One Armed - Not Dangerous

When you are forced to use only one hand, assuming you have two to begin with certain things are not easy to do.  In fact they become downright frustrating.
I just had wrist surgery to fix (hopefully) a painful problem on my left hand and for the time being I am forced to type one handed.
Using half of what we have and are used to using is so annoying and time consuming but at least I know it is only temporary.  And I am far better off than many others who have permanent damage or worse as a result of the latest tragedy dominating our news these days.
It's at times like these that the proverbial cream rises to the top.
But something else is in the mix and that has drifted further down into the muck & chaff.
I am speaking of two groups here:
The first is broad reaching and includes many members of the Tea Party and their "It's all about me" queen Sarah Palin.
The second group is the equally selfish money grubbing organization known as the National Rifle Ass.
One of the above is constantly in your face and never disappoints when you are expecting stupidity.  For the woman who failed at oh so many projects not the least of which was to finish her term of Governor of Alaska the shooting in Tucson could have been a way out into to the sunshine.  But instead she chose to remain in her bunker, firing salvos at anyone and everyone who dared to point a finger at her past rhetoric and inane web postings.
Americans love redemption.  Stars who enter and graduate from rehab are welcomed back with open arms.  Perhaps it's because we applaud them for admitting they had a problem and having the good sense to deal with it.
Ms. Palin could have admitted that she got carried away in the heat of the moment (the moment being two years and counting) and that she is sorry if her zeal for public service was misconstrued by an insane individual as a license to kill.
Then she could have quietly taken down all evidence of her "target" maps aimed at taking out Democrats with whom she disagreed and replaced them with a message of peace and hope.  Maybe even a memorial set up to the victims of the shooting.
But in fact she feels there was only one victim here and she is nothing if not consistent.
The media and the country should move on and away from useless egotists like this woman.  Let her whimper, fade and wallow in self pity while America heals and grows.  She's yesterday's news and deservedly so.
As for the NRA and it's war mongering attitude there is no such easy solution.
Congress enjoys the bribe money way too much to dismiss and control the product that sick bunch sells.
There is no way a hunter or recreational shooter (should that even be a term?) needs a weapon that fires hundreds of rounds of ammunition within seconds.  Frankly if you cannot kill a deer with two or three shots from one of your high powered rifles maybe you should stick to the penny arcades.
Assault rifles and 'cop killer' bullets and machine guns and AK47s and on and on should be outlawed.
At the very least tough regulations about owning them or carrying them should be enforced.  As for Arizona's allowing them to be concealed the only word that comes to mind is INSANE.
"From my cold dead hands" is a phrase made famous by the paranoid misguided gun-owners who think the country is out to get them.
They also mistakenly use the Second Amendment to justify carrying everything from a Saturday Night Special to purchasing a personal tank and possibly a nuclear device!
Arguments about how impossible it would be to rid the country completely of weapons fall short of productive conversation.  We do not have to remove every single fire arm, just regulate them and the magazines that fill them with multiple murder capability!
When someone says they carry a gun to protect themselves I ask from what?
From whom?
From the other guy carrying a gun to protect himself from you?
Possibly Bambi is packing!
The gun problem will not end here.
It will not go away.
This piece was hard to write with one hand tied behind my back (figuratively.)
Using only half of my fingers is tough but using only half a brain is worse!
We see that whenever Ms. Palin opens her mouth and we hear it whenever Congress takes up gun control.
The country is trying to heal and become whole again.
We must not go off half-cocked into the future.
The news has given us the ammunition we need to restart the fight.
Wouldn't now be a great time to use all of our brainpower and all of our resources and all of our will to head off the next tragedy?
I'm raising my hand to say yes!!!