So here is where we get to the meat and potatoes of politics. Someone sharing the personal political views they have as an individual is something people don't do all the time. Often times, people keep their views of major issues to themselves to avoid conflict. Today, I am going to share with you all my views on some major hot button issues.
The Death Penalty - This has been a subject I struggled with personally for many years. There was a portion of my younger years when I was pro-death penalty. That was, however, an uninformed and simply emotional stance I took at that time because I hadn't really thought it through. I simply thought, if you perform these horrible crimes, you don't deserve to live.
In my adult life, I have been educated, I have researched death penalty history, I have looked to the morality of the death penalty, and am vehemently against the Death Penalty.
One of the things I looked at in my research were the mistakes. There is no way to tell for sure how many innocent lives have been taken with the death penalty over the years, but there are 15 or more cases that have very strong evidence pointing to the innocence of the individuals who were executed. It is hard for me as a human being, seeing this evidence, and subsequently seeing many people released from life sentences and long sentences after DNA evidence or other evidence has cleared them of the crimes they were sentenced for years ago, to say it is justified for any of us to take another human life using the death penalty.
A life for a life is not the answer. 2015 Governmental data showed that housing and caring for a Federal Prisoner in 2015 cost $31,977.65 on average. Death penalty cases can cost upward of 2.3 Million Dollars, which is multiple times the cost of housing someone for life in a federal prison at the maximum security level. So taking morality out of the picture all together and just looking at the financial impacts, the death penalty doesn't save money.
Looking from the moral perspective, it just doesn't make moral sense for us, as a developed nation, to take the lives of people who have committed crimes, regardless of how heinous those crimes might have been. As I stated before, a life for a life is never the answer.
I do feel that those on life sentences for heinous crimes should not be offered things like access to television and movies, education, recreation time, etc. We should provide those individuals with exactly what they need to survive; food, shelter, health care and clothing. What we shouldn't do is offer them luxuries that some who live outside of prison don't even have.
Aside of the death penalty, America has the highest incarceration rate in the world per capita and in total numbers. Another thing we need to do as a country is reassess the lower level offenses and find ways to avoid incarceration. We also need to look at our justice system as a whole and find ways to better standardize punishment. I can show you 10 different cases where 10 different people committed the same crime, but all received completely different sentences.
The company I work for has multiple locations, and has a way of comparing through the HR and Legal departments, the punishments handed out to employees for specific infractions to ensure all employees across all sites receive punishments that are the same for like infractions. Our system in the United States is all over the board. I know a person whose Aunt started dating an individual. She had been with him for under a month, and he called for her to pick him up and take him to a "buddy's" house quick. She pulled up in the driveway of the buddy's house, her boyfriend got out and entered the house, and moments later the police arrived. There was a drug bust, and the boyfriend received 2 years in prison through the courts. The Aunt, however, was taken to court as an accomplice, and received 6 years. Sentences like that should never happen, but it all depends upon the court and the judge in many cases. There are definitely opportunities for our country to improve its judicial system, and I feel we need to do that on a fairly large scale.
But to make a long story longer, I am absolutely against the Death Penalty. Life in prison without anything other than those basic services and items required to sustain someone's life.
Abortion - The discussion surrounding Abortion rights isn't a new one. It really started coming to the forefront back in the 1820's. What bothers me greatly about the subject of Abortion, is that right wing groups utilize the subject of Abortion to garner the devout religious vote in the United States. My Grandmother, for instance, could tell you nothing about the political platforms of anyone she ever voted for in life, but what she could tell you for sure is that every candidate she voted for was Pro-Life. Just because a candidate is Pro-Life doesn't mean that they will be a great politician, but many churches and other religious organizations push the message that voting for a candidate who is Pro-Choice is a Sin, so people like my Grandmother and others vote Pro-Life, regardless of the candidate.
My view on abortion has never changed, but my story is different than most people's. My story is also one that you would think would drive me to have the exact opposite view on abortion than I do. My mother was extremely young when I was born. By extremely young I mean 13. She was pregnant in 7th grade and had me when she was 13 years old. I have never known my father, and that is a story I will not share in this blog, but what I will share is that I was raised by my Grandmother and Grandfather. My mom was more like a sister than a mother when I was a child, and because of that I really looked to my Grandmother as my mother figure as a child. My Mother was still going through school and being a teen.
