The pacing of these blog posts is hard to pull off when I have so much to do everyday but I want to keep you guys updated anyway, so here goes.
In the past three days we have had an overwhelming amount of awesome stuff we've been able to mark off of our bucket lists. The biggest one being the Taj Mahal, and I guess the point of this post will be to try and convey the feeling(s) I had standing there in front of one of the proclaimed "wonders of the world."
So the first thing to know about the Taj is that in India it is actually pronounced the Taj Mehell - we look like US rednecks when we pronounce it Taj Mah Hall. The building was built by Shah Jahan in 1653 for his wife. Think of the Taj Mahal as an Egyptian pyramid - its primary purpose was a burial site. The Taj Mahal has both Hindu and Muslim symbolism built into the structure in both design and artwork that is embedded into the marble on the inside of the structure.
When I first saw the Taj I actually got a chill - I never get chills, and my thought process at the time was that the Taj is a timeless artifact. Millions have visited it since 300 years before my birth and will continue to visit it centuries after I am no longer here. I'm not religious by any means but there was a religiosity in reverence for what I was seeing and experiencing in my mind at that moment, and I couldn't move.
The thoughts that permeated along with timelessness were that of awe of construction processes of the era. The magnitude of such a project in comparison with how things are handled now isn’t even worth comparing. We live in an age of metal materials that will decay and fade away in the blink of an eye, but for the earth to swallow the Taj Mahal it will take thousands of years of slow erosion and even then the marble slabs would hold fast for possibly a million or so years.
Incredible. Mind-rocked.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Day 1-2: Delhi
So I know this first post has been a couple of days coming now, and I'm sure a few of you were a little anxious to see what I would post. The thing is, when I got off of the plane I realized nothing I thought I knew from what I had read or watched could have prepared me for the world I am in now. There is just too much going on for any one author to put down everything in words. Even though the Indian people all look and sound the same to us Americans, it truly is a melting pot of culture and societal norms that vary as wildly as they do in the states. But unlike the states, it's a different melting pot - a different brew. Instead of adding western ideas in the batch they have a whole slew of eastern ideas with western ideas as the spice in the mix. So I had to reconsider the things I'd originally wanted to blog about as I want to be oppinionated, but I want everything to be factual. I'd hate to reverberate my usual garbage at you clowns.
So the first cultural difference I encountered was the outrageous disorder on the streets. These guys make Memphis drivers look like chumps. I'm saying if you held your arm out the window of your vehicle it's be in the passengers face of the car next to you, and they aren't wheeling around in shitty cars either. I saw a beamer cruising these streets. The intersections have lights but they don't always work, and somehow the traffic knows when they can go and when they should stop. But it looks like chaos - I kinda like it.
It's neat that, for a society and culture often wrapped up in minimalistic ideas how infatuated with capitalism they've become. There are more businesses than there are cars on the street - and motorcycles included, thats a lot. When we were circling the city of Delhi you could see big business surrounded by massive poverty. There are large clean skyscrapers at on end of the city's skyline and those buildings are forefronted by a mass of tight living conditions - slums. Think.. Alladins view from his little room in the Disney flick.
Only recently has the government in India allowed big business to start monopolizing on products - even walmart was halted for many years from entering the country until recently with its Indian franchise "BestPrice Modern Wholesale," named so to keep the Bentonville haters at bay.
Oh, and it's neat reading about America in their newspapers - it's kinda like listening in on someone's conversation when they're talking about you. In an article I read this morning in the India: Times, they referred to the "unhappy Americans" being upset about their not pitching in on a defense agreement that would involve them dishing out.. $50 billion? I think.
More to come...
So the first cultural difference I encountered was the outrageous disorder on the streets. These guys make Memphis drivers look like chumps. I'm saying if you held your arm out the window of your vehicle it's be in the passengers face of the car next to you, and they aren't wheeling around in shitty cars either. I saw a beamer cruising these streets. The intersections have lights but they don't always work, and somehow the traffic knows when they can go and when they should stop. But it looks like chaos - I kinda like it.
