Both the President and his challenger, Governor Mitt Romney, took a break from campaigning today. The President spoke movingly:
"President Barack Obama on Friday called the Colorado movie theater shooting “senseless” and said his administration “stands ready to do whatever is necessary to bring whoever is responsible for this heinous crime to justice.”
“We may never understand what leads anybody to terrorize their fellow human beings like this,” he said. “Such violence, such evil, is senseless. It’s beyond reason.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0712/78761.html#ixzz21BbH4119
That's always the question that begs is it not? Why? Why would a young doctoral student want to hurt fellow human beings this way? Was it that bad for him? Did he know such pain and despair that this was the only way he could imagine to make it less? Causing needless pain to so many?
"The suspected "lone-wolf" shooter of the Batman movie theater massacre in Aurora, Colo. earlier today has been identified as PhD student James Holmes, who recently withdrew from his neuroscience studies at the University of Colorado before shooting up "The Dark Knight Rises" screening."
Yet even this carnage was not enough for Holmes. He has his apartment laced with explosives which could have taken out many others in the area. In the face of this you have to ask why. New York Mayor Boomberg had some comments as well. I'm far from always in agreement with the Mayor-there probably are few who are always so.
He recently got eviscerated for his limit on the size of soft drinks in NYC, a measure that I myself might benfit from-though I don't know that I like it-LOL! Luckily I live here in Nassau, Long Island rather than NYC. The Mayor had some pointed words for the two Presidential candidates:
"Asked about the shootings at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater showing “The Dark Knight Rises” that killed at least 12 people, Bloomberg said President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney need to offer specific policy proposals, in addition to prayers and sympathy
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0712/78756.html#ixzz21Bdzsiq4
“Soothing words are nice,” Bloomberg said during a regularly scheduled appearance on WOR 710 AM in New York. “But maybe it’s time the two people who want to be president of the United States stand up and tell us what they’re going to do about it, because this is obviously a problem across the country. And everybody always says, ‘Isn’t it tragic?’”
“I mean, there’s so many murders with guns every day,” Bloomberg continued. “It’s just gotta stop. And instead of these two people, President [Barack] Obama and Governor [Mitt] Romney talking in broad things about, they want to make the world a better place. OK, tell us how. And this is a problem. No matter where you stand on the Second Amendment, no matter where you stand on guns, we have a right to hear from both of them, concretely, not just in generalities, specifically, what are they going to do about guns?”
I got to say that the Mayor is exactly right. Listen, this is how it always goes down We of course voice sympathy, despair, and outrage. Yet what are we going to do about it? Excellent question. Of course, right away it gets contentious. Obviously we end up in the usual political divisions. What the Mayor discussed-gun control is exactly what some think is out of the question.
"Bloomberg went on to suggest most of the nation’s governors should also make their stances clear, and said the problem wasn’t limited to major cities like New York."
“This is killing people every day,” he said. “And it’s growing. And it’s not just an inner city, East Coast, West Coast, big city phenomenon. Aurora is not a big city, it’s a suburb of Denver. … The murder rate in the rural areas is as just as bad, if not worse than the murder rate in the urban areas.”
But while the problem is nation-wide, he also said it was uniquely American."
“I don’t think there’s any other developed country in the world that has remotely the problem we have,” Bloomberg said. “There’s no other place that allows — we have more guns than people in this country. Every place else, if there are murders, they’re generally not done with guns.”
"Bloomberg, a political independent who is being courted by both the Romney and Obama presidential campaigns and frequently endorses in gubernatorial and senatorial contests, said “national leadership” was needed to solve the problem."
“There’s something more important than getting re-elected,” he said. “And that’s standing up and saying what you think is right.”
Trayvon Martin in Florida, and this latest happened right in the place we had the first major shooting that got the country's attention-Colorado, home of Columbine.
As I said, I may be a New Yorker, but I live in Baldwin, Long Island, which is for the most part a very safe suburb. Yet just the other day I was walking right down Grand Ave and came across a police line. There was a news van from Channel 12 here in NY. I asked the reporter what had happened. There was a killing. Right here on Adam off Grand.
A 22 year old young man. Gunned down in his car at 11 PM last Sunday night, about 5 minutes walking distance from my house.
http://www.news12.com/articleDetail.jsp?articleId=327043&position=1&news_type=news
There are some who don't want guns to be mentioned in this kind of story. They will say this is unjustified politicization. Fine. What is the solution though? Is there any response or do we just go on with business as usual? You don't like gun control, fine. What's your solution? Don't tell me what you don't like or approve of, tell me what you want to do about this. We all must ask ourselves this.
Switzerland has very loose gun laws too, and the only murders that take place around here are the results of lunatics gone wild. Usually they kill their wife before committing suicide, but once in a while they do more damages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zug_massacre).
ReplyDeleteSwiss people are nowhere as conservative as Americans, however no ballot succeeded yet in tightening the gun laws. Don't ask why, this is beyond my understanding.
Interesting. I'm not totally anti-gun in any case. But the idea that this guy had explosives all over his apartment-it seems like they ought to have some kind of vetting process.
ReplyDeleteWe've had too many lunatics gone wild in the US lately. The NRA gun lobby here is ridiculously strong.
The basis for the recent absurd contempt vote against Eric Holder was that Fast and Furious was supposedly a conspiracy to take guns away from God fearing white Christians.
I'm not saying take everyone's gun away but I think Bloomberg asks some good questions.
I just can't understand why this guy has been getting so many votes and so much approval. It's almost like people like him because of his personality, which is not the way to go. I think people like him simply because he wants to do the opposite of Bush and because he is against Hillary. People should vote for the best candidate instead of just voting because of the party the party they represent. Are his supporters Obama lovers or Republican haters?
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