Please understand the irony in this…
Recently I have noticed that everyone has an opinion about something.
Gun control, immigration,and the police state have all been center stage as of late. With the presidential elections upcoming in 14 months it is only suiting that we have these issues front and center. However, those aren’t really the issues. (If I have written about this before, I apologies now.) Those are only the issues that the major news outlets want you to see. You see, you think that gun control should be a non-issue, so you watch MSNBC News to validate your view of the subject. You late attend a gathering among friends with varying political outlooks. You precede to regurgitate everything you heard earlier. Meanwhile your friends are doing the same. So you concede a draw only to go back and watch more of your favorite news channel to further strengthen your views on the subject. But in the end, MSNBC News doesn’t care about you. You are ratings. You are a means to ad revenues. You are money in their pockets. And what do you get from it? Nothing. Recently I saw a news article talking about how Facebook.com should be paying the users because they are the products that they sell to advertisers. Seriously, do you hear yourself sometimes? The stand you have taken on gun control, immigration, etc is a product you have been sold.
Let us imaging for a second that you were not consumed by all this nonsense. We’ll just play this out for a second. You live in a city with low crime, middles class, gentrified neighborhood. You have a steady job at the (blank) where you make a enough money to provide for your family, with enough to invest into a 401k. So your doing pretty well for yourself. So let us figure out where these hot button issues you are preaching about effect you. We’ll start with Crime.(This is a loaded question, please I do not want to hear about it.) How many of you have been effected by a violent crime? According to [FBI data],(https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-2013/tables/table-18/table18ratebymetropolitanandnonmetropolitancountiesbypopulationgroup_2013.xls) in metropolitan area with over 100,000 persons there were, see below, out of a total of 41,660,407 million people.
| 117,863 violent crimes | 1,457 murder/manslaughters | 6,227 rapes | 29,329 robberies | 77,394 aggravated assaults | 858,047 Property crimes | 221,931 burglaries | 568,073 larceny-theft | 68,042 motor vehicle theft |
Now let us compare that to the population 25,000 or more, with a total population of 9,368,448.
| 16,075 violent crimes | 266 murder/manslaughters | 1,607 rapes | 1,210 robberies | 12,356 aggravated assaults | 139,520 Property crimes | 47,371 burglaries | 84,151 larceny-theft | 7,998 motor vehicle theft |
So you can see from the two tables that there is a greater chance that something will happen in metropolitan areas then in the suburban areas that you live.
So how safe do you feel in your home, city, or whatever? How much of your fears are driven by those around you? Stories of your sister’s friend’s cousin’s co-worker who was raped outside of her work. Of course there was also the one time your Grandma’s neighbor’s son’s nephew was robbed at the ATM and knife point for $50.
So now that can see you are statistically less likely to have something happen to you, why does it matter if the government regulates the types of guns you can have? Does this really effect you in any way? I am a gun owner. I work with weapons regularly. I enjoy shooting them. Pretty much all of the above. So how can it be that I am saying regulate guns? it goes back to my original point, how does it effect you. Ok so the government says you can’t have a full automatic AK-47. You’re all up in arms for whatever reason, and maybe it is justified. But why? Unless you simply have money and want to just buy guns as a collector, there is zero reason to have one. I hear from people in conversations talking about protecting themselves from government involvement. Or if a second revolution takes place they will be ready? Ready for what? Let me introduce you to reality. The United States has the largest, strongest, most powerful military in the world. You think your going to go toe to toe with them? Your attempt at a Shay’s Rebellion is to going to happen. You have heard the saying, “bring a knife to a gun fight.” Well you’re bring a gun to do nothing against tanks, artillery, missiles, etc. Do I really have to go on with this? It seems simple to me. You don’t stand a chance. So let us just call it what it is, you don’t like to be told that you can’t do something, therefore you want to rebel and have what ever it is you can have. And i would be fine with that, if you just stated that, but you don’t.
Now on to the next hotly contested issue, immigration. Can you honestly tell me how you fear this? Let me see if I can get this straight. You are afraid of an unskilled laborer taking a job from you that you weren’t even interested in? Here is a list of jobs (sorry it is from 2008). But you get the idea.