It's neat that, for a society and culture often wrapped up in minimalistic ideas how infatuated with capitalism they've become. There are more businesses than there are cars on the street - and motorcycles included, thats a lot. When we were circling the city of Delhi you could see big business surrounded by massive poverty. There are large clean skyscrapers at on end of the city's skyline and those buildings are forefronted by a mass of tight living conditions - slums. Think.. Alladins view from his little room in the Disney flick.
Only recently has the government in India allowed big business to start monopolizing on products - even walmart was halted for many years from entering the country until recently with its Indian franchise "BestPrice Modern Wholesale," named so to keep the Bentonville haters at bay.
Oh, and it's neat reading about America in their newspapers - it's kinda like listening in on someone's conversation when they're talking about you. In an article I read this morning in the India: Times, they referred to the "unhappy Americans" being upset about their not pitching in on a defense agreement that would involve them dishing out.. $50 billion? I think.
More to come...
Monday, February 21, 2011
Partisan Shmartisan
The HBO miniseries on John Adams had examples of political jargon used in American Politics and Government Today's first chapters. John Adams struggled through every political vice imaginable, and truly defined many political ideologies that citizens of the United States have come to both love and hate. From the inalienable rights structured in writing for the declaration of independence by Jefferson to the fight and clever balance of freedom vs. equality, this series revealed partisan struggles with a lucidity and historical accuracy that is not only commendable for a television series but is also worth noting. Though the terms are not rigidly outlined in the series, a viewer could easily come to realize - or understand, the concepts by watching this series and that is an interesting thing to see.
"I hear that we are called Federalists now, because we believe in strong central government?"
(John Adams, John Adams Mini-series)
John Adams and many of the delegates of the early congress were concerned with the growing partisan groups - or factions as I'd like to refer to them as that's what they really are. People seemed more concerned with bickering and yammering with someone's minute differences of opinion rather than seeking compromise and union; concessions to their problems. This might have been caused more by the fact that all the American people had ever known was dispute. The founding of the early colonies in the Americas had always been in dispute with one superpower or another - namely those overbearing British jerks. And now just when they had won their battle for independence and could decide on their own business, they could not decide their own business.
John Adams preferred order because he didn't see many people as being competent enough to make their own decisions; he thought they needed a hand to move their pieces and be a guiding influence. How could John Adams' dreams become a reality? Well through big American government, of course! This thought pattern placed John Adams in the 'Federalist' camp - whether or not any of his other ideas fell into the boundaries outlined by the principal 'federalist,' ideologies. And then there were others like Thomas Jefferson that were caught up with the rights of the individuals and this view would group him with the 'anti-federalists' or the 'republicans.'
"You [John Adams] have a disconcerting lack of faith in your fellow man"
(Thomas Jefferson, John Adams Mini-series)
There are two sides to this coin though, it can be perceived as an outright detriment towards the progress of the early continental congress or this could be viewed as a necessary evil that helped shape the undeniably stable government that was kind to many viewpoints and stood the test of time. The constitution was a result of the bickering and its ambiguity has been its muscle in longevity.
"I dread a division of our republic into parties."
(John Adams, John Adams Mini-series)
The important thing to remember - and what John Adams understood, is that these arguments of belief came from individuals not from their parties. Political ideological points are too rigidly outlined to be grouping such large numbers of people into one group or another. To oversimplify, one might look at modern United States politics. Constituents either fall into the democratic or republican grouping when voting on presidential or state governmental candidates. But one of two parties can in no way hold each and every belief specific to its constituents - especially in the presidential races simply because of the broad base that they are to stand on.
These problems wrecked the career of the late John Adams as he was unable to find consensus on either side of the partisan fence. During this period is when politicians began taking seats in the continental congress, not the educated well meaning minds of that first congress. And one might find that to be one of the most strikingly interesting facts if they didn't already know it when watching this series; just how fast the congress was controlled by money/power hungry businessmen with agendas that fell far from their constituents.
