When the Chief Goes Bad

You should know—click on the video below, and you’ll be exposed to a level of vitriol and hatred rarely seen. Your gut may wrench—mine did. Your blood pressure will rocket. When the madman fires his automatic weapon—which you knew was coming—after the explosive, profanity-laced rant, it’s like being kicked in the stomach.

And the madman is Chief of Police Mark Kessler.

And on 1 August, the town board of Gilberton, Pennsylvania, attempted to hold a meeting to decide what to do about this nut. The video had gone viral, with half of the country loving it, the other half horrified. And there was a problem—sure, most of the town loves their guns, but even this was a little extreme.

But not as extreme as what Kessler did, which was to get a hundred other crazy people from all around the country to run into Gilberton, and block the doorway to the meeting. And they were all weaponed-up.

This had, as you can imagine, a slightly chilling effect on the citizenry, many of whom opted to stay home—presumably under their beds. Nonetheless, the town board voted to suspend Kessler for a month, without pay. Here’s what Michael Morrill, an activist who had a petition of 20,000 signatures asking to fire Kessler, had to say:

In an email Morrill told me, “I have been organizing for four decades. I have faced Klansmen in Kentucky, Ustase in Bosnia and police indiscriminately beating demonstrators in Italy. [Wednesday] night in Gilberton was more frightening than any of those situations.”

Nor was it the first time that Kessler had got himself in trouble. In 2010, he illegally arrested a councilman and did a strip search on him. The reason? Kessler said it was the profanity the councilman allegedly used. The councilman turned around and sued—and the taxpayers forked up $15,000 in an out-of-court settlement.

There was also a little incident in a crowded bar, during which the off-duty cop shot himself in the hand. There was a brawl going on at the time; the event is still under investigation.

Well, the town is scared; many people who might have spoken out at the meeting feared retaliation, nor is it hard to see why. Here’s what one woman had to say:

You know why there’s not more residents here? The threats. That’s why. Because they’re afraid. They’re afraid they’re going to have their windows shot out.” – Lifelong Gilberton resident Rose McCarthy speaking about Police Chief Mark Kessler and his supporters on July 31, 2013.

Wanting to be fair, I went into Kessler’s website, and I bring you this:

"FREEDOM ISN'T FREE" 

I will sacrifice all I have defending my country, our constitution, OUR FREEDOMS

NEVER AGAIN WILL I BE RULED BY TYRANTS, DICTATORS, OR SCUM POLATICIANS

 For I am jus one man who stood against many and said, NO MORE!

OK—spelling is not his long suit. But let’s talk straight. This guy brought a hundred armed people and barred the way to a public meeting. The moment he did that, there should have been arrests. In fact, where is the United States Justice Department?

A month ago, the feds came to an agreement with the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico about the reforms needed and the plan of action established to improve the police department of the island.

In fact, the feds might address another situation: Kessler’s Constitutional Security Force, the group that provided the 100 gun-toting crazies last Wednesday night. According to one Internet source, the CSF has members in 38 states. Is it true? Who knows….

This is insanity. We have heavily armed nuts who are convinced that there is a dictatorship and who will, at the drop of a hat, blow the bejusus out of everybody.

We’re on the brink of catastrophe.

Big Tobacco, Step Aside

Warning, first off. If you watch the video below, you’ll be in for two minutes of vitriol that, despite all you know of emotional hijacking, will leave you shaking with rage.

Now then, here’s how it started. I wrote a post about guns recently, in which I stated that some gun owners are amping up the rhetoric to fairly high levels. So much so that a college professor wrote an op-ed for the Charleston Gazette; here’s the quote I used:

In a bizarre op-ed in The Charleston Gazette last week, journalism professor Christopher Swindell argued that the National Rifle Association “advocates armed rebellion against the duly elected government of the United States of America.”

I went on to say that the new president of the NRA, Jim Porter, had called Obama a “fake president,” though I didn’t say, as did Swindell, that the NRA had called for an armed rebellion. I did say that the one motivating emotion associated with the gun owners I had spoken with was fear.

A reader reacted in disbelief through Facebook—was I serious? And that set me thinking—what is it about guns? Having a talk about abortion is tea party conversation next to the typical discourse on gun control.

