High school shooting in Parkland FL

[Thumpalumpacus]

Easy to type in a forum, mighty difficult to do when you're wondering if you'll make this month's rent. You're a counselor. Surely you're aware of Maslow's hierarchy.

I'm well aware of Maslow's hierarchy . But i also know this can't continue . If the people don't take a stand who will ?

Immediate needs have this annoying tendency to take up mental space. Weird, innit?

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It's hard to worry about moving to a safer nieghborhood when you're worried about eating tonight.

And eating will not do you much good if your dead . My friend .

Expecting people to think long-term when their immediate needs aren't addressed ... I dunno how that works out.

[Amarok]

The problem is these are not mutually exclusive categories . But broad term goals can me short term means . In fact better overall .

[Thumpalumpacus]

The problem is these are not mutually exclusive categories . But broad term goals can me short term means . In fact better overall .

Of course they're not mutually exclusive. But the fact is that the issues poverty brings with it, such as worrying about your next meal versus moving to a richer neighborhood versus finding the time and energy to mount a local political drive to address national problems ... most people are going to vote with their stomach.

We can pie-in-the-sky here all we want, but suggesting that those who live in crime-ridden neighborhoods simply move or change it glosses over the large difficulties involved in both options.

There is no easy fix. None. Zero, zilch, nada. Fixing the problem of gun proliferation in America must be perforce a decades-long, nationwide project. Such a program must take into account the varying opinions of people on both sides of the divide. Offering up "move if you don't like it", or "from my cold dead hands", well, it reads well on the Internet, but what do any of those words do to actually advance the ball?

Let's hear practical suggestions.

[Amarok]

You speak of practicality meanwhile the slaughter continues . I don't think what suggest is pie in the sky anymore then other great social movements among people who were poor etc . If people vote with their stomach they need to be made to understand that even their basic needs are undermined by presence  of violence . I never said it would be easy but the alternative is impossible to tolerate. 



FYI i never said rich neighborhood .A low income neighbourhood does not equal a violent neighbourhood .

[notimportant1234]

Where would we be now if the likes of Martin Luther King Jr thought about practicality ?

[Amarok]

"First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action;" who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a "more convenient season."

Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., 16 April 1963

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Last time you saw a LEO in armor? Carrying a missile launcher?

I lived on a military base. So, ten years ago?
[/quote]

Never leave the base? (Seems like a good idea at times, don't it?) 

Anyway, my point is you see LEOs in soft clothes, wearing kevlar under that. The "SWAT" guys have to gear up to go into a shit storm. When they do they carry the same long guns people swear are a God-given right. And maybe a tear gas projector. 

Local agencies are getting surplus armored vehicles, inspired by the need to borrow armored cars from Wells Fargo during the Texas Tower Sniper event. It helps them to go home at night, something their families approve of.

[pocaracas]

How curious...




For those of you unfortunate to not know what a Kinder surprise egg is:
(beware, children might find this highly disturbing)

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That's it.... chocolate, white-chocolate and a plastic thing inside that holds a small toy.

Yes, stupid kids would win the Darwin award and put that yellow thing in their mouths, inhale it and then suffocate to death.
Most of us, who managed to somehow survive that onslaught of stupid, played with the toys and tossed the yellow thing in the bin, or kept it to put other things stored inside.

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[Shell B]

I think you may have gotten the idea that I think our police should be unarmed and unprotected. That's not what I said. I said as long as they are armed, and the government is armed, I do feel like people should have the right to bear arms with an encyclopedia of restrictions that are heavily enforced.

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Poca, I got very excited at the prospect of a Kinder egg the other day. I saw it in the grocery store and presented it to the British hubby all proud of myself. When we opened it, we realized it was some shit chocolate filling thing you eat with a shitting cookie spoon. The toy is in a separate half of the egg. NO KINDER CHOCOLATE TO BE FOUND. I died a little.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I think you may have gotten the idea that I think our police should be unarmed and unprotected. That's not what I said. I said as long as they are armed, and the government is armed, I do feel like people should have the right to bear arms with an encyclopedia of restrictions that are heavily enforced.

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I never suggested that. Your implication that they're Mobile Infantry from "Starship Troopers" is a common meme on the Internet and wildly off base. 

As for bearing arms, I've done so in the US, but only in the course of duty. I can protect myself better with a newspaper than a gun.