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Friday, September 04, 2009

Guns

Haven't shot a gun in 40 years. So Hank Jakubowski says let's go down to the Schutzverein - German Shooting Club - and spend an hour or two. And I go. Henry is a life-long union member, voted for Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II in 2000. Served in the Marines in Nam. To him, Naval Intelligence guys were sissies, but he never says so. He does not like people joking that Nancy Pelosi's wine should be poisoned. He does not like people walking around our President with guns. He knows what guns are for. So he taught me all about his rifle, a 1962 Winchester 70. He didn't like the changes Winchester made to the 70 in 1964 and after. It wasn't the same rifle he had in Nam, but it was the same year and model. He made sure of that. Henry says the Right Wing wants blood. They are sending out their cries to the simple-minded followers, hoping for blood. Henry's is ready. In fact, we're going to get me a rifle tomorrow. I don't know how far this is going. At the Schutzverein, the targets had picture of dough-boy Glenn Beck on 'em.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Are you really going to get a rifle? Somehow I wouldn't have thought it of you. On the other hand, I'm delighted somebody is shooting at Glenn Beck.

Montag said...

I would not have thought it either.

It seems the rest of my life will be this contest between violence and peace if I remain in the USA.

Anonymous said...

Guns are an outlet for raw emotion that can't be expressed any other way. Shooting at Glenn Beck is something I want to try--targets of course...

I suppose that opens up a whole list of would-be-targets, which I won't get into because it tends to be offensive.

Montag said...

Guns are interesting - the way they slip into the conversation and become a language all their own.

Weapons are everywhere - the real weapons, stories of weapons, symbols of weapons, memories of favorite guns, worries about future gun control...
their tentacles interweave throughout our lives, and they deny our Christianity.
This dissonance between what we say we believe and what we actually do is going to destroy us.

Unknown said...

Guns and the violence they so perfectly symbolize and Money. These are the gods of the American people. We worship them with all our being. The dissonance between these gods and what we say with our mouths . . . I think we're destroyed already.

Montag said...

What bothers me is that they are indeed gods of the American people, but they are such gods in no symbolic sense...they are literally everywhere pervasive within our consciousness...
the militia fear and hatred of government...
the images of John Wayne...
the imagery of High Noon...
Columbine...
bumper stickers...
political slogans...

In some countries, weapons are just weapons: they are used when needed for wars or whatever, and when not needed, they remain in storage.
Not so in the USA; the instruments of violence are everywhere: in our pockets, in our movies, in our thoughts, in our hopes and fears...

Jesus Christ has nothing near the power of Guns.