Gun Control: Governed by whores

I can't believe it.  I just can't believe it.  In the end, the gun lobby won.  I don't know what kind of America I'm living in anymore.  I thought for sure that now, we had them.  That finally this country was coming around to realizing we're no longer the Wild West and need assault rifles to shoot deer and "protect our homes."

Oh, gun control opponents were very self-righteous with their "criminals do not submit to background checks," or "expanded background checks," as GOP Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa said piously, The New York Times reported this morning.  Why not just admit it, Charlie?  You submit to the piles of money the NRA throws your way. 

I feel like we live in a land governed by whores.  Who will do anything, anything, for money.  When one of the Newtown fathers said, "Our hearts are broken," and Obama reached out and grabbed his shoulder, my rage turned to tears.  How could this unspeakable tragedy not move people to put aside their own selfish motivations and do what's right?

I did something I've never done before, yesterday, called the six Democratic senators who were against the legislation, and though I pretty much got nowhere (four voicemails and two polite aides who, I could tell, were just going throught the motions when they said they'd "pass it along to the senator"), I felt like I was doing something (and was even naive enough to think it would help).  But, of course, it didn't.

I've never been too involved in politics (though I did campaign for John Anderson, back in the '80s, which probably tells you all you need to know).  But I believed, back then and really, until now, that I lived in an America where all the leaders might fight but would ultimately, always, do the right thing. Now I know better.

When even the anguished faces of those so incredibly brave parents did nothing to thwart the pull of self interest, and money, I have given up.  

I have to admit I was always proud, and protective, of this country when anyone spoke against it.  But now I feel sick.  And though I've never considered moving anywhere else, I now think that holding ourselves up as the beacon of the world is a joke. A sad, sad joke.





















http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/us/politics/senate-obama-gun-control.html

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