So I got curious—what happens when you shoot a gun? Do you get a rush? What goes on neurologically? Well, the last gun I shot was a BB gun, so I turned to somebody with more recent, and authentic, experience.

Yo, Eric, step into the blog!

“Depends on the caliber,” said Eric, after I had posed the question. He then went on to give me the advice about preparing / preventing kickback. Then he wanted to know, “what are you thinking of shooting?”

Well, we went on to have an interesting conversation. He thought it was possible, suspected dopamine was at play, and mentioned video games and gambling machines.

Bang on, Eric!

In the wake of recent tragic events, there have been a raft of articles about new reasons for gun-control and the psychological make-up of mass murderers (See NYT or WSJ), but the authors of this piece (co-authored with neuroscientist James Olds) believe there’s a critical component missing from this discussion: the very addictive nature of firearms.

That’s Steven Kotler, writing in Forbes Magazine. And let me say this up front: the following is conjecture, a theory.

But Kotler and Olds also believe that dopamine might have a role, and they too adduce the large amount of research on first-person shooting video games, which leads to increased levels of dopamine. (Tangentially, by blocking the reuptake—just what the SSRI antidepressants do.) And what does dopamine do? In the brain, it’s an upper, a motivator. We feel pleasure, excited, and eager to explore the world. Oh, and what drug floods the brain with dopamine? Cocaine, the most addictive of all.

The problem? The first hit of dopamine is always the best. So the brain seeks higher and higher of whatever the addiction is—cigarettes, booze, cocaine, shopping—to get that initial high.

Second, well, let the authors explain:

Two things make this even more alarming. First, because the human brain evolved in an era of immediacy—when threats and rewards were of the lions, tigers and food variety—the dopamine circuitry has an inborn timing mechanism. If the reward follows the stimulus by roughly 100-200 milliseconds, it’s sitting in dopamine’s sweet spot. Firing a muzzle loader—for example—would certainly release dopamine, but it takes too long between multiple firings for a significant reward loop to be created. Firing an automatic weapon, though, sits close to the sweet spot—an assault weapon can fire a round every 100 milliseconds. Meaning not only are guns addictive, but automatic weaponry is far more addictive than most.

Well, as I said, all of this is conjecture. What about anecdotal evidence? I googled “gun addiction,” and came across thefiringline.com, which bills itself “the leading online forum for firearm enthusiasts.” Here’s a sample:

Is there a 12-point program for gun addiction?? I retired two years ago and firearms and shooting has become my major hobby and obsession!! In the past 24 months I have purchased on average one gun a month. Now I have traded some that I already had but my purchases seem to be growing exponentially. I enjoy buying a new gun as much as shooting them.

I can't pass a gun shop without checking it out. I go to Cabelas and Bass Pro every week to see if they have anything new. Whenever my wife and I travel the first thing I do is check out the local gun shops. I go to every gun show within a 200 mile radius and that's at least one a month. I spend probably 2 hours a day online searching auctions and forums.

My wish list grows daily. Now, I have sufficient discretionary income to support this addiction but if things continue at the current rate that could be at risk.

Please tell me that I'm not alone and this behavior is perfectly normal. Is there such a thing as firearms obsessive- compulsive disorder and how do you treat it???

Best answer? Get a wife with a shoe addiction, and you’ll never have a problem.

Lastly, I turned to another source, Tim Dickinson of Rolling Stone. Here’s what he has to say:

For the moment, that strategy is paying handsome dividends. Handgun sales have jumped 70 percent since 2008, racking up an estimated $1.5 billion in sales last year. Powerful pistols – sold under brands like Beretta, Glock and Ruger – have replaced traditional hunting guns as the industry's cash cow. Revenue from assault rifles is growing at an even faster clip – having doubled in the past five years, to $489 million. Gaudy profit margins have become the norm: Top gun makers enjoy gross profits of 30 percent or more. Ammunition manufacturers, too, boast of being fat and happy. And it's no wonder: AR-15 enthusiasts brag they can fire up to 400 rounds in 60 seconds. Paying roughly 50 cents a bullet, such shooters are blowing through $200 worth of ammo in a hot minute.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-gun-industrys-deadly-addiction-20130228#ixzz2VM6g4vPV

Well, if it’s true that assault rifles fire at a rate that’s within dopamine’s “sweet spot,” then it’s no wonder that they’re selling so well. And if a little addiction isn’t enough, how about this?

