Tuesday, April 17, 2007

weekend

The weekend was great. I played golf Friday evening, Saturday afternoon, Sunday and even took Monday off to go to a NWAGA (Nebraksa Womens Amatur Golf Association) meeting and
golf scramble. We played Hillcrest Golf Course in Lincoln. This Course is 79 years old so you can
imagine the size of the trees. My 4-person team did win the second fllight. For those of you who
do not golf, tournaments are flighted by handicap so second flight is like the B-team. This event
is limited to 2 people from each club so there were only 2 flights. We had a real nice day after the
cold and rainy weather of the past couple of weeks.
On Saturday, Abby had a band contest here in Norfolk so went to listen to her band play. I thought they did real well for Jr Hi. Haven't heard how they placed.
After lunch I went to Mary's book signing. She gave a nice presentation of the process of getting
a book published. It really takes a lot of determination to stick to it with all the rejections.
Then golf.
Sunday - My friend, Donna, and I went to Lincoln and took Tammie and Randy out for Tammie's
birthday dinner. Cindy and the girls joined us. We spent the night with T & R so we didn't have
to get up so early for our golf meeting.

We did not hear of the VT tragedy until after we finished golfing. I cannot imagine the horrer
those students went through while being trapped in a building with a gunman shooting randamly
at anyone in the room. My heart and prayers go out to all those affected.
I do not believe there is a lack of gun control laws. I believe there are too many people willling to
sell guns illigally to persons not qualified to have a gun. The shooter was in our country on a
student VISA and could not have legally purchased a gun. Guns do not kill people. People kill
people. Guns just make it easier. We cannot protect the entire population from maniacs with
guns and knives anymore than we can protect them from drunk drivers or drivers running
red lights and stop signs.

Although violence has been with us since Cain & Abel, the graphics of it that is shown on TV and
in the movies has gone too far. Impressionable young people see these things and think violence
is the way to solve disputes.

There are no simple solutions to the violence in the world. We can only hope and pray and
do our best to protect our loved ones. This is still the place in the world to live. GOD BLESS
AMERICA.

Sue

6 comments:

LaDawn said...

In the UK we have very strict gun laws. Basically, no one can have one unless they are a police officer or a soldier. Even then the gun stays at the station or the barrack.

You are correct. We still have shootings. Criminals still get guns. But we have never never never ever had a human being enter a place of work or education and start shooting their colleagues/classmates. The UK have VERY few killings from guns. Most of the killings are drug related and happen within the fabric of that criminal element. Most importatnly, these killings are typically with a knife and because of this tend to be less lethal and less dramatic. Hard to kill 30 people in one go with a knife. People tend to survive knife wounds. They tend to die from gunshot wounds. You are more likely to fight off a knife attack than a gun attack. Knife attacks happen up close. People with guns can stand far away and still kill you giving you no opportunity to flee. you might not have even seen them coming.

In my humble opinion, gun control is no longer an optional requisite to a civilised society. Only third world countries do not impose weapons controls on their citizens. It is the best for greatest.

Sue said...

I agree with everything ladawn said. However, with 300 billion
people in the US taking away all guns would be impossible.
Are the people in the UK allowed to
have hunting guns? Although I do
not hunt, one of my granddaughters
favorite things to do is to go hunting with her dad and grandpa.
I am also very glad when hunting season is over.
Sue

LaDawn said...

There are ~56 million people in the UK and roughly 300 million live in the USA. There are some provision for hunting. The UK has
241,590 SQ KM of land (roughly the size of Colorado). The USA has 9,161,923 SQ KM of land. Hunting is not a big sport here and is severly restricted to nothern areas. It is considered a sport for kings (very elitist) and culturally it is considered socially irresponsible. It would be extremely difficult to shot a gun and not hit a person (unless you are in the sparsely populated area of Scotland in the north).

It is important to note that the 2nd amendment says nothing about the right to bear arms to go hunting, but to form a militia. This was intended by the founding fathers to ensure that people had the ability to rise up against the tyranny of oppresive government and fight for their right to be free. We now use the media to do this (a much less violent method)so the need for guns to shot our leaders is is greatly diminished. Although shooting George Bush is an alternative one could consider as an exit strategy to the Iraq War. I wouldn't. I don't have a gun.

LaDawn said...

PS No, this is the best place in the world to live. Having lived in over 10 countries, I picked this one to settle down and raise my family. OK, so maybe they all have positives and negatives :-)

PPS God Bless America!

Janell said...

I disagree that our right to bear arms was in order for us to be able to shoot our leaders. The Declaration of Independence, which lists our grievances against King George, makes it clear why we included Article II: “He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. He has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People. He is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy of the Head of a civilized Nation. He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power. For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us. For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states." We didn't want anyone to shoot King George, we needed to be able to protect ourselves from the ne'er do wells in his armies who were committing crimes against us.

Janell said...

I also disagree that we can now use the press to effect change. The UPI and AP are so biased against conservatism it isn’t even funny. I refer you to the book “How I Accidentally Joined the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy” by Harry Stein. He’s a long-time columnist and journalist, (The Washington Post, The New York Times, TV Guide, et al) a former liberal, who is brutally honest about the dishonesty in American journalism.