Today the Senate voted no to all four gun violence prevention bills. They said it's okay to let suspected terrorists, domestic abusers, and felons have easy access to guns. So nothing changes. We're right back where we were as if nothing ever happened. Only something did happen. Lots of things happened. It's so disgusting and so frustrating.
If you're not aware, there were two bills regarding background checks (one Republican, one Democrat) and another regarding not allowing suspected terrorists to purchase firearms (one Republican, one Democrat). You'd think the Democrats would vote yes on their bills and no on the Republican bills and vice versa. And as bad and ineffective as that would be, it would be worse if some senators voted no on all four bills. Which is what both of my Arizona senators did this evening.
So I'm drinking wine straight out of the bottle.
It's ludicrous. On my bike ride yesterday, I was pondering how screwed up everything is and how people tease they'll move to Canada if the election doesn't go their way. It's so crazy that I decided to join the party and look up the mileage to the Canadian border from my house. Inspired by all the insanity and Phil Dunphy (Why not? It's Crazytown we're living in!), I set a DailyMile goal of reaching 1,369 fitness miles in 2016. Because that's how far away Canada is. I'm currently at 300-something miles so I have my work cut out for me. Cheer me on. And don't contribute to any craziness. Oh what the hell. Go ahead!
Monday, June 20, 2016
Saturday, June 18, 2016
Worky McWorkerson
My husband works hard. He's dedicated. He's a valued employee. Sometimes I think he's a workaholic. Yesterday morning, he couldn't deny it. Because when I walked into the kitchen after my bike ride, he was working before he went to work.
Thursday, June 16, 2016
Well That Didn't Work.
It's ironic that the very day I decide to walk away from the anger, frustration, and conflict, the friggin' NRA robocalls us.
Unlike the days of yore, I no longer run to answer the home phone. It's usually never anyone but telemarketers, so I let it ring or quickly hang up when I see the number is no one I know. You can imagine my surprise when I saw "NRA" on my caller ID on the very day I'm hosting a anti-NRA documentary screening at my house. OMG. How do they know?
Nah, I knew they couldn't possibly be calling about that. I figured they were calling because Brian is a registered Republican--proof positive that people from both sides of the aisle can coexist and even live in domestic bliss with thoughtful discussion and compromise. But what the NRA said in their phone message this morning! Wow. I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't hear it with my own ears. They really are trying to instill fear into all of us so that we buy and keep lots and lots of firearms in our homes.
You no doubt know of yesterday's filibuster, in which Senator Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, literally stood up to gun violence for fifteen hours. Due to his tenacity, the Senate agreed to vote on two things: 1) whether to ban people on the government's terror watch list from obtaining gun licenses and 2) whether to extend background checks to gun shows and internet sales. That's it. That's all they're voting on. I've already contacted both my senators to encourage them to vote in favor of these reasonable public safety measures.
The NRA, though, called to encourage us to call our senators (even gave us their phone numbers) urging them to oppose "any new gun control laws." They went on to say that "gun control proponents are actively working with Senators Schumer and Feinstein (a sponsor of the effective bill), former NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg, the media, and the White House to ban semi-automatic firearms, register gun owners, and secretly deny Second Amendment rights without due process." While I don't know whether that's happening or not, what I do know is that the Senate is not voting on any of those three things right now. But words like ban and register and deny rights are all Second Amendment defenders need to hear to immediately call their senators and tell them to "oppose any new gun control laws." Even the ones that make sense?
Like I said, I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't heard it with my own ears. That's fear mongering at it's worst. They should be ashamed. But I know they're not because they know fear mongering works. The NRA will probably get exactly what they want. Then more people will get shot. And more people will buy guns to protect themselves. They always seem to win.
They do have a lot of supporters and a lot of money, but I usually believe in the underdog, especially when the underdog is on the right side of reason. Maybe you want to host your own private screening party with Brave New Films, too.
Unlike the days of yore, I no longer run to answer the home phone. It's usually never anyone but telemarketers, so I let it ring or quickly hang up when I see the number is no one I know. You can imagine my surprise when I saw "NRA" on my caller ID on the very day I'm hosting a anti-NRA documentary screening at my house. OMG. How do they know?
Nah, I knew they couldn't possibly be calling about that. I figured they were calling because Brian is a registered Republican--proof positive that people from both sides of the aisle can coexist and even live in domestic bliss with thoughtful discussion and compromise. But what the NRA said in their phone message this morning! Wow. I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't hear it with my own ears. They really are trying to instill fear into all of us so that we buy and keep lots and lots of firearms in our homes.
