What a crazy society in which we live.  Who would even consider going into a school and firing any rounds in a school not to mention many and at people.  As we argue about gun laws and our constitutional rights, it seems that there are bigger issues at hand than gun laws and our constitutional rights. 

Remember the constitution was written for the people and by the people.  A Great social experiment of the 18th century.  Our right to bear arms was added by the first congress when they passed a group of amendments to the constitution as a way of making sure that the oppression of the Kind  that had been suffered would never happen again.  Our right to bear arms was at a time when a musket ball was round, and you made it yourself.  Heck you probably made the powder yourself too.  And your gun took Months for a smith to create.  And when you shot somebody, you took them down, most likely not out.  If you didn't go back to kill them they would die from blood loss, or infection over time. NOT quickly.  Those were different times.  What has remained the same is the society in which we live.  A Great Melting Pot.  All cultures accepted, all peoples allowed.  At least in theory and on paper, "All Men (and women) are created equal" 

The Dr Rev Martin Luther King Jr hit the nail on the head when he had a dream.  In his Dream he Realized! this notion that ALL people are created equal.  And while this equality continues to change, it has never been equal.  Now we have a president unlike any other, Born in the states, Born in Hawaii, of African American descent.   Equality has been reached for yet another group of people, but not for ALL. 

As much as being a Democracy, we are also a Capitalist state.    This didn't happen over night.  Once a great nation of farmers, we are now a great nation of technology and manufacturing driven on a conquest of capital gain.  To that end, we have excelled far beyond what our founding fathers would have ever imagined.  As Americans, we have excelled in that area.  Our desire for capital gain, seems to be our undoing.   As we navigated through our economy from the farming economy to and through the industrial revolution, our notion of equality changed, and our laws followed suit.  The child labor so prevalent in the industrial revolution outraged the population we passed laws to make it illegal to use young children as a work force.  Education laws put in place to ensure the quality education of every child.  And finally labor laws allowing labor unions to fight for equality for every worker.  Cobra laws to make sure that people won't be denied immediate medical treatment in an emergency.   Inroads for equality, but equal we have never been.   These laws have not been put in place by just one party, but both parties.  These are not democrat or republican issues.  Not conservative or liberal issues, but American issues, and by the framers of the constitution these are "ALL men are created equal"  Not one group or another, but ALL (hu)mens.

It seems to me that no matter what issue it has been, there is an underlying current of equality.  Of those who have, and those who don't have. This equality, this sense Fairness and equity comes straight from our founding fathers, and their desire not just for equality, but just as much about a voice in what that equality is.  Our equality continues to change,  Though our migration from other lands and cultures.  Through our ages, our genders, the color of our skin, our heritage, our traditions, the way we work and play for how long and how hard,  Who has health care, and who doesn't.   Each has battled fought and won equality.  It seems to me now we are at the edge of another point of inequality.  A point of inequality that will ultimately call into question all the other inequities in our society.  In the past, if there was an inequality, it was easy enough to keep that inequality secret.  Today as our technology and the information revolution forms and develops around us, that is being called into question.

I am a member of BOTH groups.  A devout Non Conformist.  A free thinker.  A radical.  A Tea Partyist!  And a 1% er.   Yep, both.  why both?  because they both want the same damn thing.  A return of the government of the people for the people  and by the people.  They are So damn close they just can't see it and the reason why is inequality. 

Socialism and Capitalism JUST don't work!  Great societies of forced equality is forcing failure.  NOT because it is not a good idea, for both are good ideas, but rather because we are just Human.  The desire, no the NEED to Conquer  to battle to win is so ingrained we shut down without it.   Without tapping into that primal drive, we just flounder, loiter,  and fester as pustules of humanity.  Ick.  And not everybody can be treated the same, there are some who are turned up on high, and others who are turned down very low.   Conformity and equality are never going to be the same for every person, but it is clear we have missed something, well I think we have missed lots.

"The Golden Rule" shows up in one form or another in all the major religions of the world.  To treat others as you wish to be treated, yet we live in a culture that does not really hold us to that, even as we work towards that end.   Our laws push to a notion of equality, Our courthouses seemingly want to hold us to a higher standard placing 'In God we trust' within the reliefs and frescoes and even on our bills, yet we just can't be held to that standard.  We don't have the will or the reason to make that a reality.  We are stuck.   We are stuck pointing fingers at others, we are stuck looking for answers where there are none, we are stuck wanting what we have created to be perfect when it just can't be as we are not perfect.  We are just stuck. 

Untill we accept the words on the preamble of our constitution that All men are created equil... Untill we accept the Golden Rule as the one and only LAW...Until we LOVE one another as perfectly as we are able and understand that equality among men is not the same as treating everybody the same.   

We NEED to offer every person the same basic human rights, and provide for every basic human need as well as we are able.   We need to feed the hungry, heal the sick, House the homeless, befriend the friendless, educate the uneducated, Give opportunity to those without opportunity.  We need to Love the unloved.  We need to Love each other the way we want to be loved, and how do we want to be loved?  If my best friend was hungry, i would take them out for a meal,  If they were homeless, they would stay at my house,  IF sick I would find them medical care,  if they felt friendless, I would be there friend,  IF they needed knowledge, I would teach them,  if they needed an opportunity, I would try to find one that suited them, because I love my friends.    Wouldn't you?  Really wouldn't you do that for your friend? 

Now couldn't you extend your circle of friends?  Couldn't you?  Could you make it the town in which you live?  Could you make it everybody in that town?  If you and your friends made it your mission to make everybody your friend could you?  Now if you made everybody in your new circle of friends in the town could you? 

My friends at TIGER, the brainchild of Dr Trish Lindberg one of my personal hero's sing a song describing friendship.  the song starts to describe the ways two boys are different, then he realizes as the list grows that there are more ways they are the same. " Really that odd kid is more like me, Like me. I told my Dads.  He is more like me."  We are way more similar than different, and it is those differences that make us who we are.  the similarity make us friends, the differences make us interesting. 

His Holiness the Dali Lama reminds us that Love is the acceptance of others without judgement.  Jesus commands us to Love each other the way we love ourselves. 

IF we are able to consider everybody a friend, Meet their needs, NOT their wants, but their basic needs, and to SHOW not to litigate, not to create laws demanding it to be so, but to do it as one human to another we will NO longer have the crazies who shoot people in schools.

Crazies need help.  they are sick, if we tend to the sick...  GUN laws won't help!  Gun laws won't stop the violence!  But the power to stop it is in our hands, the peoples hands.  People help.   Love helps.   Education helps.  Friends help.  Friends Help!  if one of your friends heard you talking of going postal in a school would he let you?  Would any of your friends let you?  NO!  The one thing these people have is the lack of friends, the lack of being Loved.  We can change that."

I DARE you!  to give a hug, be a friend, listen to the words, of somebody who you wouldn't call a friend, and make him one.  Lets change the world together for together we can.  If we lave it up-to the elected officials  we will fail.  IF we take it upon ourselves to change the one person we can change,  Make a bold out of the comfort zone statement and be a friend to everybody and LOVE our neighbors not only can we but we will change the world.