- Logtar's Blog -

Weird freaking dreams right? That is the consequence of not writing as an outlet.

That is the conclusion Heather and I came to last night.

A lot has happened in the last year, new job, more travel. There is a chance that I will spend some time in Brazil this year and I should be looking forward to it but sometimes I just want to stay close to home. The world is getting to be a little to scary with random acts of violence… or are they really random.

Two tourists in Brazil were kidnapped yesterday, one of them raped. See earlier this year we took a cruise and after reports that there was local unrest in Belize I decided that we would not get off the ship on that port. I rather not chance getting shot at over some local unrest. Funny thing is that most people think that Colombia is an unsafe country, but don’t understand that there are unsafe areas. The country overall has not been unsafe since the mid 90s in my opinion, well not more so than any other.

Last night the office building where I go to the office at (when I go to the office) had some windows broken due to gun fire. The way it is being told right now is that it is totally random someone walking through the street and just firing. The skeptical person in me says that there is more to that but who knows.

I grew up in Colombia with violence being something you grew up with. I had a baseball cap snatched from my head, had a knife pulled on me in a mugging, my family was shot at, I was blocks away from a car bomb. I have seen my share of violence. I don’t want it in my life. As I get older I try to figure out where it comes from.

Violence is born from frustration and most of that frustration has been born out of poverty and hunger. There are people that do lose it and see violence as a viable outlet, but I think frustration because you cannot feed yourself or your family is a great motivator.

The economy hit this country hard, and while the political process continue to be about everything but the real problems I get more and more concerned about the future. Should I get an arsenals and get ready for society to crumble? Should I be afraid to travel to countries where I have to work but might not be all that safe? Is violence really random or something that can be prevented?

I wish I had more answers than questions.

This post has been floating in my head for quite some time. I tend to dislike guns and associate them with negative things. Some day I will be brave enough to discuss the details, but for now I will say that my first experience with guns was at a young age and it involved being shot at. Subsequently an extended family member that was a cop came over to our house and I saw up close my first revolver… as a means of protection for our family. Later in life I have encountered and even fired a lot more guns, and still did not care for them. It is amusing to me that people think that Colombia is this backwards “third world” place, growing up I thought of hunting as something that humans did before modern agriculture. The only people that really hunt in Colombia are the natives in the Amazon; unlike here that people mow down Bambi with high powered rifles.

I have plenty of friends that own guns. I have wanted one for personal protection for quite some time. I know that owning a gun is not enough, being trained on it and actually firing it in a range is what will make it effective in a life and death situation. This year as a present I decided to get a shotgun, for the nurse. The story of why will come soon enough, but because of something unrelated to this post I told her about it. She has not seen the shotgun but she knows about it. It is still kind of a surprise in that sense.

A Chiefs player killed his girlfriend a block away from where we live. We had no clue that we had an NFL player living in the neighborhood. The weird thing is that around that same time I was buying a gun as well. It was an easy process, I was amazed at how easy. Granted, I have no criminal record and I am a citizen but I could not help but be at awe at how easy it was to get one.

I have no problem with people owning guns, I just don’t want crazy people having access to guns; the hard part is how do we determine that.

A young man, possibly mentally ill kills 27 people, 20 of them very young children… like my nephew, like the nurse’s nieces… I cannot imagine how parents feel. I know my Mom was freaked out when she heard the news because she had no idea where Sandy Hook was located or what was happening. Even a second thinking your loved ones are not safe is hell.

This horrific event seems to be shifting the gun control discussion. I honestly don’t think it will accomplish much. If the mother of the kid that lost it was a good citizen and sane she could have still purchased the guns. Limiting assault type rifles seems logical but how many of those guns are already out there. The real problem is not that guns kill people, its that people that “lose it” either temporarily or permanently are the ones that kill people.

So the problem is not guns, it is mental health. You can call it evil; but I thought we were past the middle ages and thinking that winged monsters are the ones responsible for bad things that happened. People that lose their grasp of reality are the ones that kill others.

