On American Exceptionalism

The first week of classes is under the belt.
All the syllabi have been distributed, so we know what we're up against.
A shit-load of reading, mostly.

This week in Political Science (the class is called American Political Thought), and no doubt this coming week, it's all about "American Exceptionalism", or more apt, "Why America Thinks It's Special". [The guy who coined the phrase and theory of "American Exceptionalism" was a French politician and historian named Alexis de Tocqueville, in the 1800's]

Sure, America is special. Every country is in its own way. But this is the exploration of the why, not just a bold overreaching declaration of America's divine uniqueness.
Okay, there will also be no declaration of its divinity in this.

We didn't need to read the "stacks" of articles, to know that America thinks it has some pious self ascribed role in the world - or, as the PoliSci teacher describes it, "A mission to remake the world in its image."
Sounds like a God complex of the nth degree.
We didn't need to read a backlog of essays (though we had to for the class) to know why America isn't as special as it thinks it is either, or that it is inherently fearful of its decline. All it takes to understand that is some reading and rational analysis. And acceptance.

Many of our family members are so very fond of proclaiming that the United States is the best country in the world. Most of them haven't been farther than a few states over, so it's hard to say what they are basing it on. Surely America is "pleasant" enough. It's home. It's large in landmass, it's varied in geography, even though it takes awhile, sometimes, to get to a change in topography. It's got diverse culinary offerings. It still has diverse cultures...for now. It's got some...qualities, for sure.

But, why...then...is America unique...

Freedom of Speech? That's our favorite one.
However, other countries have it. For example, the freedom of speech for citizens of Japan is protected under Chapter III, Article 21, of their constitution, not to mention the forty-seven countries "granted" Freedom of Expression via Article 19 of the European Convention on Human Rights(1). Albeit, Europe's is set forth with consideration of a balancing of freedoms, i.e. you are free to express your opinions, but not to harass and thereby alienate a person or people(s). Some might argue that its definition is restrictive and lacks the wild-eyed unabashed freedom afforded Americans under the First Amendment (and if you truly believe in unrestricted expressive freedom under the First Amendment, then maybe you should lower the dose on those medications, dear). Others might argue that the protections afforded by Article 19 are more sophisticated, mindful of protecting the rights of people to live happily, free of torment and ridicule.
P.S. If you think torment and ridicule should be protected...may we suggest you back away from this blog.

So, it's not really exceptional because of free speech rights then.

Religion? Well, sure, America has religion. A lot of it. Of course the religious people think it's pretty exceptional...as long as you're part of "the right one". Plus, if you pay attention, religion doesn't really play in the same sandbox as actual freedom. Can't really be that then.

Some might say individualism and personal freedom, then, is why America is so awesome - but what about the pressure to deny gay people the right to marriage, or women the right to choose, or the attempts at continued repression of women and other groups, and the staunch hatred for people of different ethnic backgrounds, with non-Anglo-Saxon religions, whose first language isn't English. (Ya'll gotta speak English, ya hear, this is 'Murica!). And, actually, the intolerance of anyone not like "you".

So far, America is Exceptional, if you're white, male, straight and Christian...and don't forget upper-middle class or higher...and born in America...and speak fluent English [exceptions for Southerners, of course].

Humph.
What else is there.

It's certainly not the education system(2), bloated military spending(3), financially inflated healthcare industry [third most expensive in the world(4)] with the complex systems that have always governed it (*cough* manipulative capitalism).
It's not the increasingly corrupt and convoluted political system, or increasingly corporate controlled...everything.
It's not the high homicide rates and rates of imprisonment(5) [for a developed First World country], or relatively high infant mortality rate(6) and plentiful poor people for such a big impressive developed country...
Or maybe it is.
One might say that the level of suck-dome when it comes to those key factors certainly makes America "unique".

Sadly, the things that really make the United States/America special are things that many attempt to take away, to overturn, to prevent, as mentioned previously - separation of church and state, the veritable cornucopia of ethnic groups and diversity, all of the human rights that have been amassed over so many years, like advancements in overall civil rights, and a woman's right to make decisions about her own body; and personal freedoms on the precipice of national inclusion - like the rights to gay marriage. Yeah, sure, and the loosening of marijuana laws too...

