History – Page 8 – Doug's Views

January 14, 2013April 18, 2020

Time Passes – Leave A Positive Legacy

The artist as a young man (circa 1973)

This month is the anniversary of my birth. Part of our life cycle. Birth, living, then death. All simple, neat and tidy. Millions have done it before me and millions more will come after me. Why am I so special? What is my purpose? It may surprise you to know, I know the answer to those questions and I’m both thrilled and scared about it at the same time. Whenever my birthday comes around, I get this sick feeling of dread that I try to hide from my friends and family. (Oops! LOL) But I don’t want to ignore the date. We can celebrate growing old.

Someone, I can’t remember who, described life as a roller coaster. From birth to a certain point in life, we’re moving up and up like going up the big hill of a roller coaster. After that certain point it’s all down hill. I do feel like I have started that down hill trip. Or I’ve flipped over the hour glass and the grains of time are slipping slowly to the other side. Whichever sad depressing metaphor works for you.

January 13, 2013April 18, 2020

Aaron Swartz Case Highlights Our Unbalanced Scales Of Justice

I didn’t know who Aaron Swartz was before hearing about his death this weekend. I realized I had heard of him once his biography was reported when the story of his death spread across the Internet. It seems Swartz committed suicide and that action might have been the result of stress due to his upcoming trial for computer fraud and abuse. If convicted he was looking at least 35 to 50 years in federal prison. What crime did he commit with his computer? He “stole” information from behind a paywall that he believed should be free to the public since we paid for the creation of the information. While his death is tragic for his friends and family, his case shows how unbalanced our justice system can be.

December 26, 2012April 18, 2020

Rights Shouldn’t Be Subject To A Popular Vote

Imagine if we took votes on what people could believe in, speak about, or who people could love? That doesn’t sound fair at all, right? People who support gay marriage know what I mean. That’s why when I read almost 250,000 people had signed a petition on the White House website to legally label the Westboro Baptist Church a hate group, I actually had a problem with the petition. While I agree with the point, Fred Phelps and his church are way off the crazy scale, just imagine if you were on the wrong side of popular opinion. As much as I dislike the Westboro Baptist Church, this petition shows why we shouldn’t let rights be put up for a popular vote – PERIOD.

Here is the text of the petition:

December 22, 2012April 18, 2020

New Merchant of Death: The NRA

The NRA may not have pulled the trigger at the elementary school in Connecticut but they can’t avoid any blame since they fight for little or no gun laws and benefit from and promote an irrational public fear that drives gun sales. The press conference they held on Friday 12/21 proves the point that they don’t really care about mass killings accomplished after their hard work. They now join tobacco and alcohol producers who also refuse to accept any blame for killing people and work to get legal protection. They have joined the merchants of death.

Here is the main take away from the NRA press conference:

December 17, 2012April 18, 2020

I’m Sorry But I Can’t Really Know How You Feel

Watching the TV coverage of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting this weekend, or rather trying to avoid it, I was concerned about the incident and feel sad for the families and friends of the ones who were murdered, However I can’t really know how they feel and I don’t want to. Some of the media coverage just seems too creepy for words and I wonder if I should feel bad for not feeling worse. How many more innocent people need to die to change our gun culture?

I remember how I felt after seeing the 2nd plane hit the World Trade Center on 9/11 and I feel the same way after the Sandy Hook killings. I’m in funk but because the people who were murdered in Connecticut were not my family or friends, I don’t have a right to grieve. That’s for the friends and family of the victims.