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I shouted out loud at the telly tonight, encouraging the high school students who are staging protests across the nation regarding gun control.
Good on them. They have put on notice the useless crop of self interested politicians in the US Congress who are unable and unwilling to stand up and do what needs to be done. These kids are tomorrow's voters, and they will be active, and they will not be returning to office those who are currently failing them. They are not a marginalised "electorate", they are middle class apple pie America. And they are putting up the middle finger to the entrenched gun culture that pervades U.S politics. The saddest part about the whole thing is that no-one is willing to back them and stand up for what is right, and it's being left to them to force change. I went to register a domain name today, and guess what?
The domain I had in mind was available, for $3860.00. I don't want the TLD that much. And neither does anyone else, otherwise it wouldn't still be for sale. Why are the dickheads who bought up domain names back in the "dot.com" boom, in the hopes of making fast money off people who hadn't yet formulated their business or personal need for a recognisable domain name, allowed to keep possession of these internet addresses? Whole swathes of decent domain names that could be used by legitimate businesses or individuals go unused because some arsehole is squatting on it. If there is no legitimate claim, or the sole intention is to basically extort money from a potential domain name registrant, ICANN should be empowered to strip these "owners" of the right to renew the name. Companies like Huge Domains should be put out of business. "Service you can trust". Yeah, you can trust them to rip you off by trying to sell you a domain name which costs just a few dollars to initially register for sometimes tens of thousands of dollars. Thankfully the Australian Domain Name Authority has some sensible policies in place to prevent this sort of rubbish happening with .au domains. Of course ICANN was born (there were predecessors from the early days dating all the way back to ARPANET - look that one up if you're at all curious as to how the internet came into being) in the country which most values free enterprise over all else, including common sense, the good 'ol U.S.ofA(holes). So nothing's going to change anytime soon, and tens of thousands of top level domain names will forever go unused. Not that I was expecting to be able to register the TLD I wanted, but it still irks me to see them going to waste. The great "silent majority", who are credited with catapulting Donald Trump into the Presidency. I hope they're happy with what they got.
Do you think any of them are having second thoughts about electing a madman, or are they all just as crazy as the man himself? Hmmmm Politics has failed the young people of the United States of America.
With so many adults who are part of the political system ignoring what is glaringly obvious due to selfish vested interests - whether that be financially or politically motivated - it's time for students across that nation to take action and force change so they will have a decent society in which to raise their own children in the future. Students need to rally each other, and create a national protest by boycotting school. Don't go. Leave them empty. Across the nation. If I was living in the U.S. and my kids were attending school, I'd be out there calling for this to happen. Parents need to support their children in a radical protest to force legislators to listen and act, which they have failed do so many times in recent history. I couldn't imagine not taking action and seeing my child as the next victim on the 11.00am news, let alone having them grow up in a climate of fear and horror. What consequences are there for a society where children are exposed to this sort of violence on a day to day basis? Leave the schools empty for as long as it takes for the politicians to start addressing the problem in a serious way, and not just tweeting condolences before taking the next junket offered by the NRA. Demand your representatives grow a backbone and do the right thing, even if it costs them a political career. They will be lauded as heroes by the generations to come who will have a society where at least kids can go to school without fear of a massacre. Sure you can kill a few people with a six shot handgun or a machete, but it's a damn site harder than using a machine-gun. Let the parents who support unfettered access to assault weapons send their kids to school - let's see how many really think it's necessary to have access to these weapons. Any person with a sense of moral decency and the concepts of right and wrong can see that the prevalence of military grade or automatic weapons in the general population is a recipe for disaster. They simply cannot be controlled well enough by the relevant authorities to be allowed to be owned by average citizens. And it's not about your average Joe who gets a kick out of shooting off a few rounds at some tin cans - let's face it, guns are a rush and they're exciting to use - it's about when they fall into the wrong hands. And with so many guns out there, it's a natural consequence that the wrong sort of person will have access to powerful MILITARY GRADE weapons capable of killing and wounding large numbers of unarmed civilians. They are designed specifically for this purpose - as a weapon of war, not for self defence. Yes I write this from an ivory tower in a country where the politicians of the day took decisive action to prevent this sort of thing happening in our society. Whether or not I vote for the party that instituted the gun buyback in Australia, they did the right thing by all of us in this country, and deserve praise for their actions. I remember at the time (I was in my early twenties) thinking it was a bit unfair to "punish" those who owned a rifle due to the actions of one mentally incompetent individual, but you know what, it was the right thing to do, and our country is so much better for it. If that hadn't happened, we would probably be attending the funerals of our children just like the parents in the U.S. and that just has no place in a modern and civilised democratic nation. I don't presume to have the answers for making this work, but surely America can look to the example of other western nations in which gun control is successful and use them as a blueprint for making change. It won't happen overnight, and it will be a difficult road to travel, but starting on that journey and continuing with resolve and perseverance will benefit the children of today who are the adults and parents of future generations. Make it happen. Donald Trump has just held a round table discussion with survivors and relatives of mass school shootings at the Whitehouse.
And what was his major proposal? To arm teachers with weapons. The man (nominally) in charge of one of the world's superpowers thinks it's a good idea to combat the threat of violence and mass murder in schools from individuals armed with military grade assault weapons by giving teachers concealed weapons. He's praised the (presumably football) coach from the latest school massacre for using his body to shield students - and rightly so - the man is a true hero. You couldn't ask for a more dedicated teacher, who put his life on the line to try and save the lives of his students. It makes me tear up just thinking about the selflessness and dedication of this teacher. But he went on to say that if this man had a gun, he could have stopped the perpetrator before any more lives were lost. I'm dumbfounded. This is the most absurd approach to this horrible problem I've heard of. How about a system where there is no threat of automatic assault weapons in schools, and where students don't live in fear and conduct "mass shooting drills" on a regular basis. It's difficult to comprehend what daily life must be like for these students, who live in constant fear of the next school shooting. School is not a place where there should be any guns, whether carried by teachers or not. And to put the burden of using weapons to protect their students onto teachers is just plain insanity. They're teachers. They should be teaching, not thinking about whether they will need to shoot someone to protect their students. I simply cannot fathom that the majority of citizens of the USA do not think that the removal of military weapons is a good thing. Why are there so many politicians that oppose gun control - are the majority of them not parents themselves? How dare they perpetuate a climate where this can occur. They are failing their children. It's now up to the kids to make the changes happen, because their political system has failed them. That's a sad indictment of the current state of society in the USA, and Donald Trump is not going to do anything to address this. |
AuthorA white middle aged man who doesn't understand why things need to be so annoying - usually the small things that just shouldn't be an issue. But then maybe I'm just a grumpy old fart who refuses to accept that my position of institutionalised privilege gives me no right to complain or feel outrage on behalf all members of our society? You can make up your own mind about that. Archives
March 2018
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