When my mother got pregnant, the only choices my grandparents would allow were for me to be born and raised by my family, or to be born and adopted by another family. My family was a devout Catholic Family and didn't believe in abortion.
Now, having said that, I am Pro-Choice. The largest part of the debate on abortion centers around when life actually starts. Pro-Life supporters believe life begins at conception. Pro-Choice supporters believe that life begins at a time when the child can survive on its own outside the womb or when a child is born. Yes, those were generalizations, but I think they are both fairly accurate in most cases.
I believe in a woman's right to choose, but I also believe that abortion rights need to go through major reform in the United States. Earlier in life I managed a restaurant and one of my waitresses came to me and said that she was thinking about having an abortion, and that none of her friends or the father wanted to support her through the process. I told her that as a last resort, if she truly believed an abortion was her only option and no one would go with her, that I would take her the hour-and-a-half to the nearest clinic.
About 2 weeks later, I received a knock on my front door, and it was the waitress. She was crying uncontrollably and said that the father was going to go with her but backed out at the last minute and she didn't know where else to go. So I took her. When we pulled into the clinic there was a mob of people at the front entrance who were holding up signs picturing abortions with horrible phrases on the signs, screaming and yelling at us as and calling us murderers as we entered the property and drove around back to the rear entrance. When we arrived at the clinic there were 6 people in the waiting room. One girl looked to be about the age my mother was when I was born, and she was there with her mom. The others looked like couples and the women looked to be in their early 20's. My waitress was 22 years old at the time.
They took my waitress back, talked to her and had her watch a 45 minute video that was required before making the final decision. She ultimately chose to go through with it, and the drive home was in complete silence because of how difficult and devastating the decision to have an abortion can be.
While waiting in the waiting room at the clinic for my waitress to come out, there was complete silence. People just stared forward as if in catatonic states, not saying a word to one another. People on the far right often talk about women going and having abortions like they are taking the morning after pill. I am here to say that it is nothing like that. It is emotionally devastating to an extreme degree for most women, and it is something they think about for the rest of their lives. It isn't a decision or action they take lightly.
Having said all of that, this is what I think needs to change. There should be a requirement to go to at least 2 counseling sessions with a board certified psychiatrist prior to being allowed to make the final decision. During those sessions the individual considering abortion should be presented with all of the programs and support systems that exist near them to help new mothers raise their children. They should be presented with the fact that it is possible and that there are organizations and people out there who will help. They should also be presented with the reality of what an abortion is, visually, and then talk with the Psychiatrist about what their mindset is after the two meetings and receiving all of the additional information. Finally, they should be talked to about adoption as an option as well. They should be presented with all of the alternatives to abortion before being allowed to make the final decision to have an abortion.
If at that point the individual still wants to go through with the abortion, it should be their choice to do so. Abortion clinics should not, however, be allowed to be revolving doors for women. There needs to be limitations set. Discussions of tubal ligation or other means of preventing future unwanted pregnancy could be made part of a requirement within the structure of the system. For instance, if a woman comes in for a second abortion, a requirement to receive a tubal ligation or other approved surgery could be required in addition to the abortion in order to prevent future unwanted pregnancy.
In all, however, I feel a woman should have the absolute right to choose.
Like religion, the determination as to when life begins is a belief or a faith that each group has. The stance I take is that of a Pro-Choice stance. I will not denigrate anyone for being Pro-Life. That is their choice. What I ask is that you give women "their choice".
What I have noticed recently regarding the fringe right, however, concerns me as well. They fight so hard to protect the unborn children, but don't seem to care as much about those children once they are born. The children being ripped from their families at the border, the lack of proper educational reform, etc. It's interesting.
Gun Legislation - Holy Shit is this a huge issue in the United States right now...whenever there's a shooting....for a few weeks...and then we move on to the next subject. I jest, but it's true. The parkland students and others have finally kept the gun debate in the news for more than a couple of weeks, but it ends up getting pushed to the back of all other news until the next shooting occurs. Then we talk again, don't act, and eventually stop talking.