For a younger generation raised on graphic video games, shooting at paper targets or "plinking" bottles and tin cans doesn't carry much appeal. So the industry has come up with some new ways to make shooting more like playtime. A firm called Zombie Industries manufactures life-size mannequins for target practice. Some models "bleed" fluorescent goo when shot. Others respond to gunfire in a more lifelike fashion, opening up gaping chest wounds and "bursting into little pieces of blood-soaked zombie matter when you shoot them." The manufacturer offers a wide line of "zombie" targets, including "the Terrorist" – an undead bin Laden – and, more troubling, a blood-soaked, buxom woman-target called "The Ex."

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-gun-industrys-deadly-addiction-20130228page=2#ixzz2VM8EYnQP

I rest my case.

Treason, Anyone?

Readers will know—a group of people and I have been reading 30,000 randomly generated names for weeks now. Why 30,000? That’s the number of people killed by gunshot every year; using information from the CDC, I compiled a list of 720 pages.

I had been nervous about doing the reading, since I don’t do confrontation well. And I had thought that I would run into a lot of NRA supporters. So in all these weeks of talking to people, how many card-carrying NRA members have I spoken with?

Two.

And I have spoken to many, many people. So what’s the story? Yes, I am in Puerto Rico, but there are many tourists here. There are days, in fact, when two or three cruise ships come into the harbor—the city becomes Des Moines, linguistically and culturally.

The two cases of pro-NRA folk were identical; they were white, middle-aged men. They didn’t want to talk, one saying frankly, “I’m not interested in your views,” after I had asked him why he was in favor of the NRA. The other engaged briefly in debate, but declined to sit in front of the camera and give his point of view.

Generally, I would prefer to be wrong rather than right—you learn something. And if someone can tell me, for example, why gun shops require background checks but gun shows do not, I’m willing to listen.

And I started out this project wanting to know—what is it that fuels this debate about guns and gun control? What is it that stirs such strong feelings on both sides?

I’m hard-pressed to think of a more potent symbol than a gun. Yes, I considered briefly the image of Christ on the cross, or the swastika (please note—I’m not likening the two) or the sickle and hammer. Strong, yes—but as strong as a gun?

And I’ve come to believe—the NRA advocates, based on my brief encounters personally and my longer encounters electronically, are deeply fearful people.

And whom do they fear?

The government.

They see their guns as the only thing stopping the government from tyranny. And I’ll go further.

They see their world disappearing. There’s a black guy in the White House. Gay people are getting married, and Spanish is spoken everywhere. Hillary may well be president in 2017, and that will drive them nuts.

They see their guns as protection, and each day brings with it added urgency; more need for bigger, more destructive weapons.

But there’s a problem. And a journalism professor at the University of Kentucky brought it out, as reported by the Daily Caller:

In a bizarre op-ed in The Charleston Gazette last week, journalism professor Christopher Swindell argued that the National Rifle Association “advocates armed rebellion against the duly elected government of the United States of America.”

Bizarre? How so? The most extreme gun advocates quite openly state—their guns are their defense against the government. And how far is it that defense become offense?

A Libertarian wants to get 10,000 people carrying loaded weapons to march through Washington DC on the Fourth of July. He says it will be peaceful, but who knows? To me, it’s a pretty provocative act.

It’s also provocative to argue, as the new president of the NRA has, that Obama is a “fake president.” In olden days, it would be called unpatriotic; I still think it is.

People are reacting to a series of threats to our liberties. The media calls it fear. That’s not it, that not it. It’s a sense of rational outrage that’s been building for a very long time. It’s not going to diminish. It’s not going to go away….

I hear some Americans say with the last election the country is lost. No. No. An election was lost. There’s another election more important to the Second Amendment right around the corner. With the U.S. Senate and the House up for grabs, we as individual N.R.A. members can direct the massive energy of spontaneous combustion to regain the political high ground. We do that, and Obama can be stopped.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/johncassidy/2013/05/jim-porter-and-the-nras-challenge-to-america.html

That was Porter speaking recently at the NRA national convention, and it’s clear—the NRA is playing out the demagogue’s favorite trick: create a false crisis and stir up the masses.

God save us all.

The Trigger that Pulls the Finger

If you watch the video clip below—and there may be reasons not to—you may have the opposite effect than the title suggests. The video is called “The Liberator,” but might better be called ‘The Enslaver.”

