violence – Jackie Koerner

Shooting Our Children

Guns are killing people, and most horrifically, children.

I’m not going to blame Columbine. I’m not going to blame the uneducated people in society. I’m not going to blame the people who join gangs. I’m not going to blame the media.

I’m blaming every single gun supporter.

The Constitution was written hundreds of years ago. Society has evolved. We no longer have to bare arms in order to protect our rebel selves from the oppression of a monarchy.

You use penicillin, toilets, and refrigeration. Let’s bring your views on gun control to this century too.

Children have tragically died because guns are in society. Children will continue to die because you encourage people to have guns in society.

No, I don’t want to hear bullshit about how this is such a small percentage of deaths and cancer or car accidents kill more children. Gun deaths are preventable deaths.

Here is a list of the children who have been injured or died this year due to guns being in our society.

If you’re with me, please speak out about guns in our society. The only way we can stop this is to continue to fight for appropriate gun control.

Still on the fence? Read more…

Gun Violence Archive

Boy, 6, fatally shoots toddler brother

Shots fired into home killing 9 year-old girl

Boy, 11, kills 8 year-old girl over puppies

D.C. 3 year-old fatally shot by child playing with gun

The Cloak of Invisibility Allows Gender-Based Violence

You can be an asshole on the Internet, but why?

On Monday I began listening to Invisibilia’s most recent episode, Our Computers, Ourselves and finished it yesterday afternoon.

The second half of the show strongly resonated in my mind. As the story goes, this commuter train rider was tired of rude commuters so he started a Twitter account where he’d post pictures of the infractions in attempt to shame rude people on the train. His crowd shaming efforts soon turned shameful. Not only did he post pictures of rude behavior, but he began being rude himself – the worst was posting a picture of a woman with terrible acne scarring and making a snide remark. When word about this Twitter account got out, his followers skyrocketed.

I’m sure there are other situations like this. Person is a jerk. People are fascinated by the tragedy. Jerk gets an audience.

Why are we as society so fascinated with the negative?

Why is it ok to say these things on the Internet?

The Internet is full of trolls. (See: This American Life “If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say, SAY IT IN ALL CAPS”) I theorize the troll to person ratio is 4:1. They will troll on anyone for any unconceivable reason. Even worse than the trolls are completely heinous dungeon dwellers. These individuals find it completely acceptable to threaten women, often with vicious, violent acts.

Gender-based violence is nothing new. There are still people in society who will say such comments or threats to a woman’s face, but the cloak of invisibility people feel the Internet provides seems to turn down the volume on the super-ego and unleash the unbridled id.

Unfortunately it seems to take a rally cry, hash tagging and a bunch of blogging to hold social media venues accountable for reacting to gender-based violence. For now, most offenses still receive boiler plate responses that include phrases like:

Just like when we are interacting in a public space we may overhear conversations that are offensive…

This same platform chirped further about how users can find such content “frustrating”. Yes, being told to “go get raped” or “get raped with a broken bottle” is totally frustrating, just like this rush hour traffic.

It is never ok to suggest or threaten violence against anyone. This plague of gender-based violence is open for everyone to see and affect. The best cure for a bully is an ally. Stand up and be an ally against gender-based violence. Don’t give the assholes an audience, report their heinous behavior, and their soapbox will cave in.

Rights and Responsibilities

For those of you who know me personally, you’ll find it no surprise about how affect I have been by this most recent massacre. My favorite things in life include children and teaching and my strongest opinions are about gun control.

For those of you who do not know my daughter, Kari, she is 6, nearly 7. She is beautiful, funny, intelligent, and one of my favorite people in the whole world. She loves animals and wants to study their behavior. Her favorite food is spaghetti and meatballs. Dancing and soccer make her top ten.

All of those children killed on Friday were 6 or 7. All of them were exactly like Kari: full of energy, fun and happiness. I could not imagine. I still hope to wake from this horrid reality of what is. I cannot understand what constitutional right can overrule this wrong.

I will never in my life touch a gun. I have no desire to touch an object that is specifically designed for ending another life. To the argument is that shooting is a sport: that may be. Yet one cannot argue with the inherent design of a gun. It is designed to kill.

Last night, Kari clung to me, scared to go to school today. I explained to her that this likely wouldn’t happen at her school and Connecticut is very far away. To that she replied, “Mom, guns are all over.” Amazing how easily children figure out our biggest problems.

Pro-gun individuals are all about guns it seems regardless of the lives lost, statistics and the overall reality. See this report from the Onion. Pro-gun individuals’ biggest worry is not trusting the government or the police. Yes, because we live in a third world war torn country where the issues in a democracy are best solved with brute force. I honestly ask pro-gun people: How many times in your life have you actually had an instance where you were oppressed or otherwise and a gun would have made that situation better? Let me fill this in for you. It’s a very minute portion and likely you’re not in it.

I am sick over this. I cannot express enough how much I hate guns and the lack of gun control in our country and our overall total disregard for life. We are an embarrassment. Our children our being killed yet we still hold dear our “government-protected right to own a portable device that propels small masses of metal through the air at lethal rates of speed.”

Americans generally have always had a few things backwards forcing not participants to participate in their choices: smoking, drunk driving, guns, etc. I live in one of the most dangerous cities in America. Our news should just be called the obits. I know about violence and how absolutely senseless crimes occur out of emotion. When people have access to lethal weapons when in such emotional states, crimes occur. Maybe you don’t run around shooting your gun, but, honestly, what practical reason do you have for carrying a gun? Don’t tell me it is for fantasized heroics. That doesn’t do it for me.

Please allow this tragic string of massacres and overall gun violence be a call to everyone to take an issue with gun control in America.

See more objective and rational information at kottke.org.