Instead those people wanting to restrict actual personal freedoms, the things that make a person an individual and free, desire to crawl back under the quilt of a repressive history.

Freedom and repression do not go hand in hand. If it is freedom that makes America "exceptional", then the perceived exceptionalism declines through freedoms being systematically stripped away, and the country's uniqueness will become naught.

These things mentioned are rights, and are attributed to an evolution of humanity where people can make choices about their life - they are an alignment with compassion and tolerance, falling in step with the collective freedom to be human, and be happy, and be oneself. By restricting these things, claims of freedom and equality become a lie

Ugh. Let's see...what else...

Guns. America is unique because GUNS*! Fantastic.

You get it...(hopefully).

The point is, the more a country screams about it's greatness, waving giant flags, the more they wrap themselves in it, clinging to idealistic and blind patriotism, denying truths, and proclaim they are infallible and demand everyone love them, the more it seems like they are trying to prove something, the weaker they appear, and the weaker they become. And the emptier their claims look.

If anything, America is relatively average on most counts - all countries have their inherent flaws; and there's nothing wrong with admitting it. At this point, maybe being able to accept the bad things, and appreciate the good things, and be open to criticism, is what would really make America "Exceptional".

--------------------------------

*though citizens in several other countries are allowed guns, but the gun control is just a little better [and there are a lot less gun deaths per capita because of it (7)]

1. European Court of Human Rights, Convention on Human Rights, Article 10, http://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Convention_ENG.pdf and http://www.coe.int/t/dgi/publications/hrhandbooks/HRHAND-02(2004)_en.pdf
2. U.S. Education Slipping in Ranks Worldwide, Earns Poor Grades on CFR Scorecard, Council on Foreign Relations, June 17, 2013 http://www.cfr.org/education/us-education-slipping-ranks-worldwide-earns-poor-grades-cfr-scorecard/p30939
3. The U.S. Spent More on Defense in 2012 Than Did the Countries With the Next 10 Highest Defense Budgets Combined, Peter G. Peterson Foundation, April 12, 2013 http://pgpf.org/Chart-Archive/0053_defense-comparison
4. The World Fact Book: Country Comparisons - Health Expenditures, 2011, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2225rank.html
5. Five things everyone should know about US incarceration, Heather Schoenfeld, Aljazeera, March 26, 2013, http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/03/201332671936115766.html
6. The World Fact Book: Country Comparisons - Infant Mortality Rate, 2013, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html
7. How Australia And Other Developed Nations Have Put A Stop To Gun Violence, Walter Hickey, Business Insider, January 15, 20123, http://www.businessinsider.com/canada-australia-japan-britain-gun-control-2013-1

Gun Violence In The Movies, For Dad

Source

Violence in movies, just like that of video games, has been beaten to death as being the catalyst of violence in society, particularly gun violence; but who doesn't know that.

Like mental illness, film is just another scapegoat for people who don't dare take personal or collective responsibility, just another name to throw under the bus; while statistically people with mental illness are four times more likely to be the victim of violence, than the perpetrator (1).

Rather than blame bad parenting (sometimes by bad people), lack of supervision, love, and attention, which fosters poor self-worth, poor self-esteem and leads to school yard bullying, and even being a victim of bullying; a general decrease in compassion and caring in society; and the increase of greed, poverty, hate, intolerance and anxieties in the nation, which trickles down to the youth; increasingly easy access to guns with very little real regulation from state to state and across the country; not to mention the glorification of war and violence in the world...but no, you're right, it's easier to blame Hollywood, and video games. It's the coward's way out.

So, why are we even addressing it then?

After a "light gun debate" with The Father the past Friday, we awoke today to the following message (we made a second Facebook account for extended family to keep in contact with us after Christmas, and don't check it often because it tends to cause anxiety):

We started to reply to the message, and thought: You know what. THIS is our blog entry. This is all we really have to say about it.

