GET YOUR HAPPY ON! - a meliorist worldview

Chicago suffers from gun violence. This is not news — Chicago’s violent crime has earned it notoriety all over the world — and many cities experience more violent deaths per person/per year. Yet, I feel that my first sentence bears repeating.

Chicago suffers from gun violence, and the people of Chicago are suffering from these senseless murders.

Any violence is too much, my friends. I’d like to know when the violence will end. When will the powers that be say, “Enough is enough!”? Or will that be too late? Will we be living in a police state by that time? Out of love and concern for one another, I would like all people to come together and end gun violence — that means social activism to prevent gun violence while lobbying our politicians for gun control at the local and national levels.

Monday night, an 8-year old boy was shot several times in Humboldt Park. His doctors have promised his parents that he will survive. Thank God! But this shooting followed a resurgence in gang-related gun violence this month. Dozens of teenagers have been killed this year; many were innocent bystanders who had absorbed stray bullets. Any kind of violence is unnecessary, but gun violence is completely insane.

I went on the Internet to research gun control lobbyists to see if there was any activist group that I could join who would help me contact my Congressman, because I want him to increase his effort to stop this insanity.

I didn’t find a lot of information on gun control groups, but I did find a glut of crazy pro-gun lobbyists. These dudes are seriously out of their minds. You need to read what some of these crazy people are saying. Just Google the keywords “gun control lobby” or “gun control activism.” You are sure to read a slew of certifiably insane codswallop, written by reactionary psychopaths who treat the Second Amendment like a religion.

Don’t these people understand that kids are dying on the streets of the inner cities. Do they care? I worry that the soul of this nation is becoming more corrupt with the unwarranted death of each victim.

This is the perfect time to end gun violence. Today. You have to start today. You have to say, “Enough is enough.” I love you very much, America, and I know that you are capable of doing better.

We just finished watching a PBS documentary on the evolution of American language and slang. A segment of the program featured Marines discussing some phrases that have recently been introduced into their lexicon. Their code of conduct is so specific that they have developed slang for different modes of behavior.

I have always admired the Marine Corps. They are more selective than the other branches of the military, and they generally produce individuals who make me proud when I know that they are representing our country, at home and abroad.

Then I remembered this morning’s news of a Marine being punished for throwing a puppy from a cliff in Iraq. Another Marine documented the atrocity as the men on the video laugh. Evidently, they found it so amusing that they put it on YouTube.

One might think that one of the first lessons learned in the U.S.M.C. is that you don’t prey upon the weakness of those who cannot defend themselves — especially newborn puppy dogs!

The fact that this incident occurred shocked me, and the thought that these men were so proud of what they had done that wanted the world to know about it — well, that horrified me even more.

It wasn’t too long ago when Blacks and Jews were mistreated because ignorant white people had thought them to be animals and less than human. Times have changed. No longer do we turn our heads at a lynching, and the Holocaust will not soon be forgotten.

Civil rights are extended to all human beings, because we are all equal.

Yet I wonder how far of a mental leap one has to take before people with guns start treating certain other people like animals again. If this particular Marine felt justified in mistreating a defenseless puppy, would it really take so much for him to turn his pathological abuse on an Iraqi teenager or woman? Would he, could he justify the rape or murder of another human being?

I am sickened. The war in Iraq needs to stop, before we lose our very concept of what it means to be human.

As a measure of practice in the art of compassion, I would suggest that we start treating all living beings like people. Animals have rights too! It is implicit in the concept of “Natural Rights.” It does not matter that they do not know that they have rights. In my opinion, harming a defenseless baby animal is as reproachful as torturing a bed ridden hospital patient.

This is my most sincere prayer: Loving-Kindness for all Living Beings.

Be well, my friends.