Perhaps things would have been fairer if the government had worked as Jefferson saw it should have. Jefferson perceived the best working government to be one that would make radical adjustments every generation or so to fit the will and the needs of its constituents. A government for the union of every mind, a direct democracy. But there is no way to know how that might have turned out because the United States has chosen it's government archetype, or maybe it was chosen for them. Either way it's here to stay, and it's pretty solid even with its flaws.
"I hear that we are called Federalists now, because we believe in strong central government?"
(John Adams, John Adams Mini-series)
John Adams and many of the delegates of the early congress were concerned with the growing partisan groups - or factions as I'd like to refer to them as that's what they really are. People seemed more concerned with bickering and yammering with someone's minute differences of opinion rather than seeking compromise and union; concessions to their problems. This might have been caused more by the fact that all the American people had ever known was dispute. The founding of the early colonies in the Americas had always been in dispute with one superpower or another - namely those overbearing British jerks. And now just when they had won their battle for independence and could decide on their own business, they could not decide their own business.
John Adams preferred order because he didn't see many people as being competent enough to make their own decisions; he thought they needed a hand to move their pieces and be a guiding influence. How could John Adams' dreams become a reality? Well through big American government, of course! This thought pattern placed John Adams in the 'Federalist' camp - whether or not any of his other ideas fell into the boundaries outlined by the principal 'federalist,' ideologies. And then there were others like Thomas Jefferson that were caught up with the rights of the individuals and this view would group him with the 'anti-federalists' or the 'republicans.'
"You [John Adams] have a disconcerting lack of faith in your fellow man"
(Thomas Jefferson, John Adams Mini-series)
There are two sides to this coin though, it can be perceived as an outright detriment towards the progress of the early continental congress or this could be viewed as a necessary evil that helped shape the undeniably stable government that was kind to many viewpoints and stood the test of time. The constitution was a result of the bickering and its ambiguity has been its muscle in longevity.
"I dread a division of our republic into parties."
(John Adams, John Adams Mini-series)
The important thing to remember - and what John Adams understood, is that these arguments of belief came from individuals not from their parties. Political ideological points are too rigidly outlined to be grouping such large numbers of people into one group or another. To oversimplify, one might look at modern United States politics. Constituents either fall into the democratic or republican grouping when voting on presidential or state governmental candidates. But one of two parties can in no way hold each and every belief specific to its constituents - especially in the presidential races simply because of the broad base that they are to stand on.
These problems wrecked the career of the late John Adams as he was unable to find consensus on either side of the partisan fence. During this period is when politicians began taking seats in the continental congress, not the educated well meaning minds of that first congress. And one might find that to be one of the most strikingly interesting facts if they didn't already know it when watching this series; just how fast the congress was controlled by money/power hungry businessmen with agendas that fell far from their constituents.
Perhaps things would have been fairer if the government had worked as Jefferson saw it should have. Jefferson perceived the best working government to be one that would make radical adjustments every generation or so to fit the will and the needs of its constituents. A government for the union of every mind, a direct democracy. But there is no way to know how that might have turned out because the United States has chosen it's government archetype, or maybe it was chosen for them. Either way it's here to stay, and it's pretty solid even with its flaws.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Ragnarök: A short story
So this is a short story I wrote last month.. enjoy!