That needs to stop. The fighting needs to stop. We have 2 groups right now that have the loudest voices. Group number 1 is on the Far Left and talks about taking guns away from citizens or severely limiting the right to bare arms (fringe view). Group number 2 is on the Far Right and talks as if citizens should be able to own anything they want to up to and including tanks (another fringe view).
The answer to the gun debate falls directly in the middle; a place no one seems to want to go to in order to find answers these days. I believe in the 2nd Amendment, but also believe there needs to be limitations to the right.
The Far Right points to mental health as the answer to divert from gun laws being discussed, and the Far Left pushes the gun law debate at their forefront. The fact is that both things are very important.
First, the gun laws need to be standardized across the country, and not different from state to state. I should not be able to go into a gun shop in one state and walk out with a gun, but have to wait 72 hours to pick up my gun in another state. Common Sense laws need to be applied across the board in order for gun legislation to be truly effective.
It would be a great practice to require a 72 hour or similar waiting period in every state for every gun purchase. That just makes sense. If you are a person who needs a gun right now and can't wait 3 days, you don't need a gun. That 72 hour or similar cool off period would also provide time for a proper background check to be performed.
Better laws governing the private sale and transfer of weapons should also be looked at and instated. Some states require background checks be conducted for private sales and transfers, but many don't. The laws are very inconsistent from state to state, and they need to be completely consistent across the board.
Mental Health reporting needs to be centralized and very accessible, and also have a program set up so that information regarding mental health automatically gets uploaded in close to real time from anywhere in the nation. Every healthcare provider should use the same database, to include the military, and mental health red flags should be entered into that database as they are realized and documented. Any red flags that occur within the mental health database should be immediately sent to law enforcement agencies in the local regions identified individuals live.
Those law enforcement agencies should have a registered gun owner database to cross reference when red flags are identified, and should be able to remove guns from the homes of individuals identified to be mental health risks.
There should be a requirement for individuals to have to register as gun owners in every state, and the serial numbers of each of those individuals' guns should be contained within that database. This database would not be for public use, but would instead be used by police agencies nationwide.
Schools and other organizations should have better established reporting protocols across the board regarding red flags. When students threaten others, say or do things that raise red flags, or post things online that raise red flags, those things should be reported to the institution, and then forwarded to authorities to look into further if they deem necessary through their risk assessments.
If we look at the Parkland shooting, there were multiple visits to the home of the individual, multiple individuals had contacted local and federal authorities, and the shooter had posted online several things that were complete red flags, to include a statement that he would be the next school shooter. There were so many red flags that popped up in advance of that shooting, but the protocols each agency had regarding the response to these types of things all completely failed, and people died when they may not have had the proper protocols been put in place.
People should absolutely be able to own guns up to a certain size, but registering your weapons should also be a requirement so law enforcement agencies around the country have that information to aid them in their response to potential threats, and to aid them in removing guns from individuals who are deemed unfit to be able to own guns.
So in closing, I believe in the 2nd Amendment, but I also believe that we need to come up with a much more robust system for tracking weapon ownership, for weapon purchases and background check requirements both from shops and privately, we need to greatly improve mental health reporting and centralize it across the country so all institutions are feeding into the same system in near real time, and we need to strengthen our red flag reporting and response protocols around the country. That is a start. I am not saying take away any guns. I am saying to put processes and obstacles in place that make it much more difficult for people who shouldn't have guns to purchase them.
Many on the Far Right say that if a bad person wants a gun, they will get a gun. That is correct to a point. People will still find ways, but creating a more robust program as listed above will prevent some people who are looking to do harm from having a weapon, and that in itself is worth the effort. You will never completely prevent gun violence, but you MUST do what you can as a country to put things in place to help mitigate the issue as much as possible.
You see, the right to bare arms is a right in the constitution, but to think that the right exists without the need for limitations and regulation is just ridiculous. Guns are created for one specific purpose...to kill. The fact we cannot track every gun in America right now to its location is concerning. The government can tell you where every weapon it owns is issued to and located, why can't we do that with every other weapon in America?
Those were the big three platform issues. I will go into more of my platform in the next blog, covering in less detail other views I hold. I hope you liked me going into the detail that I have, and I thank each of you who reads my blog regularly for your support. I also thank those of you who are reading for the first time today, and urge you to look back at some of my previous blogs, comment, and share.
