I am sitting in Wisconsin. I made the trek up north to watch my Grandson play basketball and to watch my Granddaughter cheer. After living in Florida for the last four years I was not looking forward to the Midwest in December. It was 51 degrees when I got to the Ft Myers airport at 6am and it was 51 degrees in Milwaukee when I landed. Milwaukee’s high was the same as Ft. Myers low. I was real happy with weather is the 50s in Wisconsin in December but you still have to wear long pants and socks. There was no snow on the ground yet, but it definitely was not shorts and flip flops weather. 

We have December tornados in Tennessee and shootings all over the country. Climate change and gun violence are always a couple of biggest news items while being some of the biggest ignored items by the Republican Party. Why would we not want to tackle either of those problems is something that I don’t understand. Our children are dying from gun violence which I would think would be unacceptable in one of the supposedly more advanced Countries in the world. Battling climate change can bring about new technologies that the entire planet can benefit from new economic growth in new industries. By working to solve both problems we would be leaving a better world for our children and grandchildren to live in which should always be the goal of any generation, leaving a better world for the next. 

For those that have been following me know that I am always saying that the 2nd amendment is the most twisted sentence in the entire Constitution of the United States. I truly believe that it is being used in a manner that was never intended by the people that wrote it. I am a gun owner and I have always thought that I have had the right to protect my home and my property, always. I also believe that the property that the 2nd Amendment was intended to protect was the property of human flesh. They were called slaves back then. The militias that were formed mostly in the south were for the States to be able to have a militia that was capable of putting down a slave revolt. Of course they have a different name for them in states like Virginia and that was “Slave Patrols”. Some say that the Slave Patrols were actually the early versions on what are now called our Sheriffs Departments. Slave states did not trust that the Federal Government would come to their aid quick enough to put down a slave revolt or they would not help at all. They wanted a clause in the Constitution so they could form militias that would enforce the institution of slavery. We have to move away from the damage that slavery did to this country and the 2nd Amendment is part of that damage. Today when there is gun violence for too many the answer is more guns. More guns to stop gun violence will only result in more gun violence on our streets and more deaths. When will we learn that one of definitions of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results is just plain nuts. As I said earlier I am a gun owner and I firmly believe that I have the right to protect my home and I will, but even the “cow towns” in Kansas were smart enough to know that gun laws made sense. I don’t want guns taken away but I want them off the street. 

The battle against climate change should have been a battle that we started fighting before the Carter Administration. We have known for a very long time that what we are doing is changing our environment. Our biggest problem is we have let people choose money over our future as a species on this planet. Do I or you really benefit by the Koch’s getting richer or the Saudi's getting more powerful? My life and the lives of most of the people around me would be much better off if we would have moved away from fossil fuels that are not only destroying our environment but is one of the things that is causing major conflicts around the world. Oil has enabled small countries and big businesses to hold much of the world and our economies hostage. Oil and its money has corrupted too much of our Government to the point that too many of our government officials are just mouth pieces for the oil industry and remember, a lot of that oil money that is corrupting our elected officials is foreign money that is actually working against the well being of this nation. If there is one industry that does not put America first it is the fossil fuel industry so why do we allow it to corrupt our government so much?

I always think that I am writing about the same thing every few weeks such as gun violence and climate change and the reason is that I am. Remember that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Well I keep writing the same things over and over again hoping to promote change that isn’t happening. That just shows you that I just may be nuts too but I am not giving up.