My friend Judy brings up a very good point. This is something I have struggled with for a long time. I have very little faith and respect for the average human being, which is a SAD thing for a wiccan, humanist, pacifist to say. I have all the respect in the world for human potential and what I have seen in some people. But as a whole, they are a pretty nasty lot.
Take guns. I don't think more gun laws are the answer. I think outlawing guns period is the answer. Including the production and distribution thereof. In this instance, I have no faith whatsoever in people's ability to be personally responsible for themselves. The general population is represented by people who sue McDonalds beause they burned their tongues on hot coffee and MTV because Janet Jackson's breast ruined their marital relations. Even the current resident of the white house (as Joel is fond of calling him) passes the buck to whomever is most likely to take the fall for his screw-ups. Nothing is anyone's fault anymore. Kid's drive through residential neighborhoods shooting semi-automatic weapons out car windows, hit innocent kids playing on the sidewalk, and it's not their fault because they were beat at home or not beat at home. And the gun makers just rake in the change and laugh all the way to the bank! They say that the answer is to educate kids on guns. Teach them to respect guns and how to use them. Well obviously, that is just about stupid! They already know how to use them, they just killed someone with it! They already respect guns! They think guns are the way to GET respect! And our culture feeds that image. We have spent the last year invading a country because they pissed off our president by trying to kill his daddy. Violence begets violence. He who lives by the sword dies by the sword. Guns are violent. The sound is violent, the action as the charge in the bullet is released is violent, the damage done to the target is violent. There is nothing about guns that isn't violent. There is no alternate use for guns. There is no positive connotation to guns. Guns are used to damage and destroy things. Even when you use them for target practice, they tear up the target, the sound damages the eardrums, the powder residue is toxic.
So, in order to teach children personal responsibility toward their fellow man, should we be teaching them about guns? Or should we be teaching them about their fellow man? The answer to any violence is to teach non-violence. The answer to hate is to teach understanding, tolerance and love. Teach the children that the kind of respect you get from owning a gun is meaningless. They don't respect you, they respect the gun. Guns aren't just complex mechanical devices. They are symbols, they have a life and a meaning beyond the metal and oil. But as long as a person can get the immediate gratification, the feeling of respect by owning one, it is a distraction from what is real.
And at the same time, they need to be taught that their actions are their own. They need to own the fact that yes, they were beaten at home but that doesn't make their actions ok. My 5 year old will push his sister or take her toy or some other childhood transgretion and when he gets caught, he says sorry and he won't do it anymore. But when then he gets punishment he says "But I said I'm sorry!" like that's supposed to excuse what he did. And I tell him, "That's great, I hope you really are sorry, but that doesn't make what you did ok, you still have to get punishment for it." If children are never shown the effect of their actions in a way that is meaningful to them, they won't understand that they do have an effect. And they won't own the action unless someone makes them, teaches them that that's the right thing to do. Everytime a parent excuses a kid, gets a kid out of trouble, or tells them that something they did wasn't their fault, they contribute to this problem.
And in an ideal world, this would all be done every day by every adult with every child in the United States. But it's not. And so, we are now seeing the result. An infant is dead, and it's NO ONE's fault. Not the lady who did it, it was just an accident, not the parent's cause they have a right to own a gun and do anything they want to with it. Not the gun makers, hey they just sell the things, what people do with them after that is their own business. And we all sit around saying "We can't step on anyone's rights!!!" "Personal Responsibility!!" And another child goes in the ground. For nothing.
So. We are at the impasse I always come to. Where does your right to be an idiot NOT trump my right not to have your idiocy effect me. Do we legislate parenting? Force parents to properly raise their children? Do we legislate every aspect of people's lives? Become a state of micromanaged androids? The best thing I can come up with right now, is to pick the big things, the things that will harm the least amount of people and still do good. No one will be harmed by not owning a gun. There are several countries in which it is illegal to own a gun and they live their lives everyday without adverse effect. In fact there is some benefit in that, as the statistics show, they have much fewer child deaths by guns. If I have to choose between taking away a person's ability to exercise personal responsibility over owning a gun at the expense of saving even one 1-year-old from being shot to death in her own home, I think I can sleep at night.
at 10:53 AM :: ~#~