So, here you go, Dad. We're putting it here. This entry is your requested blog entry, what follows was our response. We'll just leave it here for you to read.

We could talk about gun violence in the movies...

Or maybe how we were watching a Looney Tunes cartoon from the 60's (that been syndicated over and over) staring Foghorn Leghorn on TV last Friday. He kept shooting the bill off of two ducks, and it would twist it around in a funny fashion. He tried to trick them into shooting each other in the face. Then tried to lock them in a TNT shed and "kill them", yet they never bled or died. Sure is funny, violence that doesn't produce blood, hey? Never too early to start them on the humour of guns and violence, is it.



Oh, don't be silly. (we can hear you, Dad)

It's just as logical; or are you saying a child is smart enough to tell the difference between cartoon violence and real violence, but an adult is not smart enough to respect the difference between graphic movie/video violence and real violence - and that now all of sudden that's the problem.

...Or we could write about the violence in the Bible, and how killing people who simply didn't believe in the same God were glorified by being considered righteous for doing so. Violence as "old as time itself". And even after that, in the Crusades.

...Or mass genocide and violence in ALL of History, including and not limited to the "settlement" of the United States.

...Or compare the exposure to violent video games and violent movies in every other developed country, and juxtapose their violent gun crimes to the USA; where, according to FBI statics on violent deaths in the USA, guns are responsible for more homicides than all other means of killing people combined. And in some states, up to 75%. (FBI Uniform Crime Reports - 2011: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/table-20)

You know who else glorifies guns and violence? America, government and the media.

(...as an afterthought...)

Or we could just say: I'm (we're) part of the problem, you're part of the problem, the population of the world is part of the problem - and it's not sin (as you are fond of saying, Dad), the concept of sin isn't new. There is just as much sin now, there are just more people. The problem is people only caring about themselves, it's the lack of compassion for other people and their lives, it's people only watching out for themselves the "screw everyone else, I'm getting mine" attitude - being so self-absorbed, so wrapped up in ones own needs, that they put the needs (and safety) of others, below their own.

</end FB message>

Source

That's our opinion, of course, and our decision to take a little responsibility, being a member of this society, being part of the problem; just like some people choose to blame movies, and video games (and "they" used to blame music too) is the opinion and decision of people who shirk responsibility.

Our stance on guns isn't secret.
We're pro-gun.
We also tend to be pro-responsibility; and for us, responsibility triumphs.

There needs to be regulation, the Constitution says so; and not just regulation, but regulation done well. Of course the Supreme Court ruled to change the meanings/interpretations of the words 'regulated' and 'militia' (2)(3)(4), to better the agenda of the NRA. And we could fight all day, every day to the grave, arguing about what it really means.
So we digress.

There is no question in a rational persons mind that there should be regulation. Why shouldn't there be? Cars are regulated by speed limit and traffic laws; Knives and blades are regulated by type and length of blade, and some of the laws are absurd. For Example, the crime of simply carrying a box cutter, in the State of Virginia, is punishable by a year in jail and a $2,500 fine(5) (see notation in resources). The laws vary from state-to-state; Drugs are regulated, prescription vs. non-prescription, alcohol, tobacco - and in growing variation from state-to-state. All most people want is a little rationality.

Back to the point.

It's not Hollywood, it's not video games...it's not Foghorn Leghorn, it's not Bugs Bunny (maybe Yosemite Sam a little though *winks*).

Source

It's society, it's you, it's me, it's your neighbour. It's life.

(P.S. Love you Daddy)

------------------------------------------

More Entries We've Written on Guns....
An Afternoon Ditty on Gun Control
http://just-call-me-frank.blogspot.com/2013/01/an-afternoon-ditty-on-gun-control.html
A Mental Illness Rant
http://just-call-me-frank.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-mental-illness-rant.html
Guns, Guns, and Freedomhttp://just-call-me-frank.blogspot.com/2012/07/guns-guns-gunsand-freedom_20.html
------------------------------------------
Sources and Citation for this entry:
(1) Mentally ill 'at high risk of being victim of violence, BBC Health, February 27, 2012 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17182626(2) Supreme Court to Define ‘Well Regulated Militia’?, factcheck.org, December 20, 2007, http://www.factcheck.org/2007/12/supreme-court-to-define-well-regulated-militia/
(3) United States: Gun Ownership and the Supreme Court - Library of Congress, August 8, 2012, http://loc.gov/law/help/second-amendment.php

