Enough . . .

It's sad that we have trouble having an honest dialogue in this country when it comes to gun ownership. Never mind the vast number of injuries and deaths caused by children playing with their parents' guns that weren't properly stored and the number of guns children use to purposefully take the lives of other children or the domestic arguments that end up with someone using a gun; let's talk about lobbyists.
I wonder how many people know what a lobbyist actually does. They roam the legislative halls and wine and dine politicians or their aides or family members disguised as experts in their field. You see, most politicians are just like us - they don't have a clue about most topics - they rely on others to educate them and inform them to allow them to display the appearance that they know why they voted yea or nay on any given piece of legislation. And, if they are on a committee, why they offered a piece of legislation. While the majority of legislators are former attorneys, they are still not versed well enough on issues to render an intelligent opinion until one is given to them.
Before we get to the National Rifle Association, let's look at another lobby - Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. It is no accident that the legal blood alcohol level was lowered nationally from .1 to .08. It wasn't proposed by the collective conscience of Congress. MADD members are out to outlaw alcohol. If they were sincere about removing people who have had too much to drink from driving, they would have worked for a law that would force people to be given a ride when they reach a point of driving inhibition. If bars and restaurants are going to make a profit from selling alcohol, they should be prepared to get their customer home safely. But no legislation has even entertained that prospect.
People will continue to drink and bars and restaurants will continue to be driving distances away from the consumer. Perhaps one answer is a bar on every corner. People who imbibed in the recent past, used to live in apartments in the city within walking distance or a short cab ride from their favorite watering hole. Heck, some people had apartments above the bars they frequented. Then came the suburbs. What makes MADD so powerful? Numbers! MADD can threaten the term of any politician. The threat of a campaign lauched with the goal of ending the career of a politician and, if your numbers are large enough, you've got their vote.
Numbers! It's what can make Unions powerful - that's why governors around the country are trying to bust them. They couldn't care less about the money union members make or the benefits the have. They care about the massive voting power. Numbers! Numbers is the reason politicos have been pitting poor Blacks in America against poor Hispanics. Imagine the voting power of those two groups of Americans united behind one politician or another. Polarization is purposeful. There is strength in unity. Civil rights laws and laws protecting and respecting women and minorities only came about because of unity. The NAACP at the time of civil stuggles in America in the fifties and sixties was made up of many white folk - many of them Jewish. Civil rights laws were based on voting rights issues. Women's rights laws were based on voting rights issues. Those in power, usually white men, did everything they could to retain that power - the power to write the laws and enforce them.
Power, politics, white men - enter the National Rifle Association. They would have you believe by their name alone that they represent hunters and those who choose to defend themselves and their families with some type of rifle. After all, they are a rifle association. But look at some of the laws they convince legislators to write and pass - state to state (even that is not national). They worked on laws to allow guns in schools, guns in bars, concealed weapons without special permits, Stand Your Ground right to kill laws. Perhaps they should change their name . . . Allow Cop Killing Bullets Association; Twenty-Bullet Clips Automatic Handgun Association; Fun With Assault Rifles Association. A lobby by any other name . . .
Groups with a recognizable membership wield recognizable power. Imagine a group with so many members they can effect any and every political outcome being infused with cash from groups with boatloads of money and you understand America's political system in a nutshell. In a nutshell, how appropriate. If Americans don't unite, corporations and groups of single-minded memberships will continue to run the country, from City Hall to Congress. People have seen how powerless the office of President of the Unted States can be when the goal of Congress is to see the President fail - even at the recession of a nation.
Now, we have a situation in Florida where a law, possibly ghost-written by lobbyists for the NRA, has been used to influence police decisions immediately following the shooting and killing of an unarmed teenager. The shooter was allowed to remain free and retain his weapon and never given an alcohol or drug test, while the responding officers tested the dead man. One has to wonder what the motivation was behind those decisions and lack of actions of those police officers. It's not the job of police officers to determine guilt or innocence, but that's what they became. There are many players involved in this tragedy.
So, let's not let the slaying of Trayvon Martin be used as just another polarizing racial issue, but rather as a way of bringing us all together to stop the infused hatred, paranoia and distrust being perpetuated by those in powerful positions. We need to stop using the word WAR so loosely and instead recognize the source behind all the suppression and negativity and take away their power - with our voting power.

Peace - Ho'oponopono . . .