Saturday, January 12, 2013

In The End...

In the end...it always comes down to money.

"Show me the money", "Follow the money."

Money is at the root of all evil and it makes the world go 'round.

So what we should stop talking about is the desire/need to curb gun violence.  We should start talking about is the money which is the elephant in the room.

Why else would the NRA or the video game industry or any one of the hundreds of legislators be so reticent to talk about the problems created by guns in our society?  It has to be the money.

The NRA is probably the most powerful lobby in Washington along with the Big Pharma and the defense contractors.

And our shameless politicians consistently cave to the pressure put on them by the NRA.  The NRA claim to represent average citizen gun owning voters.  But the positions put forth by the NRA are extreme, by most measures, in contrast to the data showing most gun owners favoring more comprehensive gun laws if not, at least, an open and honest dialogue about the problem. And they help fund many political campaigns.

The video game industry, along with Hollywood, has no interest whatsoever, in discussing the national gun disease because, by doing so, they would jeopardize the billions in profits that come from the sale of their products featuring and, in most cases, celebrating gun-related violence.

Granted we have a long history of that violence in this country dating back to the Revolution, the Civil War and the taming of the Wild West but those events happened long before any of us, now alive, were ever born.

The British are no longer repressing us, the War Between the States was settled (the Union won if you were curious...) and the only threat we have from the Indians is at the Casino.

It's 2013 and maybe we could have a frank and open discussion about the nagging problem that is wreaking so much havoc from Littleton to Aurora to Blacksburg to Sandy Hook and now Taft...let alone Chicago, Detroit, Miami and Oakland to name only a few.

What would be helpful would be if the citizenry would band together and support politicians directly rather than through lobbying organizations such as the NRA.  If politician "A" can't get elected without the contributions of special interests then the voters could replace the lobby's money with money of their own.

In that way the politician would be more accountable to the voters rather than the corporate few and maybe the voice of the people would actually be heard in Washington.

Sure, gun owners who belong to the NRA contribute to the lobby's treasury with their dues but they only represent a fraction of the sensible citizens of this country who want to see real change rather than political blustering and grandstanding.

If politicians funded their campaigns with individual contributions then they would be less beholden to the industries so accustomed to buying their votes to influence legislation directly tied to those industries bottom lines.

Grass roots.  Do it yourself.  Take a stand.  WAKE UP!

The problems we have will never be solved by the corporate hacks masquerading as legislators in Washington.

The only real change will occur from the ground up...never from the top down.

We have the power to help save our society...if we would only just use it in a sane, civil and constructive manner.

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