(4) So You Think You Know The Second Amendment, Jeffrey Toobin, The New Yorker, December 18, 2012, http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2012/12/jeffrey-toobin-second-amendment.html

(5) End knife control: Virginia’s vague concealed-weapon statute needs reform, Editorial, The Washington Times, May 22, 2012 http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/may/22/end-knife-control/ ( '08 Senate Bill 379 that purposed an amendment to VA State code §18.2-308(A) and ultimaltey failed at specifically adding box cutters to the list of unlawful blade)

A Mental Illness Rant

This ranted started out as this:
"Let's just make people scared of the mentally ill.Thanks media, fucking thank you for erasing years and years of work to erase the stigma."
We posted it to Twitter.
Then to Facebook.
And then we started a comment, and as the comment grew longer, we knew this was the place for it.

This rant, if you will, is related to the tragic event known as the Sandy Hook Massacre (December 15, 2012).

You can't turn on the TV without hearing about it. CNN has been gleaning every dark nook and cranny for information that can be sought. It's rating feeding frenzy  Goodness even knows what's being said on Fox News. We shudder to think.

Today, on a treadmill, we finally reached a breaking point. One of the journalists of CNN was interviewing a man who said that the mentally ill should be locked up.

Some things are better said in a Tweet.

Sure, lock up all the mentally ill; but how do you choose which ones, without including yourself. Mental illness can develop at any time.
— Just Call Me Frank™© (@JustCallMeFrank) December 19, 2012

Watching the news this last week, listening to people bang on about mental illness, we have become...deflated, sad. Maybe even a little scared.

Some think that the mentally ill should all be locked up, but how do you choose who is "too mentally ill"? The child who had one violent outburst? Two? Three?; The person on anti-depressants?; The person on anti-anxiety medication?; The person who went to a therapist once, twice, three or more times? The person with a 10 year old diagnosis of schizophrenia, who hasn't been on anti-psychotics in years...

It's not the mental illness, it's the person. A person in not their mental illness. A person is a human animal, with urges, and desires. Sometimes that's sadness, sometimes that's anger, sometimes that's frustration.

A man gets angry, and hit his wife once. Is he mentally ill?
A child gets angry, and kicks a wall. Is the child mentally ill?
A mother screams out of frustration, throws a book against a wall. Is she mentally ill?
A little girl comes home from school, locks herself in her room and cried of frustration. Is she mentally ill?
A woman goes through a divorce, and needs anti-depressants. Is she mentally ill.
A college student is anxious about their future, and finds comfort in anti-anxiety medication. Are they mentally ill?

Any one of these people could be capable of committing a violent crime. You could be capable. You just don't know it yet.

Under the sheets in an Orwellian nightmare, this country has managed to turn everything that makes a person themselves, uniquely them, into a mental illness. The only feeling and emotion not considered a mental illness is happiness...as the country shovels happy pills down their throat. A billion dollar industry.

Who is mentally ill to the point being lock-up, and who isn't. Are mere threats of violence enough? Did the boy who shot up the theater in Aurora Colorado have violent tendencies (no). Who gets to decide? Call us crazy, but the government shouldn't be the one, and neither should you, or me, or us. When you start locking people up because of your irrational media driven fears, that's just another freedom taken away.

Some people who fear the loss of their gun rights are deciding that they could easily blame the mentally ill, instead of take some responsibility, and embrace a little compromise; perhaps, we should just lock up "the crazies"...because people who hug their guns tight, despite glaring problems, are obviously the sane ones.

No, we're not anti-gun, we've written numerous times here that we aren't. We are pro-regulation. Guns have a purpose: hunting and home security. Assault weapons, and many semi-automatic, are not designed for any of that. They are designed to kill a lot of people, fast. That's it. (A real man can kill a deer/animal, with a simple rifle).

