts was opposed by the same Republican party whose sole approach to every problem is cut taxes. And in the House a bill that ends Anti-Trust examptions for Health Insurance company will be opposed by the very same politicians who preach that the Free Market is the only solution to all of our ills. I just wonder how these people can look themselves in the mirror anymore? Of course maybe that's not issue once you sell your soul to the Republican party backers (just kidding).