The worlds of technology and computing have merged into something truly frightening: the world’s first printable, plastic gun. Yes, you can now download the file for printing a gun from the website…nah, you won’t get it here.

You may be wondering how a “printer” can print a gun. Well, it seems that there are printers that lay down threads of melted polymers—basically liquid plastic—in precise patterns. It’s just like a regular printer, except this one is 3D, with the layers being placed on top of each other; instead of ink, the printer uses plastic.

So a 25-year old law student at the University of Texas got it into his head to create the thing, and joined up with a young engineer to do so. And as you can see in the video below, it worked. So now, anybody with 8,000 bucks to buy a 3D printer from eBay, can download the file for creating the device, which has one metal part, completely inessential but placed there for the purpose of triggering metal detectors.

This is hogwash, of course: anybody who wishes to avoid detection would be able to do so in seconds.

You could also point out that $8000 will buy you a lot of guns more powerful than a plastic gun, but that isn’t the point. Sure, it’s 8000 bucks now, but in five years time? We’ll probably be making our kids’ dolls at home from files downloaded from Mattel, not running out to buy Barbie at Toys ’R Us.

So that means that anyone, any man / woman / and-especially-worrisome-child will be able to get a cheap, lethal, anonymous gun. And that means forget gun control, because there won’t be a chance of that happening. In fact, here is the (un-named) website’s comment on the impact of this gun:

This project might change the way we think about gun control and consumption. How do governments behave if they must one day operate on the assumption that any and every citizen has near instant access to a firearm through the Internet? Let’s find out.

“Hey, dude, let’s make a cheap, lethal weapon available to absolutely everybody, and see what happens!”

“Cool, dude!”

I would call this attitude irresponsible, but to Cody Wilson, the 25-year old mastermind of this affair, it’s not. It is, in fact, all very cozy with his radical libertarian / anarchist beliefs. Everyone, you see, should have a gun because the government can come at any moment and infringe on our God-given rights.

Oh—just one problem. Having all the guns in the world is useless, because the government has far more, and far more resources. Remember the Branch Davidian Siege in Waco in 1993? Guess who won?

Several thoughts come to mind. Readers will thrill to hear—the “30,000 Lives Project,” debuted in New York City’s Central Park last Sunday, with five volunteers and me reading names and distributing flyers. It was a beautiful spring day, and I felt a little bad about intruding my agenda into it: isn’t it enough to have survived a grueling, cold, dark winter? Can’t a person enjoy the sun and flowering trees without some guy putting gun control into my face?

But we did, and one of the volunteers got a hostile reaction—a gun nut who was completely against the project. But she’s a tough and persuasive woman, that volunteer, and she prodded the guy gently, and told the story of her husband’s nephew, who had used his father’s gun to shoot himself. The family, as you can imagine, was not distraught but destroyed. And in the end, the guy came around—he began thinking.

Unlike John and I, who stopped thinking after we saw a piece on the plastic gun—as well as the video below—on the McNeil Lehrer News Hour.

“You know what,” said John angrily, “Let’s all just fucking arm ourselves! Let’s completely fucking forget about gun control, because these bastards have completely changed the game, and if we don’t arm ourselves we’re just poor sacks of shit waiting to get snuffed out!”

Or words to that effect…..

At least John could speak, I was stunned into wordlessness (not a common state for me….).

Well, I looked it up today, and I’m happy / sad to report that research done at my very own alma mater—the University of Wisconsin—that just by seeing a gun, test subjects react more aggressively than others who have seen a neutral object. And in another experiment, drivers honked more at a van with a visibly loaded rifle rack stalled at a green light than a van without the rifle. Which is crazy—logically, drivers should honk LESS at a load vehicle than a (presumably) unloaded one. Oh, and a further thought—it seems that the human eye can detect snakes and spiders—potentially venomous agents—faster than we detect other stimuli.

But guess what?

We also detect guns at the same speed as the snakes and spiders. So it may not be the case that we evolved to detect the snakes / spiders. Or it may be that we have evolved to include guns as well.

I think I have my answer, now, to my question—why am I spending two hours a week reciting names in public places? I wanted to know what was behind this weird American obsession with guns.

A Dutchman explained it to me in Central Park last Sunday.