People are people, they've been killing in the name of religion, in the name of land ownership, in the name of love, in the name of war, for all of existence. And it's never been considered a mental illness before.

There will never be an easy solution in country as large as the United States, with such a diverse population. There can be compromise, but the compromise shouldn't be blaming the mentally ill.

Gun Debates...

We're growing weary of the gun debates...

We're also becoming desensitized to all the senseless mass murders.

In the 8th grade the first boy we ever like, that liked us back, killed himself with a shotgun in school (personal story). It was sad, and tragic.

Still.

We're not anti-gun. We're pro gun control. ('Guns, Guns, Guns...and Freedom' http://just-call-me-frank.blogspot.com/2012/07/guns-guns-gunsand-freedom_20.html).

But in the last couple of years, or further back, since Columbine even...there is a growing need for something...different. 

You may "cling" to your gun (if you oppose any control, you are clinging), but so do the children of the parents who don't lock them up properly; so do the kids, and adults, who can just get them freely, with few regulation check points; so could people who accidentally find a gun in meat shipment.

They cling to the gun too, while they take the lives of others.

Something is not right in this country. Something needs to change. Taking away guns isn't the answer. Regulation and control is. Lives lost, overshadow freedoms, sometimes. When the people in the country can't act responsibly, what hope it there.

Just A General How Do You Do

The weather roller coater is really doing a number on our joints and back, and yesterday we slept in so long we decided to skip the coffee, which resulted in a day of being comatose and an early night to bed. Part of our decision to leave the house today and get some fresh air.

We ended up getting invited to the family gathering on Thursday night, and decided today that we'll go. After this blog entry we'll hit the shower and then the road.

It might be one of the last times we get to see Grandma, and that's the driving source behind our decision, even though last time we saw her it was really hard. Also, we're sure our absence would do nothing but encourage family members to talk, and speculate, as to our whereabouts - we've been to enough family gatherings to know how that goes with other people who aren't around. They like to talk, and gossip, and talk.

Anyway, we'll going to try to keep politics off of the table, because we don't really need to have discussions with people who aren't informed. Heads up: we'll be re-reading the new UN Arms Treaty, just in case, even though we already know it has provisions for granting and keeping personal rights to firearms written in there, the gun-totting conspiracy theorists, however, make their wild claims. Some of these conspiracy theorists reside in our family...should be fun. *shakes head Nooooooo*

"They" (conspiracy theorists) are the kinds of people who want to tell you who you can love, and what decisions you can make with your body, but GOD FORBID you touch their guns...even though nobody is trying to, they will spread their conspiracy. Meanwhile, government imposing on real human rights, why should they care...they have guns. BUT DON'T TOUCH THEM.

(if you know us from our past writing, or from following us on social media, you know that we are not anti-gun, far from it...)

We digress. Lest we get too fired up...like we did Wednesday night when we posted this to Facebook at 1:35am:

"We've spent some time on various "news sources" (wacko websites spewing speculation and ignorance based on news, so shit deep you could scuba dive for days) this evening, reading the most outrageous conspiratorial bullshit we've ever read in our entire life...and trust us, we've made simple claims in the past that have made people slap the conspiracy label on us. But these people, with their hate-

speak, backed with uninformed ignorance, are borderline dangerous to the general public.

Tonight, however, we also learned that reading and comprehension is as much dead as common sense, and they go hand in hand. Well, we had our suspicion anyway...

First, people (proud gun tottin' citizens) should realize:
The government, and the people in your country, do not want to take away your godforsaken guns. They want regulation to keep the "free" people of this country safer. If you are not being deceptive, or planning on breaking the law, regulation should not make you crazy with irrational fear. Going all batshit over it makes you look like you are guilty of something, or trying to get away with something. It's highly suspicious.

Second, separation of church and state is simply that. By preaching politics at the pulpit, while taking advantage of government tax exemption, churches are breaking the guidelines set forth by the constitution. THEY are the ones disrespecting the constitution.

