Call me crazy, and several of you have, but I am really bothered by a lot of what gets said and posted about religion, gun control, the Constitution, The Pledge of Allegiance and the new right fielder for the Cubs.
So here goes.
I see these bumper stickers that say "Religious Freedom." and I agree, but yet I wonder. What does that mean? If you tell people they have to follow a certain religion to get a job, get insurance, get benefits, go to school, then that is not religious freedom. That is religious totalitarianism. Surprise...not everyone believes in God! Some believe in Budda, Muhammad, Yahweh, Jehovah, ECK or Kim Kardashian and some people don't believe in any supreme being. (Except Superman.) Yet people keep saying religious freedom. Which to me means you as a person have the freedom to worship how you want or not worship at all. You can believe in God, or not. You should not be required to honor God if you don't believe in God. Churches claim religious freedom in resisting the Affordable Care Act. But if your beliefs are that birth control, and the morning after pill, are ok then isn't a church taking away your freedom by imposing theirs?
And the Pledge. When it was write, the words Under God were not included. It went that way for almost 50 years until the fear of Communism drove some Congressmen to include the words Under God in the Pledge. So, if you are not a Christian, is saying the pledge forcing you to acknowledge A God, thereby depriving you of your religious freedom?
Gun control. No one has said ban all guns. No one. Yet people keep posting government is taking away our guns, defend yourselves from big government, yada yada yada. If you are in the gun rights camp and you firmly believe that weapons are not a problem, you are even more naive than me.
Automatic weapons, weapons that fire lots of bullets in small amounts of time, mega clips....those need to be eliminated. Weapons need to be registered. Background checks need to be done on all gun purchasers and ammo purchasers. People who buy weapons need to be held accountable on a regular basis for those weapons. And if you really think the government is going to come to all the gun owners in the middle of the night and confiscate their weapons..... well, you might want to talk to a professional about paranoia. We can't continue to allow people to cross state lines, buy guns, return home and sell them. If someone has a dog, in most states they have to register it and each year prove that the dog has its shots. Gun owners should have to show they still have their weapons.
If you want a handgun in your home for protection, fine. If you are a hunter, fine. If you are a target shooter, fine. But your guns should be licensed, registered and tracked.
Does that violate the Constitution?
Hardly. The second amendment says In order to maintain a well regulated militia, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. If we are going to follow the Constitution, then each gun owner should be part of an organized, well regulated militia. If we don't need a well regulated militia to protect us against the invading British, wine swilling French (that is a compliment) and Washington football players, then stricter gun control should be a given.
The Constitution was written to be a living, changing document because those property owning white old guys had the sense to realize the country would grow. And change. The Constitution was designed to be changed. If it wasn't, women would not be voting; minorities would be counted as 3/5 of a person, and state legislators would be electing senators (which is frightening considering how Illinois' jackasses can't seem to clean up their own shit).
And those changes have been made, interpreted, repealed, and hopefully made the country a better place to live.
Which brings this rant to a final topic..... the new Cubs right fielder. Really? A .260 hitter who seldom hits home runs? Really? Makes me almost not believe they can win it all this season.
Thanks for listening.
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