You no doubt know of yesterday's filibuster, in which Senator Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, literally stood up to gun violence for fifteen hours. Due to his tenacity, the Senate agreed to vote on two things: 1) whether to ban people on the government's terror watch list from obtaining gun licenses and 2) whether to extend background checks to gun shows and internet sales. That's it. That's all they're voting on. I've already contacted both my senators to encourage them to vote in favor of these reasonable public safety measures.
The NRA, though, called to encourage us to call our senators (even gave us their phone numbers) urging them to oppose "any new gun control laws." They went on to say that "gun control proponents are actively working with Senators Schumer and Feinstein (a sponsor of the effective bill), former NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg, the media, and the White House to ban semi-automatic firearms, register gun owners, and secretly deny Second Amendment rights without due process." While I don't know whether that's happening or not, what I do know is that the Senate is not voting on any of those three things right now. But words like ban and register and deny rights are all Second Amendment defenders need to hear to immediately call their senators and tell them to "oppose any new gun control laws." Even the ones that make sense?
Like I said, I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't heard it with my own ears. That's fear mongering at it's worst. They should be ashamed. But I know they're not because they know fear mongering works. The NRA will probably get exactly what they want. Then more people will get shot. And more people will buy guns to protect themselves. They always seem to win.
They do have a lot of supporters and a lot of money, but I usually believe in the underdog, especially when the underdog is on the right side of reason. Maybe you want to host your own private screening party with Brave New Films, too.
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
Put a Little Love in Your Heart
Tomorrow I'm taking a break from Facebook. It's too much right now; you'd think we'd learn a lesson about hate and intolerance over the weekend, but things seem to be even uglier now. There is so much arguing, so many opinions flying, and not enough reasonable and rational suggestions being made on everything from religion to guns to politics to bathrooms to rape to gorillas and now alligators. I've managed to stayed silent on there, but now I don't even want to read any more of it.
To counteract all that, the kids and I invited some pals to visit the Ben's Bells studio in downtown Phoenix today. We painted and made some beads for bells that will be hung around town as reminders to spread kindness. But even there, it wasn't as calm and quiet as usual with all the construction projects going on right outside the door. It seems that everywhere I go there's so much noise, literal and figurative.
I just need a little peace, so I've been listening to the best Jackie DeShannon has to offer tonight. It's helping. Empathy is a powerful force. I wish we all felt it more because we really are all in this together.
I Googled "songs about kindness" and found quite a few more inspiring songs if you're interested:
To counteract all that, the kids and I invited some pals to visit the Ben's Bells studio in downtown Phoenix today. We painted and made some beads for bells that will be hung around town as reminders to spread kindness. But even there, it wasn't as calm and quiet as usual with all the construction projects going on right outside the door. It seems that everywhere I go there's so much noise, literal and figurative.
I just need a little peace, so I've been listening to the best Jackie DeShannon has to offer tonight. It's helping. Empathy is a powerful force. I wish we all felt it more because we really are all in this together.
I Googled "songs about kindness" and found quite a few more inspiring songs if you're interested:
- "One" by U2
- "All You Need is Love" by the Beatles
- "What the World Needs Now" by Jackie DeShannon
- "Man in the Mirror" by Michael Jackson
- "Imagine" by John Lennon
I probably would have made an excellent hippie.
Maybe you're laughing at me and my coping strategies, calling me naive or a simpleton, or think I live in a fantasy world if I think world peace would ever be possible. I don't really believe we'll all ever agree, but I wish we'd peacefully agree to leave each other alone when we disagree.
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
Doing Something
The past three days have been really emotional. Though I don't personally know anyone involved in the latest and deadliest mass shooting, I became a gun violence prevention advocate last year as a proactive measure. Like most, I never want to know anyone on a list of victims, and making an effort to be a strong voice of reason against irrational, yet powerful, forces isn't easy or much fun, frankly.
I've tried hard to distance myself from reports, but there's no getting away from it. I heard bits and pieces, but I didn't try to learn more. I finally read about Orlando only yesterday. After watching the Sandy Hook tragedy unfold in real-time on CNN, I found that I don't want to know anything until the truth comes out. In December 2012, they were reporting so much speculation and rumors that I didn't know what to think or how to process it. I still don't fully know how to process something like that, but it's better to wait for facts because I think that allows the processing to be, at the very least, true.