Thank you!
DUNK
The Death Penalty - This has been a subject I struggled with personally for many years. There was a portion of my younger years when I was pro-death penalty. That was, however, an uninformed and simply emotional stance I took at that time because I hadn't really thought it through. I simply thought, if you perform these horrible crimes, you don't deserve to live.
In my adult life, I have been educated, I have researched death penalty history, I have looked to the morality of the death penalty, and am vehemently against the Death Penalty.
One of the things I looked at in my research were the mistakes. There is no way to tell for sure how many innocent lives have been taken with the death penalty over the years, but there are 15 or more cases that have very strong evidence pointing to the innocence of the individuals who were executed. It is hard for me as a human being, seeing this evidence, and subsequently seeing many people released from life sentences and long sentences after DNA evidence or other evidence has cleared them of the crimes they were sentenced for years ago, to say it is justified for any of us to take another human life using the death penalty.
A life for a life is not the answer. 2015 Governmental data showed that housing and caring for a Federal Prisoner in 2015 cost $31,977.65 on average. Death penalty cases can cost upward of 2.3 Million Dollars, which is multiple times the cost of housing someone for life in a federal prison at the maximum security level. So taking morality out of the picture all together and just looking at the financial impacts, the death penalty doesn't save money.
Looking from the moral perspective, it just doesn't make moral sense for us, as a developed nation, to take the lives of people who have committed crimes, regardless of how heinous those crimes might have been. As I stated before, a life for a life is never the answer.
I do feel that those on life sentences for heinous crimes should not be offered things like access to television and movies, education, recreation time, etc. We should provide those individuals with exactly what they need to survive; food, shelter, health care and clothing. What we shouldn't do is offer them luxuries that some who live outside of prison don't even have.
Aside of the death penalty, America has the highest incarceration rate in the world per capita and in total numbers. Another thing we need to do as a country is reassess the lower level offenses and find ways to avoid incarceration. We also need to look at our justice system as a whole and find ways to better standardize punishment. I can show you 10 different cases where 10 different people committed the same crime, but all received completely different sentences.
The company I work for has multiple locations, and has a way of comparing through the HR and Legal departments, the punishments handed out to employees for specific infractions to ensure all employees across all sites receive punishments that are the same for like infractions. Our system in the United States is all over the board. I know a person whose Aunt started dating an individual. She had been with him for under a month, and he called for her to pick him up and take him to a "buddy's" house quick. She pulled up in the driveway of the buddy's house, her boyfriend got out and entered the house, and moments later the police arrived. There was a drug bust, and the boyfriend received 2 years in prison through the courts. The Aunt, however, was taken to court as an accomplice, and received 6 years. Sentences like that should never happen, but it all depends upon the court and the judge in many cases. There are definitely opportunities for our country to improve its judicial system, and I feel we need to do that on a fairly large scale.
But to make a long story longer, I am absolutely against the Death Penalty. Life in prison without anything other than those basic services and items required to sustain someone's life.
Abortion - The discussion surrounding Abortion rights isn't a new one. It really started coming to the forefront back in the 1820's. What bothers me greatly about the subject of Abortion, is that right wing groups utilize the subject of Abortion to garner the devout religious vote in the United States. My Grandmother, for instance, could tell you nothing about the political platforms of anyone she ever voted for in life, but what she could tell you for sure is that every candidate she voted for was Pro-Life. Just because a candidate is Pro-Life doesn't mean that they will be a great politician, but many churches and other religious organizations push the message that voting for a candidate who is Pro-Choice is a Sin, so people like my Grandmother and others vote Pro-Life, regardless of the candidate.
My view on abortion has never changed, but my story is different than most people's. My story is also one that you would think would drive me to have the exact opposite view on abortion than I do. My mother was extremely young when I was born. By extremely young I mean 13. She was pregnant in 7th grade and had me when she was 13 years old. I have never known my father, and that is a story I will not share in this blog, but what I will share is that I was raised by my Grandmother and Grandfather. My mom was more like a sister than a mother when I was a child, and because of that I really looked to my Grandmother as my mother figure as a child. My Mother was still going through school and being a teen.