1.Brickmasons, blockmasons, and stonemasons
2.Drywall installers, ceiling tile installers and tapers
3.Roofers
4.Miscellaneous agricultural workers
5.Helpers, construction trades
6.Dishwashers
7.Construction laborers
8.Maids and housekeepers
9.Cement Masons, concrete finishers, and terrazzo workers
10.Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders
11.Grounds maintenance workers
12.Packers and packagers, hand
13.Butchers, poultry and fish processing workers
14.Carpet, floor, and tile installers and finishers
15.Painters, construction and maintenance
16.Parking lot attendants
17.Chefs and head cooks
18.Sewing machine operators
19.Refuse and recyclable material collectors
20.Cooks
Oh now I get it, you are mad that this unskilled workforce is taking jobs away from your do-nothing kids. Here is something, your kid does want this job either. (Your kid is a whole different topic all together.) I mean if it such a show stopper for you, why don’t you take a job in one of these industries?
Oh what about all the crime that “these” people bring? Seriously? Look at the crime the citizens of the US bring. We as a nation are up in arms when an undocumented worker kills somebody. This makes the national media and is talked about for a few days, and then it disappears. But you’re left with your, “I hate them” attitudes, when the truth is it doesn’t effect you. Oh what about the medical care they are “stealing” from those that deserve it. Again, is this even an issue? So people doesn’t deserve assistance with medical issues? This is a basic right that everyone should be allowed.
I think we have lost focus of what is right. Every life is just as important as the last. And the basic needs that you are afford should be afforded to all within the protection of the nation they reside regardless of their status. Sure we have a soaring deficit, upwards of 18 trillion dollars, but rest a sured that is is not because of some “freeloading” immigrants. The largest begets item that the US has is Medicare. Ready for this shocker? The Pharmaceuticals/Health industry spent $3,146,090,212 between 1998 -2015 lobbying politicians. interesting fact, $272,760,917 was spent in 2009. The Affordable Care Act was introduced as the United States National Health Care Act (2009, H.R. 676). And in 2010 Harry Reid was the top recipient of lobbyist funds from the pharmaceutical/health industry with $315,408. Does that come as a surprise? It shouldn’t. All I am getting to is this, if you are unhappy with he current shape of things vote in change. Vote in the government you want to see.
Sorry back on topic, the government should provide basic amenities, and healthcare should be on of those. I mean do you get upset when you are forces to buy an efficient toilet? Why should the government regulate the gallons my toilet can hold. If i want a 55 gal. capacity toilet I should be able to buy one. Wait… I don’t hear that argument. Are you mad about that? Nope. Why? Because it honestly doesn’t effect you. Does it matter is how many gallons are in my toilet? Nope.
I wanted to install a power outlet for a welder at my home. I was all up in arms over this. It felt it was stupid for my to have to go buy a permit and have some joe inspect it. Begrudgingly I went to city hall and bought the stupid permit. The inspector came out and was like, “Yep it’s an outlet.” He spent a about a minute in total looking at it. He signed it off and went about his way. I was so mad. I felt as if my time had been wasted and to top it off it was for “nothing.” But later it made sense to me. There are these checks in place to prevent dumb things from happening. If I installed the outlet I could have did something wrong. This could have led to something later down the road, resulting in a structure fire. Or worse I sell the home and the worst happens to them. It is almost as if processes and procedures are in place to prevent us from hurting ourselves or others.
I have spent time in places where governments seem to be vacant. There are no real rules to do things. It seems that the population can “freely” do as they please. Let me tell you that it isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. Buildings being built with tree logs as scaffolding. Tin roofs that hold zero elements out. Or exposed power lines in the road for people to touch or trip over. I would gladly take the safety the government has, then to risk something like I have seen before.
Would these be issues for you? If your _ News did a story on the work conditions of whatever, would it be something that drove you to action? Nope, because these don’t draw you in. They do not penetrate the market. Ultimately, they don’t draw in ratings.
In the end, you and I are sheep to the issues we are fed. Facebook recently suggested that if you didn’t like your newsfeed you should broaden your friend circle. What they were saying was this, the issues that you hear about are because it is what you choose to hear. All of your friends are like you. You dislike gun control, so do they. You find fault with immigration, they do as well. Your friends take issue with the same things you do. That is why you are constantly bombarded with the same issues over and over. Meanwhile, they aren’t even issues that effect you.
Sure you may refuse to see the validity of point because of your own biases. You and I will continue to not understand the points we make towards our arguments and ultimately refuse to concede any ground. And this animosity will create a divide amongst us, a divide that is self inflicted.