h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I personally would rather dodge words than bullets. But I have not been a verbal target like you have Karen, so maybe I would feel differently in your shoes. I do remember the worst thing anyone ever said to me. I had gone out with a cute guy, and he said I was beautiful; when I told that to my best friend, she said "You didn't believe him did you?" In one sentence she implied I was ugly, and a chump. Karen, I'm sorry that you're still hurting so much from the useless trauma you went through. I do hope those wounds start to heal with time.

*a flower for Karen*

you too, Ellen
Karen

I have been hit and I have been insulted. Both hurt. Both imply feelings of hate and frustration directed at me, both are meant to make me feel bad. But I can shrug off the insults; the invasion of my personal, physical space is much more insulting than that. An insult, I can throw right back, but a bullet? A slap? A kick?

Psychological violence is bad, but physical violence is also psychological. Whoever hits out at you is trying to hurt you, is implying that you are unworthy of respect.

This is wildly off-topic, though. I'm still strictly pro-gun control and anti-gun in general. I wish the gun had never been invented. It's really only meant to do harm, it's evil.

I DO agree with you.
Karen

Arthur C Clark wrote a book called trigger, about a mechanism which forces explosives to go off within a field, eliminating guns and explosives. Anyone else read it, it's got a scary ending...

You wonderful folks probably wouldn't believe it if I told you about the time my Mom and I had to be evacuated from our house because a bomb had been placed in our back yard mistakenly
It's true, though.
We were unfortunate enough to have an address that closely matched someone in a prostitution and weapons ring in the city we lived in, and we were the ones that got the bomb, instead of the ringleader.
There were about five bombs in the city that week, all meant for the people involved with that bunch. Fortunately for us, the police got the tip about ours BEFORE it blew us out of a home
Karen

There was a Cate Blanchett movie recently about that very thing. I haven't seen it, but the reviews said the main character plants a bomb to kill a drug dealer, but the bomb goes off in the wrong place, and kills four other people. I think the name of the movie was Heaven. I don't think it ever opened in Memphis, maybe I'll see it on DVD.

In a smaller place like Saskatoon, the city I used to live in, where there is only 130,000 people, there is so much opportunity for crime to go unnoticed, and gets rather wicked because of that very fact.
My Mum had never had experience with anything remotely close to a bomb, and was never the same after that experience. I think it shattered her innocence, in a way
I worked with people in the inner city, and the hopelessness, fear, and violence was very strong there. Especially with the Indigenous people, who were so very bitter.
I really came to understand the addage:
"The rich get richer, while the poor ger poorer" doing that job.
I became a target there, after a time, as I was visible in my position of community liason. I didn't have the right skin color, and many of the people there who were angry at "the white guy", saw me as just another target for their anger and frustration. Anger and frustration I could clearly understand, but that my skin color prevented me from helping. (Very few people there knew that my ancestors were Native).
Anyway, I think that is why our law enforcement community has such frustration dealing with the abundance of violence in our communities. It is a result of a societal ignorance, where if people are not directly affected by an action, they believe it doesn't exist.
Karen

Sounds really scarey....



for everyone who's seen a gun or experienced a bomb, or violence or even abuse, verbal or otherwise.

That would just about be all of the human race.
We are all affected in some way by violence. Television and movies desensitize us, to some degree, as the characters we see getting killed, always end-up being in another show. So, our minds tell us that death, as we see it, doesn't happen.
I don't know how can deal with the stuff he has to deal with at work. The other day, he responded ALONE to a domestic dispute, where there were a ton of weapons, as well as a bunch of people. (many of whom had been drinking)
I worry about him for that very reason.
One can expect such things to happen, and when they DO, can learn to deal more effectively with such things, if they have happened more than once. BUT, people are the variables in this world. No person will ever react exactly the same way in any given situation.
THAT is what makes people so dangerous.
There is a measure of truth to the saying.....
"Guns don't kill people. People kill people."
(I said a MEASURE of truth)
Karen

I'll have to make a lot of cuddles!

Cuddles for everyone!

Cuddles to go 'round!

Keep up the great cuddling!
Karen

Bowling for Columbine got an Oscar nomination for best documentary. I hope it wins!

I've been following this thread with one eye and now I have seen the film myself, and would like to say my bit.

It really was a powerful film, and, although a documentary, kept you involved the whole time. I spent the whole of the evening when I got home telling my husband all about it and the next morning at work telling my colleague and trying to persuade her to go.

The message that Michael Moore puts across is that in America the media have such amazing control, underlined by some amazing facts, such as : The actual number of gun murders has sunk by 20% but the TV coverage has increased by 600%.

(Even if any of the statistics in that film are incorrect or exaggerated -MM might have reproduced them in good faith, but who can guarantee that the sources were correct? - the figures are so staggering that even halving them would support his arguments.)

The comparison with Canada was very striking. There were some really brilliant quotes, which I can't remember now. One was by the guy in the taxi, one by the Canadian girl with the blue hair and one by Marylin Manson. Manson said, on the subject of him and his ilk being blamed for the attitude of young people today, that people had more cause to be scared of the President, but no one could get at him, could they? I can imagine that the little pause for change of scene at the end of that speech was filled with a round of applause at some showings.

(There were only about 8 people in the cinema where I was and most of them were Germans, so perhaps they didn't quite get the point, although Manson spoke very clearly and articulately)

I could still go on for ages about the film, which opened my eyes, as, like Saint above, I have led a very sheltered life and never seen a gun, except for the airgun my Dad had to scare the rabbits off the cabbages.

There was a shooting like this in a school in Germany last year, but the kid who did it was much much less of a wierdo than the ones in Columbine. It brings things nearer to home.

And the point Karen made about lack of respect among people is definitely the crux of the matter, I'm sure. Starting with respect for oneself. Politicians are putting money into things that reduce our respect for ourselves and the rest of mankind, making us work longer hours for less money, to support bombings and wars for causes we don't understand or agree with. As the Canadian mayor said in the film (BfC) - and another American chappie in an office, forgotten who he was - we should take care of the people first. Give them a chance to take care of their kids themselves, have proper family life and security in the small community.

People with a secure family upbringing in their early years are surely less likely to mow down their classmates with whatever form of weapon.

Innate violence will always be there, but to some extent it can be vented in less dangerous ways if people are given a society in which they can value their own and other peoples lives, health and security.

And Michael Moore, by the way, who was hitherto unknown to me, seems a really nice guy. OK he made the film himself, but he let the camera speak for itself to a great extent. And just let it roll when that policeman walked away from him, when Charlton Heston stood up and walked off, and when Dick Clark waved him away from the van. Brilliant!

Hi TC. I'm waiting for the film to come out on DVD so I can see it again and let it all soak in a bit more. I think Michael Moore is an interesting filmaker and cool person. He combines razor sharp humor with deep compassion for people - an unusual mix, don't you think?