So what do I think? You already know. I'm not saying anything now that I haven't been saying for years. What I say is fact. Guns kill people. Assault weapons kill lots of people fast. The best way to stop this trend of violence is to pass stricter gun laws. The killing might not stop immediately because there are so many guns out there already, but don't we owe it to ourselves and each other to, if not stop, make it far more difficult for dangerous people to get guns, buy boatloads of ammunition for high-powered military-style weapons, and shoot us? Isn't allowing a person suffering from depression and having a bad day to immediately purchase a gun so that they can take it home and shoot themselves a bad idea? Shouldn't there be strict, federal laws that prevent gang members in Chicago, for example, from having easy access to guns from Indiana and Wisconsin? Just as wearing a seatbelt or securing a child in a carseat are laws, shouldn't locking up your guns so that children don't unintentionally shoot themselves or others be signed into law?
If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then please speak up in the interest of public safety. Because doing nothing really does nothing.
What's that? I need a gun to protect myself, you say? So if I get shot when I'm out and about, it's my fault because I wasn't armed? No. That America is not my America. I refuse to blame an unarmed gun violence victim. I value the freedom to not be shot over the freedom to bear arms. It's bad enough I feel vulnerable without my smart phone in my purse, but I don't want carrying a firearm on my person to be the only way I feel safe when I go to the grocery store, my kids' schools, and out to dinner.
You see, I'm self-aware. I believe that if I was in a high-pressure, active shooter situation, the first thing I would do is run. If there was nowhere to go, I would play dead. The last thing I'd want to do is reach for a gun and start shooting, too. It's difficult to believe that more bullets flying would make anyone safer unless luck is involved. Also, in a situation like that, it's impossible to know who's a "good" shooter and who's a "bad" shooter. In Roseburg, Oregon, there were at least two armed men who never drew their guns because they didn't want law enforcement to mistake them as the shooter.
Sadly, because our laws are the way they are and my twelve-year-old is not permitted to carry a gun, nor would I encourage that, nor would she want to, I had a difficult conversation with her the other day. I couldn't believe the words were coming out of my mouth, but I knew they should so they did. I told her that if she is ever anywhere and someone starts shooting then she should run as fast and as far as she can. I went on to say that if there was nowhere to go then she should play dead. "If I'm with you, I'll be on top of you. If I die, then don't move; act like you're dead too." I'd never been more embarrassed to be a human being in my life.
Then today, I took the kids to the movies. When it was over, we started to stir and gather our things, and a man who was already standing said in a very authoritative voice, "Stay seated." I looked at him, froze, and in the span of seconds thought, What's he going to do? Do we turn and run? Crawl out of here? What kind of gun does he have? Is this it? Is this how it ends?
Turns out he was a chaperone for a kids camp. He was speaking only to his group of campers, but his menacing tone was what I'd expect from a white male shooter in a movie theater. I guess I have mass shooters, Congress, and the NRA to thank for that moment of paranoia, but the chills and elevated heart rate stayed with me for awhile.
A few weeks ago, I signed up to host a house party for Robert Greenwald's new Brave New Films documentary, Making a Killing: Guns, Greed, and the NRA. I invited a lot of people to come over this Thursday for a private screening, seventy people to be exact. Two are coming. Three are maybes. Those aren't good numbers. I might even end up watching it alone. But I'll keep trying to get people to consider striving for a safer country. I'll continue not doing nothing.
I've tried hard to distance myself from reports, but there's no getting away from it. I heard bits and pieces, but I didn't try to learn more. I finally read about Orlando only yesterday. After watching the Sandy Hook tragedy unfold in real-time on CNN, I found that I don't want to know anything until the truth comes out. In December 2012, they were reporting so much speculation and rumors that I didn't know what to think or how to process it. I still don't fully know how to process something like that, but it's better to wait for facts because I think that allows the processing to be, at the very least, true.
So what do I think? You already know. I'm not saying anything now that I haven't been saying for years. What I say is fact. Guns kill people. Assault weapons kill lots of people fast. The best way to stop this trend of violence is to pass stricter gun laws. The killing might not stop immediately because there are so many guns out there already, but don't we owe it to ourselves and each other to, if not stop, make it far more difficult for dangerous people to get guns, buy boatloads of ammunition for high-powered military-style weapons, and shoot us? Isn't allowing a person suffering from depression and having a bad day to immediately purchase a gun so that they can take it home and shoot themselves a bad idea? Shouldn't there be strict, federal laws that prevent gang members in Chicago, for example, from having easy access to guns from Indiana and Wisconsin? Just as wearing a seatbelt or securing a child in a carseat are laws, shouldn't locking up your guns so that children don't unintentionally shoot themselves or others be signed into law?
If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then please speak up in the interest of public safety. Because doing nothing really does nothing.
