For a long time I have teetered on the edge of Atheism and Agnostic. Events in the last few days may have just shoved me right into Atheism. I pretty much abandoned faith a really long time ago, I've never prayed, I have relied on myself and family to get me through the hard times. I've never ha a problem with people who have faith, love Jesus, quote the Bible, and things like that. They are very free to believe whatever they want, it's not my business.
However.
Recent events in America have prompted some (not all) to scream that we need religion in school. Simply put, no we do not. If I want my children to read the Bible, pray, and all of the other things that go along with religious teachings, they will have those things. The separation of church and state are a thing. It is not OK to force religion on anybody, EVER. If you're so serious are about religion in school there is an option for you, private school. Those people are also operating under the assumption that Atheists and Agnostics have no morals. I assure you they do. In fact my Atheist friends in most cases have better moral compasses than my Christian friends (see: Loving their fellow man is #1 on this list). I am raising my children without a religious background, if they want to learn about God, religion, the Bible, I will most certainly provide them with the tools they need to make their own decision about God. So far though, they aren't curious.
The other elephant in the room these days is guns.
On Friday the 14th 28 people were murdered in an elementary school in Connecticut. I will not name the shooter here because quite frankly we all know his name.
Some are advocating arming teachers. Let's think about this for a second......
What if teachers don't want to be armed. Are people advocating the forced arming of teachers? Probably not but the implication is there. Would an armed teacher have saved lives? Maybe, maybe not. There is no way of knowing really.
I'm not a fan of guns, my extended family owns guns and they hunt. I'm ok with that. They are all responsible with their firearms. I personally reject guns, I don't want one, I don't need one. People keep telling me I need one because I live in a "high crime" area of Minneapolis, it's high crime because my part of Minneapolis is the one that makes the news when something horrible happens. That's another rant entirely. Just so naysayers are aware, the crime rate in Edina is higher than in my neighborhood of Minneapolis. They ask, "well what if someone breaks into your house?" I've had my house broken into twice in 15 years. If they steal my TV that's fine, I have homeowners insurance, being broken into is why I pay for it every month. I hope that person really needed the money they got for my possessions. If I had a gun in my home and it was stolen in one of those break ins it would have been another gun on the streets used to commit a violent crime. If somebody broke into my home while I was home, a gun would be completely worthless to me in part because I wouldn't have a loaded gun in my home, people who store loaded weapons are asking for trouble in my opinion. Even if I brandished a weapon at a potential intruder I doubt very much that I could fire the damn thing to defend myself, I could end up being pistol whipped and raped or something. These are all scenarios my husband and I have come up with when talking about getting a gun. We decided a gun just was not worth the trouble.
A real conversation on two topics needs to be had in this country though. A meaningful conversation about gun control needs to be had. I would endorse bringing back the assault rifle ban, maybe flagging ammo for large purchases, large capacity magazines have also got to go, gun shows need better regulation also. If anyone can provide me with any evidence that these requests are unreasonable I will gladly listen, but if you say "because Obama is Hitler and will march us all into death camps". I will lose my fucking mind. Obama expanded hunting on national parks and gave you .45 caliber ammo. Shut. The. Fuck. Up. The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence gave him an F rating for failing to push gun legislation. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. Obama and the liberals (count me in that group) don't want your guns, we want people to not get killed by guns anymore.
The other conversation we need to have, mental health. Most of these shootings are perpetrated by people who are mentally unstable. We do not value mental health as much as we should in this country. Depression, anxiety, other problems for people are so much more than those commercials that usually show what looks like a really sad person in their bathrobe, while a gentle voice tells us how the medication may make your loved one want to kill themselves anyway. Dealing with a loved one who has bi-polar disorder has shown me exactly how important mental health is. It's more than moping around in yor bathrobe and fuzzy slippers. It's not being able to quiet your brain down so you can have a single thought. It's knowing that your family loves you but not being able believe it because somewhere inside your head something is telling you it's a lie. It's being on a high swing and everything is fantastic and then you feel the downswing coming and you struggle against it because you don't like how you feel when you're down. These are things that people deal with every-damn-day and we treat it like they're just sad. I get sad, my family member does not get sad, that person gets emotionally, and mentally abusive to themselves. Watching it happen from the outside is difficult. You spend much of a downswing trying to convince someone that you love them and that you are just trying to help them, even though you know it is futile. You try to hold this person, you love so dearly, together. You see the downswing coming, you prepare for it. Things that you normally say in jest are sometimes taken too seriously, you really concentrate on thinking before you speak to avoid a meltdown. This is not being sad, this is a goddamn disorder. We need to start talking about and treating these things. Mental health is just as important as physical health, yet we seem to value neither.
I am debating on turning the comments off for this post, keep it civil so I don't have too. Because as you all know, I'm lazy.