Mental health comes with a huge stigma still. A lot of people still don’t see it as an illness that needs to be treated. This is what really amazes me when people think that universal healthcare (including mental health) is something we don’t need. I dare you to read this article and reflect.

I used to think that everyone had a chance at being somewhat intelligent and capable, however I was very short sighted… I never accounted for the people that just don’t want to see. Most people without an actual mental condition that prevents them from learning become stupid by simply being lazy. Yea, lazy. My Gradpa that recently passed away did not go to school, he was an orphan that lived on the street and had to learn to read from picking up discarded newspapers. He eventually got a nursing certificate by passing the exams without any schooling. Because of that I value education, because I think everyone deserves that opportunity to make their lives better. You cannot help stupid.

Obama won… and why did he… simple math. You cannot win the election without the minorities or women. The republican party doubled down on the Tea Party and lost.

I remember what changed my mind about people being capable of being smart no matter what. It was not the “sheeple” attitude of listening and repeating only soundbites. It was racism. Racism that reared its ugly head once again.

Let me clarify, the following statements are RACIST!

You voted for Obama only because he is black. <- Obviously someone that has never read my blog and understands that to me Education and Energy are more relevant than race.
“Let’s make the white house, white again.” <- Yey! Tea Party.

I am not foolish, I do know that some black people did vote for Obama just because he is black. I know some voted for Romney because he is white. Latinos in the other hand voted because of the issues and not because of race. I wonder how this would be twisted when the first Hispanic actually makes it into the ballot.

I’m compassionate first. Let me repeat that… I care about people first. Let me make it clear, I have volunteered in the past and will do so again. I have given to charity, but most of all I believe that social programs are what makes this country great.

I believe in personal responsibility and while there are people that certainly game the system, it is naive to think that the cancer of our society is the people that live in welfare and not the rich guys that pay less taxes than all of us combined.

Wake up people and realize that until we as a country start to fight the real problem which is that the money we put into the system is sometimes not used properly. That said something has to be done. Lets first make sure that we have no sick or hungry people in the country first, then lets get rid of the criminals that because they have a white collar can get away with using their church tax exemption to pay less. That is just the start though, from there we need to make sure that we create a place of true fair competition and we move ahead from this era of “by any means necessary.”

If we learn anything from the past two decades is that we cannot continue to build sand castles and expect them to be there next summer. Lets build a future by staying engaged and learn that this country will be strong again if we wake up, stop the racism and divisiveness and concentrate on the real issues, that rich people are trying to buy the country little by little. Don’t be fooled into thinking they want you at their table too. Keep the middle class strong!

Just like our country does not have a State language, we don’t have a state religion. For a long time the argument of separation has had a lot to do with meddlesome church people… you know the fondling type. I am now starting to think that it should be used so that hearing people get political does not make me want to go from an affair with atheism to full on marriage.

Secularism is something that transformed a whole region in Canada. It is an interesting chapter to read about. I like it because it makes swearing in French fun specially every time that Spyder cringes. I do get physically punished in the process, which to some might mean that my Catholic upbringing did its job steering me to BDSM. Now if I could only have ballroom butt… inside joke.

What pissed me off this morning on the radio was hearing Chuck Norris get all political and mix religion. Oh man, I don’t even know where to start. I am not even sure if he was going all New World Order tin hat foil or just simply being stupid. The thing is that to use the whole evangelicals should vote, and then assume that it means that they won’t vote for Obama is what bothers me. To call out someone because of socialism while using your religion as a springboard (which by the way its all about being your brother’s keeper) makes me think that logic is not something we are allowed to use as Americans anymore.

You can have all the political views you want, but don’t call on your “congregation” to vote not even for the Mormon, just against the socialist is kind of weird. If the country is going in the wrong direction, is a more religious nation the right direction? When did the republican party get all hijacked as the Christian party?

Keep on beating those drums people and see how more and more people leave the republican party. You will have lots of fun talking to empty chairs with a bunch of tea party people.

At least you will have Chuck Norris on your side.