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I just realized something.
The efforts by those to separate the Sandy Hook shootings from a political narrative “out of respect” are essentially saying, “if you attach a pre-existing narrative to our tragedy, you lessen its import.”
We all know what political tragedies look like; we hear about them every morning on the radio, read about them every day in the paper. They are black kids in Chicago getting gunned down before they have a chance to graduate high school. They are brown kids in Pakistan murdered by drones sent out by a nation that Pakistan is supposedly allied with. They are the innocents who are murdered by a gang war that is tearing Mexico apart. They are the millions of women and children that are sold into sexual slavery every day in every part of the world.
These people, these deaths, they exist in a separate part of our brain. They are “news”. Their voices, their faces, they can be turned off, when we complain that we’re “sick of the news”, or that “the news is too negative”.
Categorization allows us to ignore them.
So to place these dead (our dead) into this category by attaching their stories to a political narrative, is to lessen the importance of their deaths.
Because this is so tragic, this can’t possibly compare. Because if you could, then these dead kids become just another statistic, just some other tragedy that we can chalk up to another sad incident in a sad pattern.
…. the answer is obvious, isn’t it?
There are no deaths that can be ignored. There are no tragedies that aren’t personal. You do not have permission to turn your brain off when you’re sick of the news, because the families of those lost don’t have that luxury.
Even when its a political tragedy.
(via skunkitty)
Following Sandy Hook, gun deaths continue through weekend
The families of Sandy Hook, Conn., struggled to cope with the enormous grief of losing 28 of their neighbors, 20 of them children over the weekend.
President Barack Obama pledged to use whatever power the office of the presidency holds to prevent another tragedy like this one.
And elsewhere in the country, people continued to die from gun fire.
On Saturday, shootings in Cleburne and Oxford counties in Alabama left two injured and three dead, including a child.
A sheriff’s deputy in Missouri was shot in the back and killed while on the scene responding to an emergency medicla situation. The patient’s son ambushed the officer and shot him at close range in the back.
Authorities investigated the shooting death of a boy in Southwest Denver.
A man was shot and killed in Harrisburg, Pa., his body dropped off at a local hospital.
A Nevada man shot and killed himself on Friday after shooting his girlfriend in the face.
In the early morning hours of Saturday, police responded to a murder suicide. A 76-year-old man shot and killed a 51-year old woman with a rifle in California City, Calif.
A 28-year old man was shot and killed while standing on a front porch early Sunday on the West Side of Chicago.
A 21-year old man was shot and killed by someone he knew in Charlotte, N.C..
Two Topeka, Kan. police officers were fatally shot in the head outside a grocery store Sunday responding to a suspicious vehicle report.
The tattoo artist in a Los Angeles tattoo parlor was fatally shot in the early morning hours of Sunday.
These stories represent only a handful of the deaths from gun violence that took place in the 72 hours since Adam Lanza stormed Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg put it best on Friday:
“For every day we wait, 34 more people are murdered with guns.”
A lot of people have pointed out that, while the Sandy Hook shooting was an unthinkable tragedy, gun violence happens every single day in America. Here’s everyone who was sacrificed this weekend for America’s sick gun worship.
Also, yes, I will be talking about the shooting throughout the day. I will tag all of the posts with “gun control” if you want to Tumblr Savior it.
Several people are shot in Chicago every weekend. We have a serious gun violence problem, but it’s ongoing. This list makes it seem as though the gun violence here is somehow connected to the school shooting in Connecticut. It’s not; and I’d venture a guess that none of the others are either.
(via proudlybigotedmisandrist)
Argument over loud music led to fatal shooting of teen
November 27, 2012A Brevard County man was in jail Monday, accused of shooting a teenager dead in an argument over loud music.
Michael David Dunn, 45, and his girlfriend were in Jacksonville Friday for Dunn’s son’s wedding when they stopped at a convenience store, Jacksonville sheriff’s Lt. Rob Schoonover said.
Jordan Russell Davis, 17, and several other teenagers were sitting in a sport utility vehicle in the parking lot when Dunn pulled up next to them in a car and asked them to turn down their music, Schoonover said.
Jordan and Dunn exchanged words, and Dunn pulled a gun and shot eight or nine times, striking Jordan twice, Schoonover said. Jordan was sitting in the back seat. No one else was hurt.
Dunn’s attorney Monday said her client acted responsibly and in self-defense. She did not elaborate.
Dunn’s girlfriend and the driver of Jordan’s vehicle were in Gate Food Post, 8251 Southside Blvd., when the shooting happened. Dunn and his girlfriend took off afterward, and witnesses jotted down their tag number, deputies said.
They were staying in a Jacksonville hotel when they heard a news report Saturday morning indicating someone had died in the shooting, deputies said. They then returned to Brevard.
Dunn, a gun collector, was arrested Saturday at his home in Satellite Beach on charges of murder and attempted murder. He was being held without bail.
Jordan, who was a student at Samuel W. Wolfson High School, a magnet school in Duval County, will be buried in his hometown of Marietta, Ga. He is survived by his parents and a brother. Jordan worked at Winn-Dixie, according to his Facebook page.
This is absolutely heartbreaking. Dunn will likely use Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law as defense even though he fired at least eight times into a vehicle with four unarmed teenagers.