The end of the world came as many had thought it would, with a meteor crashing into the planet and causing a mass extinction. When I say the end of the world, of course I meant for mankind. This rock we call Earth has stood the test of time against many collisions of similar magnitude. A silent fireball shot across the sky, then a bright light could be seen across the horizon. My hair on my arms stood erect as if to actually leap from my skin and run. I stood there silent, no whispering, not a gasp, not a murmur could be heard from those around me. And while I heard nothing, I am uncertain on there being utter silence. My mind had frozen, I was left blank.. Without thought. I couldn't think if I'd tried. I was terrified, glorified, mortified and mesmerized all in this instant. This instant when the skyline shone brighter than the brightest day I'd seen. The irony that while my eyes were filled with brightness I myself was bright eyed. I was also wide eyed and cross eyed - they had actually crossed when they had grown dry from mine not blinking. I felt mortality and immortality at the same time. For in the moment before one thinks they might die the world is very slow. If I could have thought, I would have been able to rethink every thought I'd ever thought and then some. But I couldn't... It was all so silent. Restless and unmoving.
Through the silence somehow I snapped back into reality, someone had grabbed my arm and I was pulled then through the metal hatch that would save my life. We were hiding underground. When I say we, I mean those of us that knew this was coming. The government had chosen twenty of us to be the sole survivors all based on various skills and we were split evenly, ten and ten by our gender. Thank god I hadn't been a homosexual I'd have been left out to dry. We were the chosen few to repopulate the world, well us and them of course. The president and his family, as well as some very well to do's were hiding out beneath ground elsewhere. We weren't to know the location of course and they had told us we would be informed "when it had passed." To which my thought was, "if it passes we won't have to worry about it though, it's if it hits that it's a big deal!" The biggest...
I was in charge of keeping these blasted computer's running after the hit. Like they really mattered I thought, "what good is the internet if there's no one online?" But of course they needed someone who could maybe rekindle a bit of familiar technology when we all emerged. So among us was one well versed in electrical engineering, a doctor, a botanist, a psychologist, so on and so forth. Each of us dealing with a field the government deemed necessary to "restart." The funny thing was while we were all very good at our trades we were by no means "the best." Some of us were professors, but not at ivy league schools. I, myself, taught at a community college and my only claim to fame was putting an end to a computer virus that had started spreading uncontrollably through a network that actually found its way into one of the Pentagon's servers.
Apparently, there were other groups similar to our own all over the world just in case a group was "lost." We were all gathered and placed in this protective underground vault which they dubbed the "cocoon." And our number, should we contact or be contacted was 013. The three digit number led me to believe that we were going to be in good company should this scheme to defy the gods work.
So here I am writing my own literature. They didn't even give me a chance to grab a good read. I'm stuck here Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms and once you've read that, you've read it. I mean how am I supposed to be surprised about Henry getting his kneecap blown off more than once? It was the only thing I could grab though as they shuffled me out the door. I had no idea they would be carrying me away for a long period of time but I figured it would be long enough to where I'd need something to keep my mind occupied, so I snatched the book on my way out. There it was sitting on the stand I used to keep my mail on by the door. I'd set it there like you do anything you want people to notice, "Oh, you've read A Farewell to Arms?" "Why yes, yes I have," you say that right before sitting down in leather bound chairs and smoking on bubble pipes to talk politics - which is all just some kind of rouse to look like you have a brain anyway. Like any of that matters now that the freaking world is crashing down around us.
So I sit here with a book, a computer, and my thoughts. I wonder what lies ahead and in the most realistic since I know my life is already over. No I didn't physically die with everyone else, but I'm left knowing that I can never do the things I had aspired to do. I may never see another sunrise or sunset because only god knows how much longer the surface will cook. I may have a family, but there's hardly a choice. I'm left with the older one, the fat one, or the nerdy one (and everyone has dibs on her). My point being that none of them are my type and it all feels so strange when you're down here. I couldn't fathom falling in love right now.
Hell I'm lucky I don't have kids or wife. It seems that was one of the criteria in picking us for this. I mean I had friends and family that I'm absolutely torn up about, but no children. I'm really surprised they didn't pack us two psychologists for this shit though, hell even three. This is a rough stint were having to ride out down here in the darkness. And knowing that everything we've known and loved up there is all just gone now is terrifying in its own way. Imagine everything you've learned about over your entire lifetime being meaningless. I mean, who cares about history, or politics, or racial inequalities, or if there is or isn't a god? I mean, if there's a hell its directly above my head now.
