Peace, a freewrite

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In the aftermath of two recent tragedies on US soil, I find myself arguing non-stop with fellow facebookers about the reasons for individuals' feeling justified in shooting to kill their fellow citizens, sometimes even friends and family, in support of a cause.

Whether the cause is religious, political, lifestyle, financial, or what not, we must ask ourselves very hard questions to solve this problem and reduce the numbers of human beings who feel the need to go out into their own communities and shoot 'em up.

The arguments seeking to ameliorate these shootings always begin with calls for gun control. There are without exception many politicians demanding this within minutes of the event. These arguments are promptly countered by those defending our constitutional right to bear arms.

Next we blame a host of things: video games, extremist views, anti-depressants, air/water/food quality, poor parenting, bullies in school, a hated politician or three, and the like.

While all of these may or may not be factors, I believe we are overlooking the largest factor of all: unjustifiable wars.

How can we expect individuals to stop themselves from murdering others in the name of spurious causes when so many governments, the US government chief among them, murder for phony causes on a daily basis? Why do we value the lives of US citizens over those of human beings elsewhere on the planet? How do we reconcile this? The answer is we do not. Instead we suffer from cognitive dissonance, which allows individuals to forget their humanity and murder for murder's sake.

End the wars. Value life. Promote peace. These are ideas worth spreading.


This is my entry to @mariannewest's freewrite challenge
https://steempeak.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/day-655-5-minute-freewrite-tuesday-prompt-ideas-worth-spreading

I didn't set a timer. It just spilled out.

The image is mine of my favorite necklace.

Thank you for reading.


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17 comments
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We live in a world of perpetual war. It's such a lucrative business and ending it would be beneficial only to those in society who don't matter and have no say....us!

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We like to think we have a say. We have a vote! Yay Democracy!
As long as it elects a fawning US sycophant.

Our say is exercised by casting our votes among politicians who for the most part never ever discuss war, except to be all gung ho about it, and to give even presidents they loathe standing ovations when these presidents speechify about it.

This both disgusts and scares the beegeebers outta me.

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I have no idea why people play the voting game. The result is always the same; ever more tax and restrictions on our freedom. And we pay these people to do that to us?
Are we stark raving mad?
It’s the Wednesday prompt delivery team here with the shapely prompt for today:
https://steemit.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/day-656-5-minute-freewrite-wednesday-prompt-contour

Also, don't forget to read the latest posts from our new page
FREEWRITE HOUSE!

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Click the graphic to join in the fun!

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Thank you dahlink!
And yes, I think we are heading toward stark raving mad. But we vote, it's the only thing they still let us do without jumping through hoops to do it. I guess they know it makes no difference.

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@owasco I will never understand these mass killings whether it be by a truck full of fertilizers, guns, pressure cookers, or airplanes, WHY KILL? Sure they are mad and after the killings are they happy or still mad, that is if they live. What good does it do them? They need help before it gets this bad. I think they show signs of wanting to do these things, if you suspect someone of wanting to do harm, speak up, stop it before they act.

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That can get tricky though. We see with child protection services, for example, that if someone suspects harm is being done to a child, that child might be taken away from the parents whether the claim is credible or not. What I hate the most about these murders is how we come to distrust our neighbors and maybe even our friends.

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Perhaps, the propaganda machine would like all to be desensitized so they might be good little soldiers in the next conflict and sick as it sounds get rid of a few in this exponential population explosion? I know, I sound dire. It is all sickening madness :(

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I totally agree though. Eugenics is alive and well, and they experiment on us via medicine and war. It is dire, definitely.

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Hearing about the recent shootings is terrible and something needs to be done.
In Canada there is stricter gun control and I think many in the States are wanting the same thing. Why would they sell guns that can kill so many at once?

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Thank you for your comment.
Americans love their guns, all of them. I for one don't think stricter gun control will help at all, and is likely to bring out the worst in some of our population, left and right. The problem is not so simple. We already have far too many laws restricting the rights of regular people.
Canadians don't have to hear about their government murdering people on several continents every single day for no good reason. I really think this is a big factor in the problem. It's a "like father like son" effect.

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This is fab.

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Oh thank you! I don't know why it has taken me so long to see your comment. Thank you for reading my little political piece, which I try very hard not to do on steem (I do plenty on FB) but sometimes I just have to.

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In theory, nobody wants wars. Besides being murderous, wars are monstrously expensive. But people are being people; wars caused by economics or by ideological differences - not believing in the same fictional story. I am very happy that in the sixties Kennedy and Khrushchev were both reasonable people and didn't start throwing nukes at each other. Otherwise, we won't be writing the posts today.

There is so much talk about human rights. In actuality, human life in the eyes of politicians doesn't cost that much. As cynical as it might seem, the life of an average person cost $300 - that is the lowest price for which a hitman would agree to go for a mission.

As far as shootings are concerned... it's a tough one. Gangsters will have gans anyway wither they are legal or not. The question is how to make sure that children and people with unstable psyche would be prevented from access to guns.

For one thing, every potential gun owner should have a thorough psychiatric examination, which has to be evaluated every so often like drivers licenses. Secondly, oh boy, families with a single provider, should not be given the right. It's a very high chance that a child would have access to a gun. Probably there are a bunch of other situations where the right to own a gun must have additional limitations.

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Thank you for your thoughtful comment!

Yes, we can be thankful there are occasionally rulers with good sense and the good of the people at heart. It's been a loooong time since Kennedy. And I agree 100% that our politicians treat life as if it is cheap, a commodity to dispose of whenever that is more convenient and cost effective than keeping that life alive and prospering.

I'm afraid I disagree with your solutions though.

At this point, I do not support any new laws that restrict the rights of ordinary citizens in any way - we have too many of those as it is! I spend time every single day making sure I comply with the laws already on the books. No new laws governing regular people!!!

I'm a single parent. While I do not own a firearm, I'm certain I would be as responsible with one as one could possibly be. And single parent homes could in many cases need firearms MORE than two parent homes, so I can't support that idea.

Requiring psychiatric evaluations would add an enormous and costly burden to anyone wanting a gun, and open a host of dangerous opportunities for government to butt into our business, especially medically. I don't know how to handle this problem of psychos getting their hands on guns.

But I do believe that so many of us being psychos can be traced in large part back to our government being run by psychos, especially any agencies involved in national "defense".

Trickle down economics doesn't work, but trickle down mental illness is an actual thing.

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Ahahah... That's why it is so complex because it depends on from which end of it are you looking at.

If your goal is to prevent accidental shootings in schools - it's one solution, but if you want to protect your second amendment right it a quite different one.

My daughter and her husband own guns and they made it a habit to go to firing range every so often.

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Saw an incredible video about prision and crime in the usa...


!BEER

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Sorry, you don't have enough BEER in your account. You need 10 BEER in your virtual fridge to give some of your BEER to others. To view or trade BEER go to steem-engine.com

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