“We’re sill getting used to the American obsession with the three G’s.”

And that would be?

“Guns, God, and Government,” he replied.

And it was true, I thought. Some of us are pretty crazy on all three—they believe that the government is going to tyrannically enforce their Godless agenda on them, and the only chance of keeping that from happening is…

…a gun.

Actually, a lotta guns.

Because I’ve come to believe, guns are a positive feedback cycle. Like pornography, they’re addictive. The number of gun-owners may be down, but the number of guns those owners possess is way up.

I guess I should be used to living in my nutty country, afflicted with its obsession with the 3 G’s.

Cancel, I am used to it.

The question is how much longer can anyone live with it. 

The Rich Get Richer

There are days when nothing works, or seem not to work. I am writing this in a café, since the Internet decided to drift off somewhere, and the cat decided to catch and subsequently torment a pigeon. So the music is too loud, and there are two Russians—also very loud—and two Oriental kids—still louder—all talking away. There is, however, the Internet as well as air conditioning.

And there is Kelly Ayotte to consider. She’s a Republican senator from New Hampshire who voted against the expanded gun control check in the Senate two weeks ago. And yesterday she had to go home and explain that vote to, among other constituents, the daughter of a woman killed in the Newtown massacre.

She’s getting heat, is Kelly, and she clearly isn’t happy about it. Her approval rating dropped 15%, and 50% of voters say that her vote on the issue will be a consideration for them in the next election. So some people held up “SHAME ON YOU” signs, and the senator stammered out something unintelligible and completely illogical about an undue burden. Later, she refused to speak after the meeting privately with two women who wanted to pursue the topic.

I made a promise to myself, several months ago—I would not let the NRA into my day. There is something called mental hygiene, which means that you resist the urge to focus on the negative, to lick old wounds, to obsess on whatever festering issues resonate most for you.

Right, scratch Ayotte.

Well, what about Sandra Day O’Connor? She sat down with the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune, recently, and revealed that she’s been rethinking that little decision about Bush versus Gore. Not, mind you, that she thinks she voted the wrong way. No, she now thinks that the Supreme Court should never have agreed to hear the case at all.

It didn’t do the Supreme Court’s reputation much good, she says, and that can’t be denied. It also did do her reputation any good, and that must pain her. But she said something interesting: "There were at least three separate recounts of the votes, the ballots, in the four counties where it was challenged, and not one of the recounts would the decision have changed. So I don't worry about it."

Well, she was always portrayed as a pragmatic, matter-of-fact kind of lady—not a theoretician or an intellectual, though of course she was no fool. But given that the decision convinced all but the die-hard conservatives that the court could be bought, why isn’t she more concerned? I’d be kicking myself still….

Right, so maybe O’Connor wasn’t the best person to turn to.

Right, scratch two.

So how about Nick Hanauer? He’s the guy in the clip below, who takes on the issue of the huge disparity of wealth distribution in the United States. And what he says makes intuitive sense, though Forbes Magazine pans his theories. But what else would you expect?

And Hanauer comes through with a refreshing idea—taxing the rich and using the money to help the middle class benefits everybody, the rich included. Oh, and by the way, the rich don’t create jobs—the middle class does, by running out to the stores and spending money.

Hanauer makes the case that like most guys, he buys a couple pairs of pants, some shirts, goes out to eat once in awhile. But his income is perhaps a thousand times the average. For him to spend proportionate to his wealth, he’d have to have 3000 cars.

It’s nice, you know, finally to hear someone say it. It’s past time, really.

According to a TED talk I heard recently, 997 billion dollars was lost in one year in corporate fraud in the United States.

Two questions…

Was it the CEO and executive directors who did it?

And if there had been more equity in salary distribution, would that figure have been lower?

Blood On Their Hands

Well, it’s nothing we can feel good about. The United States Senate has been bought; we are governed by merciless, mercenary, utterly amoral men and women. They voted their pocket, they caved to pressure, they listened to lies.

They have blood on their hands.

Maybe it’s a good thing. Maybe, after all, it’s better to know whom you’re up against, who your enemies are. And maybe it’s good to get angry, to start screaming “SHAME ON YOU” as two people did.