The end of the world came as many had thought it would, with a meteor crashing into the planet and causing a mass extinction. When I say the end of the world, of course I meant for mankind. This rock we call Earth has stood the test of time against many collisions of similar magnitude. A silent fireball shot across the sky, then a bright light could be seen across the horizon. My hair on my arms stood erect as if to actually leap from my skin and run. I stood there silent, no whispering, not a gasp, not a murmur could be heard from those around me. And while I heard nothing, I am uncertain on there being utter silence. My mind had frozen, I was left blank.. Without thought. I couldn't think if I'd tried. I was terrified, glorified, mortified and mesmerized all in this instant. This instant when the skyline shone brighter than the brightest day I'd seen. The irony that while my eyes were filled with brightness I myself was bright eyed. I was also wide eyed and cross eyed - they had actually crossed when they had grown dry from mine not blinking. I felt mortality and immortality at the same time. For in the moment before one thinks they might die the world is very slow. If I could have thought, I would have been able to rethink every thought I'd ever thought and then some. But I couldn't... It was all so silent. Restless and unmoving.
Through the silence somehow I snapped back into reality, someone had grabbed my arm and I was pulled then through the metal hatch that would save my life. We were hiding underground. When I say we, I mean those of us that knew this was coming. The government had chosen twenty of us to be the sole survivors all based on various skills and we were split evenly, ten and ten by our gender. Thank god I hadn't been a homosexual I'd have been left out to dry. We were the chosen few to repopulate the world, well us and them of course. The president and his family, as well as some very well to do's were hiding out beneath ground elsewhere. We weren't to know the location of course and they had told us we would be informed "when it had passed." To which my thought was, "if it passes we won't have to worry about it though, it's if it hits that it's a big deal!" The biggest...
I was in charge of keeping these blasted computer's running after the hit. Like they really mattered I thought, "what good is the internet if there's no one online?" But of course they needed someone who could maybe rekindle a bit of familiar technology when we all emerged. So among us was one well versed in electrical engineering, a doctor, a botanist, a psychologist, so on and so forth. Each of us dealing with a field the government deemed necessary to "restart." The funny thing was while we were all very good at our trades we were by no means "the best." Some of us were professors, but not at ivy league schools. I, myself, taught at a community college and my only claim to fame was putting an end to a computer virus that had started spreading uncontrollably through a network that actually found its way into one of the Pentagon's servers.
Apparently, there were other groups similar to our own all over the world just in case a group was "lost." We were all gathered and placed in this protective underground vault which they dubbed the "cocoon." And our number, should we contact or be contacted was 013. The three digit number led me to believe that we were going to be in good company should this scheme to defy the gods work.
So here I am writing my own literature. They didn't even give me a chance to grab a good read. I'm stuck here Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms and once you've read that, you've read it. I mean how am I supposed to be surprised about Henry getting his kneecap blown off more than once? It was the only thing I could grab though as they shuffled me out the door. I had no idea they would be carrying me away for a long period of time but I figured it would be long enough to where I'd need something to keep my mind occupied, so I snatched the book on my way out. There it was sitting on the stand I used to keep my mail on by the door. I'd set it there like you do anything you want people to notice, "Oh, you've read A Farewell to Arms?" "Why yes, yes I have," you say that right before sitting down in leather bound chairs and smoking on bubble pipes to talk politics - which is all just some kind of rouse to look like you have a brain anyway. Like any of that matters now that the freaking world is crashing down around us.
So I sit here with a book, a computer, and my thoughts. I wonder what lies ahead and in the most realistic since I know my life is already over. No I didn't physically die with everyone else, but I'm left knowing that I can never do the things I had aspired to do. I may never see another sunrise or sunset because only god knows how much longer the surface will cook. I may have a family, but there's hardly a choice. I'm left with the older one, the fat one, or the nerdy one (and everyone has dibs on her). My point being that none of them are my type and it all feels so strange when you're down here. I couldn't fathom falling in love right now.
