I never make an effort to listen to the local news unless I want to find out about the weather. Sometimes however, I catch the first few minutes of it late at night while washing the last of the dishes and setting out midnight snacks for the cats before I go to bed. And so it came to pass that I caught the first story on the local TV news yesterday night.
I was going to start today’s blog with “the local news is a piece of crap” before launching into another diatribe. But then I started analyzing the reasons why I think that. It’s funny how both local and global news can be depressing, but they are so with very different flavors. Global news refers to events that can be abstracted; local news just rubs local humanity in your face. I always feel a lot dirtier listening to local news.
Yesterday, since we were not getting snowed in again, the first item on the news was not about the weather and its paralyzing effects on the south but consisted of a the story of a 14-year old shooting his family with a 22 caliber rifle that he had recently received from his father as a birthday gift. Neighbors said the boy liked to play with the gun all day in the yard and carried it with him all over the place. Mother and father are dead, while Grandmother is in the hospital. .
Somebody please explain the second amendment to me again....
I can explain it - it says we have the right to bear arms in the context of a "well regulated militia," i.e. the national guard. NOT for every man, woman and child to own an oozie! Personally, I am scared enough of guns that I do not trust myself with one. As soon as people start trusting themselves with a gun, I am scared of them as well.
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