And as you can see in the clip below, Patricia Maisch seems like an improbable person to have been escorted out of the Senate, yesterday. In fact, even at age 56 I’m still instinctively intimidated by these ladies of a certain age who so many years ago told me to sit up straight and respect your elders and don’t put your elbows on the table.

The question, of course, is not whether they should be ashamed—of course they should—but whether they have any capacity for it. The next question is what to do about them.

Here are the 54 people who yesterday said, “fuck you,” to 90% of the American people.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho,Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.*, Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., Sen. David Vitter, R-La., Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss.

*Reid voted no as a procedural move so that he would retain the ability under Senate rules to bring up the measure again should supporters believe they've mustered enough votes to secure passage.

Source: U.S. Senate

And here are the email addresses of those 54 people:

http: //www.alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Email, http://www.ayotte.senate.gov/?p=contact, http://www.ayotte.senate.gov/?p=contact, http://www.baucus.senate.gov/contact/emailForm.cfm?subj=issue, http://www.begich.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=EmailSenator, http://www.blunt.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact-form?p=contact-roy, http://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-me, http://www.burr.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.ContactForm, http://www.chambliss.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Email, http://www.coats.senate.gov/contact/, http://www.coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contactsenatorcoburn?p=ContactForm, http://www.cochran.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/email-me, http://www.corker.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=ContactMe, http://www.cornyn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=ContactForm, http://www.crapo.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm, http://www.cruz.senate.gov/contact.cfm, http://www.enzi.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact?p=e-mail-senator-enzi, http://www.fischer.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/email-me, http://www.flake.senate.gov/contact.cfm, http://lgraham.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.LandingPage, http://www.grassley.senate.gov/contact/contact.cfm, http://www.hatch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact?p=Email-Orrin, http://www.heitkamp.senate.gov/contact.cfm, http://www.heller.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact-form, http://www.hoeven.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/email-the-senator, http://www.inhofe.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.ContactForm, http://www.isakson.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/email-me, http://www.johanns.senate.gov/public/?p=ContactSenatorJohanns, http://www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact, http://www.lee.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact, http://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=contact, http://moran.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-jerry, http://www.murkowski.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Contact, http://www.paul.senate.gov/?p=contact, http://www.portman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact?p=contact-form, http://www.pryor.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=ContactMe, http://www.reid.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm, http://www.risch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Email, http://www.roberts.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=EmailPat, http://www.rubio.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact, http://www.scott.senate.gov/contact.cfm, http://www.sessions.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ConstituentServices.ContactMe, http://www.shelby.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/emailsenatorshelby, http://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact, http://www.vitter.senate.gov/contact, http://www.wicker.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.EMailSenatorWicker

Unfortunately, these are contact forms, so it’s not possible to do a copy / paste and mass emailing. So I’m going to spend half an hour, copying and pasting the message below to all 54 senators.

I’m pissed.

I have never before written to a congressperson, but today I cannot remain silent. As well, I have always been proud to be an American; today, because of your actions, I am not.

You have failed to pass a simple measure that would have saved lives. By doing so, you have put lives jeopardy, because you feared the financial power of the gun lobby groups.

I'm glad one American had the courage to shout "Shame on you!" You have ignored the 90% of the American people who supported this measure, you have jeopardized American lives, and you have lost all of our respect.

Marc Newhouse 

El Nuevo Día Reviews the 30,000 Lives Project

Following is an excerpt, in English, of a review of my 30,000 Lives Project, by journalist Antonio Quiñones Calderón, published on Thursday, March 21 (yesterday) by the Puerto Rican daily newspaper El Nuevo Día. 

(For the full, original article in Spanish, please go here.)

(...) It is in such citizen-participatory spirit that the “30,000 Lives Project” is centered. The project was conceived and is being sponsored and performed personally by Marc Newhouse, a cellist, teacher of the English language and writer who has resided in Puerto Rico for many years; Newhouse, originally a Wisconsin native, has become another good Puerto Rican.

Marc was highly disturbed by a fact he had recently encountered: 30,000 people, on average, are killed every year in the US and its territories—including Puerto Rico—as a direct consequence of gun shots. He was specifically disturbed by the fact that approximately one in every 30 murders by gun shot—within the whole US jurisdiction—occurs in Puerto Rico alone, even when our island's population amounts to a mere 1.19 percent of the total national population. When his brain fully grasped this troubling fact, Marc was instantly convinced that nothing will be instrumental in halting such tragedies until, as he explained, “all of us who favor a strong gun control policy are vigorous and passionate enough as gun advocates are.”

