But the beat goes on. My pro-gun ownership friends and my marriage-means-a-man-and-a-woman friends and my Joe Pa-didn't-do-anything-wrong-for-sure friends go on ranting on the Facebook stage and so do I.
I'll summarize, and then I won't rant anymore. At least not today.
More guns means more gun acts, and by the numbers, this means more accidents, more children shot, more loss an injury at one's own hand, more problems attempted to be resolved by guns and more criminal shootings. Period. People who naively (and frankly, really stupidly) claim that guns don't kill people, people kill people, can kiss my self righteous ass in Cabella's window. Exactly, people kill people. With guns. Because they are going to find a way to kill people and so long as they can get guns, that is what they'll use. If we could reliably trust people not to use guns for the wrong things, then we could probably trust them not to steal, or commit fraud, or anything else we need laws for. But, silly NRA-ers, we can't trust our fellow man, so we need laws. And that includes laws about guns. Grow up and face facts. Your toy is another man's murder weapon.
I don't think we need more guns, or even more gun laws. I think we need better enforcement of more effective gun laws. Maybe Chris Rock was right. If bullets were $5000 a piece, maybe people wouldn't be so willing to spray them into a crowd. Just ask Gabby Giffords what she thinks.
And to my marriage equality debaters, I say marriage is a commitment. For some it is a religious sacrament, and for some it is a legally binding agreement. But for most, it is one born of love; a commitment to hold another's heart and hand through the betters and the worses. It has lots of benefits. It has lots of bummers. And if two people with matching sex parts want in on the game, I say let 'em play. Frankly, I'd rather se two men holding hands than two men holding AK47s any freakin' day of the week. And I don't see anything hideous coming out of more people getting married. Just more married people. And maybe a boost in the economy from all the wedding showers and catered affairs.
And Joe Pa? Sure it sucks to not have him to look up to anymore. But I think we'd stop putting blow up Santas on our lawns if his image were even remotely associated on the most minimal level with the kind of heinous crimes, horrific suffering and systematic hush-hushing that went on at Penn State. Some very powerful people put football first and now they get to pay a price that can't begin to undo the hurt endured by these children at the heart of the matter. What was collectively swept under the rug of Big College Football and booster money has crept into living rooms and classrooms and locker rooms and into the hearts and minds of people all across America. Erase a few wins from the record? If only erasing those kids' history were so simple.
And I am not going to Chick-fil-A(holes) anymore, but I don't need to rant about that. I just need to not go. I will not be buying a gun or learning to use it. I am not going to root against Penn State. I am going to stand by my beliefs quietly and with conviction and live my life in a way that makes me proud, demonstrates values I want my children to learn, and sets an example I'd hope others will follow.
And as a human, and a citizen and a parent, that is all I can do. If others choose other paths, I will tolerate them, not hate them. But I may de-friend a few of the more vocal ones on Facebook, because I don't have to "like" them either.
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