Third, church and state being separate also means that according to the constitution you are not allowed to make laws based on your religious belief. That's what SEPARATE means.

Stop cherry picking the constitution and warping it to fit your needs, as a document it's pretty clear cut. Blowing shit out of proportion because of selfishness, hatred, and irrational fear of the wild creations that exist in your imagination, is what is destroying America. Hatred, intolerance, greed.

Furthermore, it's deplorable and disgusting for humans to stand by their guns and constitution, waving the flag, "preaching" their "unalienable God given rights", preaching Gods love, and claiming things like ACCESS TO FOOD ISN'T A BASIC RIGHT GRANTED BY GOD.
It's not just a right, it's a requirement as a living creature*.

Guns are a right, but nutrition isn't??

Are you fucking kidding.

Some people need their heads screwed on straight.

(*You want to talk about how over time people have come to depend on businesses to provide affordable food, as resources and incentive to grow, raise and prepare your own declined under the industrialized of the food supply, we can have that conversation.)"

Anyway, like we said...we have to go shower, and prepare...for trying to keep our mouth shut.

~ Frankie et al

Guns, Guns, Guns...and Freedom

Now we just need to ignore all reports about the James Holmes, mass shooting in a Colorado theatre, incident, and all Tweets, so we can bite our tongue.

AR15 Assault Riffle

We are not anti-gun.

But seriously, gun laws don't mean taking away guns, they can simply mean better control. Nobody needs handguns and machine guns, let alone ones referred to as an ASSAULT WEAPON. You can't really hunt animals with them (unless you want it to be ground meat on the bone), they have no logical purpose. You can defend your "property" with a simple shotgun/rifle. Nobody needs a 100 round magazine clip.

Automatic weapon magazine clip

This man acquired FOUR of them LEGALLY in under THREE months? There should be a database that raises a flag on shit like that.

Maybe this could have been prevented if a person wasn't able to access so many WEAPONS in such a small fucking period of time. This kid was smart, a PhD student, a fraternity member, had only a speeding ticket on his record, and was a church-goer, who clearly had a mental breakdown; stress from school, from who knows what else, for some it doesn't take much. When they picked him up outside the theatre, without a fight, he said he was "The Joker" - clearly he is not mentally healthy. He is mentally confused. He needs psychiatric evaluation, help, and many many MANY years in prison.

Some have said he deserved the death penalty. We do not believe in the death penalty, an eye for an eye and you make the world blind, and stupid.

And then comes the blame...

Don't blame guns.
Don't blame video games, movies and television violence.

Blame lack of personal responsibility, blame society as a whole, for being so entirely fucked up about their personal "freedoms", so self-absorbed, that they can't imagine considering the freedoms of their fellow citizens, like feeling safe. Self-absorbed freedom, the cause of such relaxed gun laws that a person can go out and purchase two handguns, an automatic weapon, and a shotgun, in under three months.

Better gun laws, America, better gun laws, NRA...so that ALL Americans are FREE to feel safe. How about that, how about that freedom. There should be laws against stockpiling weapons, no matter who you are.

It's not a good thing that happened in Colorado today, it's not a good thing when any person, or group, stockpiles weapons, no matter how mentally stable they are on paper, and it all can be prevented, in many different ways.

A sad event, and as the world, as a whole, continues to struggle financially, as America divides each year, fighting over petty shit, while we go to war and kill, kill, kill, it will continue to break down the mental health of it's citizens, and as the news continues to sensationalize these accounts, it will seem the world is swirling into an abyss of anger, violence, mental illness, uncertainty, distrust and hate. It's meant to keep you scared.

We hope to be here for the day it starts to turn around, and the real freedom, justice and equality (those are the three words on the new American stamps we purchased this week) that people talk about is propagated; maybe then we can be civilized, peaceful, with responsible laws, and responsible compromise, and responsible citizens.

Guess we're not good with biting our tongue. Big f'n surprise.

-------------------------------------------------------
News Information Resources:
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/20/12854157-aurora-shooting-suspect-james-holmes-was-buying-guns-dropping-out-of-neuroscience-graduate-school#comments