Hell I'm lucky I don't have kids or wife. It seems that was one of the criteria in picking us for this. I mean I had friends and family that I'm absolutely torn up about, but no children. I'm really surprised they didn't pack us two psychologists for this shit though, hell even three. This is a rough stint were having to ride out down here in the darkness. And knowing that everything we've known and loved up there is all just gone now is terrifying in its own way. Imagine everything you've learned about over your entire lifetime being meaningless. I mean, who cares about history, or politics, or racial inequalities, or if there is or isn't a god? I mean, if there's a hell its directly above my head now.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Full Steam Ahead
I've been reading a lot of posts on other people's blogs similar to the one I myself am about to post.. It seems it's been a long time since I updated my blog and it's about time I got back into posting on this thing.. hence, "full steam ahead."
For those interested in my personal personal life and not my rants on mores and values - I recently was looking at all of my credits I have at school on my transcript and realized "hot damn! I have have damn near 70 credit hours at school!" Apparently this was from my flip/flopping around on my major. So with all these extra credit hours I have now it seems I am going to be able to graduate in May 2011 with a double major.. [drum roll, please] English & Literature / Social Work.. Both associates, but they go well with my broader goal of getting into a relief effort of some sort.
I looked into joining up with the Red Cross and found that many of their entry level positions center around degrees in Public Relations. SO! When I transfer to Memphis in the fall next year I will be pursuing a Bachelors in Public Relations.
Other than that, I'll say shortly.. I'm disappointed with America and the way they voted in the mid term elections, but I can't say I would've been much happier with blue. I would like to see red & blue removed from ballots, that way people have to read a little about who they are voting for before they hit the polls... and I think legislation should be an optional piece of the ballot.. I'm scared to think of the countless illiterate punching options on ballots and having no idea what they are voting for.
For those interested in my personal personal life and not my rants on mores and values - I recently was looking at all of my credits I have at school on my transcript and realized "hot damn! I have have damn near 70 credit hours at school!" Apparently this was from my flip/flopping around on my major. So with all these extra credit hours I have now it seems I am going to be able to graduate in May 2011 with a double major.. [drum roll, please] English & Literature / Social Work.. Both associates, but they go well with my broader goal of getting into a relief effort of some sort.
I looked into joining up with the Red Cross and found that many of their entry level positions center around degrees in Public Relations. SO! When I transfer to Memphis in the fall next year I will be pursuing a Bachelors in Public Relations.
Other than that, I'll say shortly.. I'm disappointed with America and the way they voted in the mid term elections, but I can't say I would've been much happier with blue. I would like to see red & blue removed from ballots, that way people have to read a little about who they are voting for before they hit the polls... and I think legislation should be an optional piece of the ballot.. I'm scared to think of the countless illiterate punching options on ballots and having no idea what they are voting for.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Stupid law
There has been a lot of talk about Memphis, its appearance, Memphian safety and our economy. These broad subjects have gotten people brainstorming on what has to be wrong whether it's race, the homelessness problem, the future generations education etc, etc. Recently a key issue is resting on alcohol.
Alcohol, a great American past-time. A binding sentiment. A heated topic. A sin?
Tennessee just this last year passed a law that granted permission to those with carry permits to tote their fire-arms into restaurants where alcohol is served under the conditions that the person(s) carrying the weapon do not consume any alcohol and the owner of the establishment has no postings forbidding the carry of fire-arms on the property.
This new law forgets that American bars are already littered with fire-arms that the general public aren't carrying - the owner and/or employees, security, and law enforcement - and places protection of the public in the public's hands directly.
"Criminals flourish in gun-free zones as evidenced by crimes associated with them. In fact, massacres involving multiple victims occur almost exclusively in gun free zones," said Senator Jackson of TN. So this is a safety issue, because there are so many fights break out in bars that security and bartenders - the sober ones - are incapable of handling on their own.