A quote by the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin came to his mind then; Stalin said—cynically and cruelly: “One death is a tragedy; one million deaths is a statistic.” This encouraged Marc to produce his project, hoping that those 30,000 deaths by gun shots in 2011 in the US would not end up becoming just one more statistic.

So he decided to compile a randomly-generated list of 30,000 names symbolizing those lost lives. For this, he used an 8 1/2” x 11” sheet format for a single-spaced list, one name per line, written with normal font at 12 points. He ended up with 474 pages [sic.]. “Everyone who sees the printed document—tells us Marc Newhouse—has the same reaction: ‘Wow! Those are a lot of lives....”

The list will be read out loud on Saturday afternoons in public squares in the metro area of San Juan until next December. Marc, his friends, and citizens who find out about the project and recognize its merit meet each Saturday to read 100 names out loud and publicly. They then engage in a dialog to tackle the importance of finding ways to confront the violence that has taken large control of our society. This initiative, akin to that on Agenda Ciudadana, is, without a doubt, a valuable example of individual contribution to society. (For more information, please visit: http://lifedeathandiguanas.blogspot.com/) 

UPDATE: Please note this weekend's reading has been postponed for Sunday, March 24 at 1:00 PM (instead of the usual Saturdays) at Plaza de Armas, Old San Juan. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Doña Ilia Charms the Plaza

We’re forty lives short of California.

It took us an hour and 45 minutes to read through Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, and Arkansas.

It felt like a performance—mouth was dry, hands were shaky, my focus had narrowed. Pablo picked up on it, and asked if I was OK.

“Nerves,” I said.

So what was there to be nervous about?

Raf carried the camcorder, I carried the materials: the two books of the 33,050 names; the information flyers; two chairs, one for reading, the other for the 33,050 people who are not there.

“You’re such a drama queen,” said Pablo, as I was clothes-pinning the shirt to the back of the chair, and the blue jeans to the seat. “I love it….”

“Let’s go around the plaza and tell people about the project,” I said. So we did for fifteen minutes or so.

“You know, it’s really important to engage with people—that’s what I’ve been learning,” said Pablo.

He’s a social anthropologist, but that’s incidental. He’s also my Puerto Rican brother, who went away for a while and now is back.

So he started the reading the names—Robert Schneider, Marc Perry, Frederick Hogan…. He read for fifteen minutes, and then went off to his next project or commitment. Just before doing so, I ran into my first, and only, gun rights advocate.

“I wonder if you’d read the list of people whose lives have been saved by guns,” he started out.

“No, but if you want to compile the list, you’re more than welcome to sit on the other side of the plaza and read it….”

I’d been dreading meeting this guy or one of his ilk—a full-fledged, card-carrying member of the NRA who recited the Second Amendment word for word, though transposing the militia clause from front to back.

Which he may have done on purpose, since he immediately asked me why we need guns.

“Protection.”

“Yes, and protection from what?”

“I think you’re gonna tell me…”

“The government,” he exploded. “From a tyrannical government. We need to have guns so that in the event of a tyranny, we can rise up and protect our rights!”

I had forgotten one of the great American crazinesses—this wild belief that the damn Federal government is plotting away back there in Washington to take away my rights and my land and my children but by God they step one foot on my land I’ll blow the brains out of them fuckers!

It’s completely irrational, although maybe not. Thanks to George W. Bush and the war on terror (decided not to cap that term….) we’re probably less free than we’ve ever been as a nation and as citizens. But somehow, I don’t think that was what he meant.

“Hitler killed 30 million people and never fired a gun,” he said.

I didn’t get it.

And still don’t. He said that words kill more people than guns.

So guns don’t kill, words kill!

OK—the talk was cordial, respectful. Did he want to go before the camera and give his point of view? This is all about fostering debate.

“No,” he said quickly. And I wondered—what was he afraid of? Because there were many “noes” yesterday—the “no, I’m shy,” the “no, I’ve got to meet someone,” the “no, this isn’t my thing.”

Into the scene improbably walked Nydia, Raf’s sister, who had completely panned the whole idea two days previously. But there’s a thing about Nydia, she’s totally loyal. So if I’m out making a fool out of myself under the hot Caribbean sun, well, she’ll be there.

