Everything's Under Control. Situation Normal.

Breakfast time.

Putting up the Christmas tree.

Haven’t worn my uniform in a while.

We The People

“We the people” did not include everyone. They were the rich, property owners. It did not include the poor, the women, the slaves or the indentured servants. A few days ago while responding to a question, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said of the president, “It is not ‘we the people’ with him, it’s ‘me the president.’ I know what he meant but I found it interesting how the phrase “We the people” has evolved in the last two hundred plus years.

It took two hundred years from the time it was handful of British colonies until it became the United States of America to end slavery/indentured servitude. In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King and 250,000 people marched on Washington DC for equal rights and four years ago, in 2015, Dylann Roof murdered nine black worshipers at a Charleston, SC church. Recently, white people of various walks of life were recorded berating blacks, questioning their right to be in certain neighborhoods.

The long road to the end of racism has just begun.

Guns

There are many who believe that the accessibility of guns is an absolute right, a god-given right even. It is like the Constitution of the United States was not written by mere men, but by celestial beings who bestowed upon us the Bill of Rights as if they were Commandments handed directly from God. And, of course, there are the ones who believe that it is not and that gun ownership should be curbed.

Gun ownership should be allowed to a select few, a vetted few. I should not be able to walk into a gun store, have a haphazard background check done and walk out with as many guns as I could afford. Some, not all states, allow this. My home state does.

With all due respect to those who own guns for sport, but I don’t believe in killing animals for sport. With all due respect to the conspiracy theorist who believe they arm themselves in case of government uprising, but if the government attacked its people it would be an effortless one. It would be a bloodless one. First the power would go, then the internet. Why would they waste bullets on us when we’d likely go do easier when we couldn’t access our Netflix?

The United States leads the world in mass shootings. The gun laws that allow people easy access to firearms and our mental health system is to blame. Hand in hand.

Elections

Vote. It’s free, it can be fun, and it might make you feel like part of your community if you do. And usually, if you go early enough, you might see the people who are running waiting in line with you to vote. I’m a Democrat but I don’t care who you vote for. Do it. Vote your values. Do a little Google search, learn who’s running and learn their platforms. Vote intelligently.

In the 2018 midterm elections, there was little change in the voting statistics; the 18-35 year old did not vote as heavily as we thought and the older voters showed up in droves. It’s a shame that those in that age range leave all the voting for the “old folks” like me. You have so much life to live, so much rides on your vote. Not just now, but at every voting cycle.