If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If we are to evaluate our success as a nation based, at least in part, by our children's well-being, we ought to pay closer attention to what ails them emotionally, and to create a safe environment at home, at school and in the community they depend on to thrive.
What I Learned About Guns Growing Up in North Dakota, and How the NRA Could Not Be More Out of Touch
The NRA does not represent the hunters I grew up with in North Dakota, it represents the gun manufactures who see their profits go up every time Wayne LaPierre goes on TV calling for more guns.
No single woman leader, even one with as compelling a story as Gabby Giffords, can shift the direction of this debate alone. It will take women like the mothers of Newtown, and organizations like One Million Moms for Gun Control led by Shannon Watts, and more.
Today, I spoke from Los Angeles with Miller about violence in America and gun control, a topic that's less than two months after Adam Lanza's killing spree and former LAPD cop, Christopher Dorner, accused of hunting fellow officers.
My top priority -- of course -- is to protect the young people who study here, our faculty and staff, and all the many thousands of concert visitors we have every year. But this mandate necessitates negotiating a way through a challenging Scylla and Charybdis of choices.
The struggle continues, but to really appreciate the dedication of those of old, we must continue the struggle. We never would have made it without Rosa Parks and we will not make it without you.
That candle's lever refused to click into the "off" position. Too cold and tired to fuss with it, I brought it into the house and set it at the center of the breakfast table, where it glowed all night. And then it glowed all day. And then it glowed all week. And then for two weeks.
Which has a greater influence on shootings: video games or easy access to guns? Let's pretend for one second that we live on a planet where that question isn't absolutely, batshit insane.
Here's why the left always loses the gun control debate: we're too inclined to acquiesce on serious points -- to concede to the immovable, uncompromising gun people.
Happy Waiver Day! Today, the Senate's Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee will hold an oversight hearing on the No Child Left Behind waivers, featuring none other than U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, the big cheese himself. Catch our preview here.
I realized I wasn't nearly as scared as my friends, or any dyed-in-the-wool red state American. I'm afraid of guns, but they're afraid of everything. Socialism. Obama. Muslims. The government. Moral decline. The apocalypse. Immigrants. Tofu. They're even God-fearing.
It's high time to deal with guns at least as effectively as we dealt with cigarettes. Taking away guns from legitimate owners is not realistic, but reducing gun violence through serious, effective regulation is an urgent imperative.
I recognize those children were placed at the Super Bowl for good and sincere reasons. I have to wonder, though, if that's really what's best for at least some of those children.
"I'm not done being the best father I can be for Ben -- not by a very long measure." This was recently declared by parent David Wheeler, whose 6-year-old son, Ben, was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14th.
Once average Americans understand the interplay between the militarization of civilian weaponry and the gun lobby's devotion to insurrectionist rhetoric, the gig is up for Wayne & Co.
It is flattering to be cited in testimony to a Senate Judiciary Committee. It is less flattering to be cited in an argument against gun control, by a libertarian sympathetic to the NRA.