But no, it isn't about safety for us Tennesseans, this is about our rights as Americans! This is about their second amendment right to keep and bear arms. According to the NRA's Institute for legislative action "The Tennessee law, which takes effect Sept. 1, is the latest in a nationwide push by gun rights advocates to tear down the legal walls that have prevented permit holders from packing their weapons into previously forbidden territory. In May, Congress voted to allow guns in America's national parks. A number of similar bills were introduced in state legislatures this year to allow guns in parks, bars, college campuses and churches" (NRA-ILA: http://www.nraila.org/news/read/inthenews.aspx?ID=12664).
And in a value discussion I'd say my rights are being violated too. The rights of which I am speaking are not rights listed in the constitutional bill of rights, rather I speak on my rights as a human. I believe I have a right to receive protection from the laws imposed on me by my government, and I also believe that people should have a voice in their government. Upon review of the TN Supreme Court case I found no objections to the law before it was passed in presentation before the TN Supreme Court, and just in searching the internet briefly I found there was an overwhelming outcry against this bill. One in particular came from TN Governor Bredesen when he said " I still think I'm right,"[...]"I still think that guns in bars is a very bad idea. It's an invitation to a disaster." Bredesen was joined in protest by the chiefs of police stated clearly by Senator Jackson "The position of the chiefs of police association is not unique. We have seen it before. They opposed this bill last year."
Also when it comes to safety I'll remind you that just because an individual has a gun carry permit does not mean that they are incapable of breaking laws, and in my research I've found they have a terrible track record of breaking laws and losing their permits! "Of the roughly 218,000 handgun permit holders in Tennessee, 278 had their permits revoked last year, records show. Since 2005, state records shows nearly 1,200 people have lost their permits," says the Huffington Post. So what's to keep these gun toting lawbreakers from consuming alcohol and flying off the handle? Hopefully that security I mentioned earlier, but I'd still feel a larger sense of relief knowing they didn't have the gun in the first place.
What's mildly amusing about the whole thing is now Memphis lawmakers are now attempting to remove certain labels of beer and the amounts in which they can be served from store shelves because of a growing problem with panhandlers - and their big issue is that alcohol makes people act a little crazy. To show once again that if you target anything and you speak well enough you can make it look like a problem I'll end the paper with the market survey used to show panhandlers and their crazy alcoholic antics are a real problem here in Memphis.
QUESTION-WHY DO YOU NOT GO DOWNTOWN MORE OFTEN
I do go Downtown often 4.9%
Public Safety/Crime 34%
Parking is inconvenient 17.7%
Too far to drive 15.8%
Not interested in Downtown activities 12.5%
Parking is Expensive 11.4%
Don't know why I don't go/think of it 7.6%
Too Expensive "other than parking specifically" 7.1%
BOTHERED BY PANHANDLERS "Homeless,Street people.etc" 4.6%
No public Transportation available 3.8%
Cleanliness of Downtown 2.4%
Don't know what's happening downtown 2.2%
Other-traffic/navigation of the streets 3.0%
other-My health/age 3.0%
Other Not enough events/nothing to do there 3.0%
Other Too crowded 0.8%
Other-General single mentions 3.2%
This projection of 5% of people being bothered by panhandlers was placed in conjunction with Public Safety and Crime in the local media to make it look like Memphis had a real pandemic on their hands. While I'm not advocating that Memphis is safe or that we don't have our share of problems I am asking the people responsible for lawmaking to examine the rest of the list.
Alcohol, a great American past-time. A binding sentiment. A heated topic. A sin?
Tennessee just this last year passed a law that granted permission to those with carry permits to tote their fire-arms into restaurants where alcohol is served under the conditions that the person(s) carrying the weapon do not consume any alcohol and the owner of the establishment has no postings forbidding the carry of fire-arms on the property.