What's that? I need a gun to protect myself, you say? So if I get shot when I'm out and about, it's my fault because I wasn't armed? No. That America is not my America. I refuse to blame an unarmed gun violence victim. I value the freedom to not be shot over the freedom to bear arms. It's bad enough I feel vulnerable without my smart phone in my purse, but I don't want carrying a firearm on my person to be the only way I feel safe when I go to the grocery store, my kids' schools, and out to dinner.
You see, I'm self-aware. I believe that if I was in a high-pressure, active shooter situation, the first thing I would do is run. If there was nowhere to go, I would play dead. The last thing I'd want to do is reach for a gun and start shooting, too. It's difficult to believe that more bullets flying would make anyone safer unless luck is involved. Also, in a situation like that, it's impossible to know who's a "good" shooter and who's a "bad" shooter. In Roseburg, Oregon, there were at least two armed men who never drew their guns because they didn't want law enforcement to mistake them as the shooter.
Sadly, because our laws are the way they are and my twelve-year-old is not permitted to carry a gun, nor would I encourage that, nor would she want to, I had a difficult conversation with her the other day. I couldn't believe the words were coming out of my mouth, but I knew they should so they did. I told her that if she is ever anywhere and someone starts shooting then she should run as fast and as far as she can. I went on to say that if there was nowhere to go then she should play dead. "If I'm with you, I'll be on top of you. If I die, then don't move; act like you're dead too." I'd never been more embarrassed to be a human being in my life.
Then today, I took the kids to the movies. When it was over, we started to stir and gather our things, and a man who was already standing said in a very authoritative voice, "Stay seated." I looked at him, froze, and in the span of seconds thought, What's he going to do? Do we turn and run? Crawl out of here? What kind of gun does he have? Is this it? Is this how it ends?
Turns out he was a chaperone for a kids camp. He was speaking only to his group of campers, but his menacing tone was what I'd expect from a white male shooter in a movie theater. I guess I have mass shooters, Congress, and the NRA to thank for that moment of paranoia, but the chills and elevated heart rate stayed with me for awhile.
A few weeks ago, I signed up to host a house party for Robert Greenwald's new Brave New Films documentary, Making a Killing: Guns, Greed, and the NRA. I invited a lot of people to come over this Thursday for a private screening, seventy people to be exact. Two are coming. Three are maybes. Those aren't good numbers. I might even end up watching it alone. But I'll keep trying to get people to consider striving for a safer country. I'll continue not doing nothing.
Monday, June 13, 2016
Together Again
Brian and Matthew left early Friday morning for a cub scout camp near Payson. They had a fun time with their buddies and came back late this morning. It was nice for a day or two in that it was easier to catch up on some cleaning and not listen to the kids fight, but I think we work better and are more comfortable when we're all in the same place.
I had a hard time sleeping. Friday night was fine, but the next two nights I couldn't fall asleep easily. So today I took three, three!, naps. It was like I could finally relax.
When I realized how happy we were to be together again, I couldn't stop singing this Muppet song. So now I'll pass that trouble on to you. I'm considerate like that.
I had a hard time sleeping. Friday night was fine, but the next two nights I couldn't fall asleep easily. So today I took three, three!, naps. It was like I could finally relax.
When I realized how happy we were to be together again, I couldn't stop singing this Muppet song. So now I'll pass that trouble on to you. I'm considerate like that.
Sunday, June 12, 2016
Day at the Museum
The Heard Museum in Phoenix is a place I've always meant to visit, so I took Elizabeth there today. We walked around, reading plaques and looking at artifacts and art. For all the accolades I've heard about this "Phoenix point of pride," I was disappointed and ashamed to, at first, feel so unimpressed.
But then I talked Elizabeth into taking the "Home" guided tour, and the docent opened up the displays to us so much better than we were doing ourselves. We both understood and appreciated everything far more than we had forty-five minutes before, and we even revisited a few galleries afterwards to take it all in with our new knowledge. Additionally, the Boarding School exhibit is not to be missed. It's remarkable how groups of people can be so horrible to other groups of people. I suppose since it's still happening in 2016, it's never going to change.
The Heard is both larger and smaller than I thought. For such a sprawling campus, it didn't seem like there was enough filling the space. I don't know what's missing, but maybe it's done on purpose. The cavernous-like feel allows you to believe you're not sharing the space with a crowd, yet there were plenty of people walking around there today and many cars in the parking lot (even if this photo below indicates otherwise.
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| Poor Elizabeth. It was too sunny for photos. |
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| One of the galleries was a DIY studio. She brought the projects home to work on. |
Despite the embarrassing history lesson in injustice and the depressing realization that hate and violence will likely continue to divide humanity until the end of time, we felt these were hours well spent. We give it two thumbs up. Just be sure to take the tour.
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