When my mother got pregnant, the only choices my grandparents would allow were for me to be born and raised by my family, or to be born and adopted by another family. My family was a devout Catholic Family and didn't believe in abortion.
Now, having said that, I am Pro-Choice. The largest part of the debate on abortion centers around when life actually starts. Pro-Life supporters believe life begins at conception. Pro-Choice supporters believe that life begins at a time when the child can survive on its own outside the womb or when a child is born. Yes, those were generalizations, but I think they are both fairly accurate in most cases.
I believe in a woman's right to choose, but I also believe that abortion rights need to go through major reform in the United States. Earlier in life I managed a restaurant and one of my waitresses came to me and said that she was thinking about having an abortion, and that none of her friends or the father wanted to support her through the process. I told her that as a last resort, if she truly believed an abortion was her only option and no one would go with her, that I would take her the hour-and-a-half to the nearest clinic.
About 2 weeks later, I received a knock on my front door, and it was the waitress. She was crying uncontrollably and said that the father was going to go with her but backed out at the last minute and she didn't know where else to go. So I took her. When we pulled into the clinic there was a mob of people at the front entrance who were holding up signs picturing abortions with horrible phrases on the signs, screaming and yelling at us as and calling us murderers as we entered the property and drove around back to the rear entrance. When we arrived at the clinic there were 6 people in the waiting room. One girl looked to be about the age my mother was when I was born, and she was there with her mom. The others looked like couples and the women looked to be in their early 20's. My waitress was 22 years old at the time.
They took my waitress back, talked to her and had her watch a 45 minute video that was required before making the final decision. She ultimately chose to go through with it, and the drive home was in complete silence because of how difficult and devastating the decision to have an abortion can be.
While waiting in the waiting room at the clinic for my waitress to come out, there was complete silence. People just stared forward as if in catatonic states, not saying a word to one another. People on the far right often talk about women going and having abortions like they are taking the morning after pill. I am here to say that it is nothing like that. It is emotionally devastating to an extreme degree for most women, and it is something they think about for the rest of their lives. It isn't a decision or action they take lightly.
Having said all of that, this is what I think needs to change. There should be a requirement to go to at least 2 counseling sessions with a board certified psychiatrist prior to being allowed to make the final decision. During those sessions the individual considering abortion should be presented with all of the programs and support systems that exist near them to help new mothers raise their children. They should be presented with the fact that it is possible and that there are organizations and people out there who will help. They should also be presented with the reality of what an abortion is, visually, and then talk with the Psychiatrist about what their mindset is after the two meetings and receiving all of the additional information. Finally, they should be talked to about adoption as an option as well. They should be presented with all of the alternatives to abortion before being allowed to make the final decision to have an abortion.
If at that point the individual still wants to go through with the abortion, it should be their choice to do so. Abortion clinics should not, however, be allowed to be revolving doors for women. There needs to be limitations set. Discussions of tubal ligation or other means of preventing future unwanted pregnancy could be made part of a requirement within the structure of the system. For instance, if a woman comes in for a second abortion, a requirement to receive a tubal ligation or other approved surgery could be required in addition to the abortion in order to prevent future unwanted pregnancy.
In all, however, I feel a woman should have the absolute right to choose.
Like religion, the determination as to when life begins is a belief or a faith that each group has. The stance I take is that of a Pro-Choice stance. I will not denigrate anyone for being Pro-Life. That is their choice. What I ask is that you give women "their choice".
What I have noticed recently regarding the fringe right, however, concerns me as well. They fight so hard to protect the unborn children, but don't seem to care as much about those children once they are born. The children being ripped from their families at the border, the lack of proper educational reform, etc. It's interesting.
Gun Legislation - Holy Shit is this a huge issue in the United States right now...whenever there's a shooting....for a few weeks...and then we move on to the next subject. I jest, but it's true. The parkland students and others have finally kept the gun debate in the news for more than a couple of weeks, but it ends up getting pushed to the back of all other news until the next shooting occurs. Then we talk again, don't act, and eventually stop talking.
That needs to stop. The fighting needs to stop. We have 2 groups right now that have the loudest voices. Group number 1 is on the Far Left and talks about taking guns away from citizens or severely limiting the right to bare arms (fringe view). Group number 2 is on the Far Right and talks as if citizens should be able to own anything they want to up to and including tanks (another fringe view).