This new law forgets that American bars are already littered with fire-arms that the general public aren't carrying - the owner and/or employees, security, and law enforcement - and places protection of the public in the public's hands directly.
"Criminals flourish in gun-free zones as evidenced by crimes associated with them. In fact, massacres involving multiple victims occur almost exclusively in gun free zones," said Senator Jackson of TN. So this is a safety issue, because there are so many fights break out in bars that security and bartenders - the sober ones - are incapable of handling on their own.
But no, it isn't about safety for us Tennesseans, this is about our rights as Americans! This is about their second amendment right to keep and bear arms. According to the NRA's Institute for legislative action "The Tennessee law, which takes effect Sept. 1, is the latest in a nationwide push by gun rights advocates to tear down the legal walls that have prevented permit holders from packing their weapons into previously forbidden territory. In May, Congress voted to allow guns in America's national parks. A number of similar bills were introduced in state legislatures this year to allow guns in parks, bars, college campuses and churches" (NRA-ILA: http://www.nraila.org/news/read/inthenews.aspx?ID=12664).
And in a value discussion I'd say my rights are being violated too. The rights of which I am speaking are not rights listed in the constitutional bill of rights, rather I speak on my rights as a human. I believe I have a right to receive protection from the laws imposed on me by my government, and I also believe that people should have a voice in their government. Upon review of the TN Supreme Court case I found no objections to the law before it was passed in presentation before the TN Supreme Court, and just in searching the internet briefly I found there was an overwhelming outcry against this bill. One in particular came from TN Governor Bredesen when he said " I still think I'm right,"[...]"I still think that guns in bars is a very bad idea. It's an invitation to a disaster." Bredesen was joined in protest by the chiefs of police stated clearly by Senator Jackson "The position of the chiefs of police association is not unique. We have seen it before. They opposed this bill last year."
Also when it comes to safety I'll remind you that just because an individual has a gun carry permit does not mean that they are incapable of breaking laws, and in my research I've found they have a terrible track record of breaking laws and losing their permits! "Of the roughly 218,000 handgun permit holders in Tennessee, 278 had their permits revoked last year, records show. Since 2005, state records shows nearly 1,200 people have lost their permits," says the Huffington Post. So what's to keep these gun toting lawbreakers from consuming alcohol and flying off the handle? Hopefully that security I mentioned earlier, but I'd still feel a larger sense of relief knowing they didn't have the gun in the first place.
What's mildly amusing about the whole thing is now Memphis lawmakers are now attempting to remove certain labels of beer and the amounts in which they can be served from store shelves because of a growing problem with panhandlers - and their big issue is that alcohol makes people act a little crazy. To show once again that if you target anything and you speak well enough you can make it look like a problem I'll end the paper with the market survey used to show panhandlers and their crazy alcoholic antics are a real problem here in Memphis.
QUESTION-WHY DO YOU NOT GO DOWNTOWN MORE OFTEN
I do go Downtown often 4.9%
Public Safety/Crime 34%
Parking is inconvenient 17.7%
Too far to drive 15.8%
Not interested in Downtown activities 12.5%
Parking is Expensive 11.4%
Don't know why I don't go/think of it 7.6%
Too Expensive "other than parking specifically" 7.1%
BOTHERED BY PANHANDLERS "Homeless,Street people.etc" 4.6%
No public Transportation available 3.8%
Cleanliness of Downtown 2.4%
Don't know what's happening downtown 2.2%
Other-traffic/navigation of the streets 3.0%
other-My health/age 3.0%
Other Not enough events/nothing to do there 3.0%
Other Too crowded 0.8%
Other-General single mentions 3.2%
This projection of 5% of people being bothered by panhandlers was placed in conjunction with Public Safety and Crime in the local media to make it look like Memphis had a real pandemic on their hands. While I'm not advocating that Memphis is safe or that we don't have our share of problems I am asking the people responsible for lawmaking to examine the rest of the list.
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