Thursday, March 25, 2010

Long time coming...

Official El Salvador apology for Oscar Romero's murder

It's about time. Too bad the Texas State Board of Education is making sure that children in that state (and possibly others due to the size of Texas's buying power in the textbook market) may never learn about Archbishop Romero, his pleas for peace and charity, or his murder by a right wing death squad.

It's amazing ...how our revisionist history marches onward with no regards for the truth and no chance for reconciliation and an ability to learn from history to avoid past mistakes. In my mind, being truthful about our past and learning from it is much more constructive than white-washing inconvenient parts so that we can feel all warm and fuzzy inside when we sing the national anthem at baseball games and wear our flag pins.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/6922748.html

Look no further than the comments section of the above editorial from a Houston newspaper to understand what some people want for this country. How comes theocracy is bad when other countries do it?

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Guns don't kill people...

Supreme Court to address limits of gun control

I'm sure the ruling of this case will cause a commotion on one side or the other, but we really need to look at the core of the issue and not just say "oh, guns are bad, lets ban them". If it was impossible for criminals to get guns, then yeah, those who propose banning possession of a handgun in the home of a law-abiding citizen might have some argument. Unfortunately, that's not the world we live in.

Whether we like it or not, the right to gun ownership serves as a deterrence to criminals who otherwise would know that they are most likely the only one that has a weapon. Needless to say this leaves them feeling like they have the upper hand. Now some would say, well, you can still have a shotgun in your house. True, but sleeping with one of those under your pillow doesn't help you catch some ZZZs. I kid!

What I can't understand is why both sides can't come together to intelligently regulate firearms in this country. It's already a pain to buy a handgun (at least in Maryland), so let's just make sure that those with violent criminal backgrounds or mental conditions can't purchase or possess them. Let's also make it easy enough to track the weapons and the penalties high enough for illegally transferring them that no rational person who doesn't want to spend 5-10 in the clink will give it to someone who might commit a crime.

The "guns are great! guns are bad!" screaming matches miss the point. Guns are a tool. How are they are used is what is good or bad. Let's focus on that.