The answer to the gun debate falls directly in the middle; a place no one seems to want to go to in order to find answers these days. I believe in the 2nd Amendment, but also believe there needs to be limitations to the right.
The Far Right points to mental health as the answer to divert from gun laws being discussed, and the Far Left pushes the gun law debate at their forefront. The fact is that both things are very important.
First, the gun laws need to be standardized across the country, and not different from state to state. I should not be able to go into a gun shop in one state and walk out with a gun, but have to wait 72 hours to pick up my gun in another state. Common Sense laws need to be applied across the board in order for gun legislation to be truly effective.
It would be a great practice to require a 72 hour or similar waiting period in every state for every gun purchase. That just makes sense. If you are a person who needs a gun right now and can't wait 3 days, you don't need a gun. That 72 hour or similar cool off period would also provide time for a proper background check to be performed.
Better laws governing the private sale and transfer of weapons should also be looked at and instated. Some states require background checks be conducted for private sales and transfers, but many don't. The laws are very inconsistent from state to state, and they need to be completely consistent across the board.
Mental Health reporting needs to be centralized and very accessible, and also have a program set up so that information regarding mental health automatically gets uploaded in close to real time from anywhere in the nation. Every healthcare provider should use the same database, to include the military, and mental health red flags should be entered into that database as they are realized and documented. Any red flags that occur within the mental health database should be immediately sent to law enforcement agencies in the local regions identified individuals live.
Those law enforcement agencies should have a registered gun owner database to cross reference when red flags are identified, and should be able to remove guns from the homes of individuals identified to be mental health risks.
There should be a requirement for individuals to have to register as gun owners in every state, and the serial numbers of each of those individuals' guns should be contained within that database. This database would not be for public use, but would instead be used by police agencies nationwide.
Schools and other organizations should have better established reporting protocols across the board regarding red flags. When students threaten others, say or do things that raise red flags, or post things online that raise red flags, those things should be reported to the institution, and then forwarded to authorities to look into further if they deem necessary through their risk assessments.
If we look at the Parkland shooting, there were multiple visits to the home of the individual, multiple individuals had contacted local and federal authorities, and the shooter had posted online several things that were complete red flags, to include a statement that he would be the next school shooter. There were so many red flags that popped up in advance of that shooting, but the protocols each agency had regarding the response to these types of things all completely failed, and people died when they may not have had the proper protocols been put in place.
People should absolutely be able to own guns up to a certain size, but registering your weapons should also be a requirement so law enforcement agencies around the country have that information to aid them in their response to potential threats, and to aid them in removing guns from individuals who are deemed unfit to be able to own guns.
So in closing, I believe in the 2nd Amendment, but I also believe that we need to come up with a much more robust system for tracking weapon ownership, for weapon purchases and background check requirements both from shops and privately, we need to greatly improve mental health reporting and centralize it across the country so all institutions are feeding into the same system in near real time, and we need to strengthen our red flag reporting and response protocols around the country. That is a start. I am not saying take away any guns. I am saying to put processes and obstacles in place that make it much more difficult for people who shouldn't have guns to purchase them.
Many on the Far Right say that if a bad person wants a gun, they will get a gun. That is correct to a point. People will still find ways, but creating a more robust program as listed above will prevent some people who are looking to do harm from having a weapon, and that in itself is worth the effort. You will never completely prevent gun violence, but you MUST do what you can as a country to put things in place to help mitigate the issue as much as possible.
You see, the right to bare arms is a right in the constitution, but to think that the right exists without the need for limitations and regulation is just ridiculous. Guns are created for one specific purpose...to kill. The fact we cannot track every gun in America right now to its location is concerning. The government can tell you where every weapon it owns is issued to and located, why can't we do that with every other weapon in America?
Those were the big three platform issues. I will go into more of my platform in the next blog, covering in less detail other views I hold. I hope you liked me going into the detail that I have, and I thank each of you who reads my blog regularly for your support. I also thank those of you who are reading for the first time today, and urge you to look back at some of my previous blogs, comment, and share.
Thank you!
DUNK
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