“I’m here to read names,” she said, kissing me, and then, having heard a bit of the conversation, dropped the news “but guns kill,” onto the man.

“Go give Raf a break,” I said. Somehow, the combination of a strongly emotional, passionate Nydia and a fearful gun owner didn’t seem like a good idea. So she went off to read.

And then, into the plaza and into the picture stepped doña Ilia, Raf’s indomitable 83-year-old mother. Who is here to read as well, and does so, sitting in her walker.

She’s full of charm, this rheumatoid-arthritis-wracked lady who went, almost seven years ago, into cardiac, pulmonary, and kidney arrest, met God and told him to go to hell—she wasn’t ready yet. And so she was moving about the square, telling little girls “Ay, ¡qué linda, m’hija!” and patting them and beaming at the parents. Or she was standing behind Nydia, and proudly holding the sign that announces the project—“30,000 Lives.” Or she was telling the two visitors from Wisconsin about how many of her children went to the University of Wisconsin—three, plus a grandchild.

Nydia more or less trapped a girl into reading—she did so for five minutes and then joined her friends who would do a flash mob and dance. Then the Wisconsin kids took over, the girl reading, the guy holding the sign. Lastly, there was a guy, don Miguel, walking through the plaza and carrying two signs—one in English, the other in Spanish. So he read some names, and then talked about his project—the proposed plan to sell the airport.

It was hot, we were tired, we were done for the day. People had drifted by, taken pictures of us on their cell phones, stopped to chat. The only person who doesn’t have a picture?

Me—completely forgot to bring the stills camera.

No matter—stay tuned for the YouTube clip that will instantly go viral.

How do I know?

Who can resist an 83-year-old lady who told God to take a hike reading names in the middle of a square in San Juan, Puerto Rico?

If anyone can get a message out, doña Ilia can….

The Edge

“It’s badly organized,” my friend told me bluntly.

Well, I had sought her out for her opinion—what right did I have to be offended?

And she may well be right—organization is not my strongest point. You want ideas? Hey, sit down, grab a pencil and start writing. And probably you won’t be able to keep up.

But there was more. An ardent supporter of independence, she took umbrage at being included in a project involving the fifty states.

“We’re a separate nation,” she said, “and we’re recognized by the international community as a separate nation….”

I learned long ago—this is the thinnest of ice. I heard her out, and agreed on several points.

Virtually all the guns here in Puerto Rico are illegal, and come from the United States, where they are cheap and plentiful. And since we are a colony of the United States, we rely on the federal government to police our borders—if we were independent, we could do the job ourselves.

In addition, it’s our status as a colony that has made us a major entry point for cocaine and other drugs, which we ship up north. What comes back? Guns.

She made another point—we are about to privatize our airport, and to whom? Well, critics on the left say to a company which has ties to the drug traffickers. If true, the situation will be a mess—the drug lords will have assured their logistics, better than even Sam Walton could. And there will be guns littering our streets like cigarette butts.

Well, her suggestion was to focus on the Puerto Rican angle, organize better, get the media involved, and especially get well-known people involved. That’s how it’s done. One person sitting in a square reading names? Just another lunatic.

Or maybe a writer. I spent seven years inside a cold grey building. Then I spent another year alone in an apartment, creating a new life for my mother. Now it’s time to get out, get stirring, take the plunge, talk to people.

I’m scared, of course. Scared that some nut will pull out his gun and kill me, or worse, incapacitate me. I can’t look at Gabby Giffords without wondering—could I do what she’s done? Would I have that strength, that courage to come back after that kind of trauma?

Scared of looking ridiculous, though that’s lesser. I pretty much AM ridiculous most of the time—unlike organization, it’s really one of my fortes.

Scared of the passion that some gun owners have: the blind fury and paranoia that, mixed with fear and hate, makes them seethe with rage.

Which may be why I had a waking dream—a dream in which, inadvertently, I had stepped from a tall building, and was falling, falling to the pavement below.

“Courage is a muscle,” said Ruth Gordon, “and like a muscle, it gets stronger with use.”

Or words to that effect.

I say that it’s time to move out of the comfort zone. If you’re not out there poking around, hearing stories, getting people to talk or rant or weep, you’re not where you should be.

On the edge.