Another case of a black child going to the convenience store and never coming home…
What in the shittin ass hell…
So that’s how we lash out, now? We kill other people’s children? This is a thing, people. We’re not making this shit up.
(via itchynosepolitics)
Fuck your Excuses,
Fuck your Upbringing,
Fuck your Religion,
Fuck Convenience,
Fuck your Attitude,
Show some heart,
Go Vegan.
LOL
Man I sure do want to live in this person’s universe, in which
oral ascorbic acid allergies don’t exist
essential amino acids are somehow NOT essential
corn allergy and sensitivity doesn’t exist
poverty and food insecurity don’t exist
fresh fruit and vegetables are affordable
moral veganism is *never* appropriative of antiblack racism(tw for violent and racist images at link)
moral veganism never alienates people of color
THIS CHILD NEEDS TO STOP MAKING EXCUSES, AMMIRITE???? And change their filthy bloodmouth ways.
YEAH!!!!! GO VEGAN!!!! THE WORLD IS SO SIMPLE AND EVERYONE IS EXACTLY THE SAME WITH THE SAME CIRCUMSTANCES AND VALUES AND OPPORTUNITIES!!!!!
Woops.
h/t Rocky Anderson
remember that time President Obama ordered the military to fire indiscriminate missile attacks on populated areas?
LTMC: Frankly it would be better if it was indiscriminate, given that Obama has ordered the military, quite discriminately, to “double tap” drone targets by shooting missiles at civilian rescue workers attempting to tend to the wounded from drone attacks in Pakistan. I suppose this could somehow be justified in a Machiavellian paradigm if we were killing lots of terrorists. But America currently kills 49 people with drones for every known terrorist in Pakistan. And that too, quite discriminately, it would seem.
The whole thing is made even more grand by the fact that Pakistani political leaders have asked Washington to stop doing this. But they haven’t, despite the fact that the Pakistani government publicly opposes the program, which the State Department’s top lawyer says may make U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan an act of war under international law.
Oh, I forgot to mention that a 2007 report by the Homeland Security Institute called the “double tap” a “favorite tactic of Hamas,” and the FBI considers it to be a tactic chiefly employed by terrorist organizations. I suppose it takes one to know one, in the War on Terror.
Quality post right here. For all the interest that drone strikes draw in the current political climate, rarely do I see such a concise critique of not only the bloodshed itself but the immorality of the specific tactic, and the double speak that comes out of Washington during the rare times that it is discussed in public.
Damn. Props to NixonPlumbingCo for the research. Click the link that he/she posted saying: “Obama has ordered the military, quite discriminately, to “double tap” drone targets by shooting missiles at civilian rescue workers attempting to tend to the wounded from drone attacks in Pakistan.”
Oh no, don’t thank me for the research, that was Letterstomycountry. I don’t do shout outs very often, but I feel it’s necessary to thank them for their great research and fantastic blog in general. If you’re not following them, you’re missing out.
(via seriouslyamerica)
This is an open letter by the first U.S. LGBTQI delegation to Palestine. It was composed after the delegation returned from their solidarity tour in the West Bank and Israel in January 2012. It is a letter worth reading and a petition worth signing. If you are a queer person or ally interested in standing in solidarity with the people of Palestine and Palestinian queers, please sign!
U.S. solidarity activists need to be talking about the fact that our government funds this occupation, and defends Israel from the repercussions of their atrocious actions.
The United States gives about $3 billion to Israel in military aid annually, with a plain to give $30 billion by 2018. Since 1988, the U.S. has used almost all of its UN Security Counsel vetoes to block resolutions against Israel.
Our government pays for the slaughter and oppression of the Palestinian people.
Our government protects Israel from suffering the consequences of their daily violations of human rights and International Law.
Without us, there is no occupation. That’s why we as United States citizens bear responsibility for the oppression of the Palestinians. We give our money, we give our indifference, and consequently, we give our permission. Just because we don’t pull the triggers or drive the tanks doesn’t mean we’re not compliant.
That’s why we also bear responsibility for ending the occupation of Palestine. By standing in solidarity with Palestinians everywhere, listening to their stories, meeting Palestinian civil society’s call to action to the international community by supporting the BDS Movement, and telling our government we will not be complicit in the illegal occupation of an oppressed people.
Without us, there is no occupation.
FREE PALESTINE, END ISRAELI APARTHEID, END THE OCCUPATION
(Source: lord-zas)
Hundreds march in Cairo to demand an end to diplomatic ties with Israel || Ahram Online
Hundreds of protesters are heading to the ministry of foreign affairs in the downtown of the capital to protest of the vicious Israeli assaults on Gaza
Hundreds of angry protesters march on Wednesday evening from Talaat Harb Square in downtown Cairo heading towards the ministry of foreign affairs near Tahrir Square to condemn the ongoing brutal attacks on the Gaza Strip by the Israeli forces.
Protesters chanted “Gaza Gaza, You’re the pride,“ “Arab states are cowardly,” “Palestinian blood is our blood,” as they carried Palestinian flags.
Protesters are demanding Egypt cut diplomatic ties with Israel and close down the Israeli embassy in Cairo.
A number of Egyptian political forces including the National Front for Justice and Democracy and Hamdeen Sabbahi’s popular Current have called for the protest.
On Wednesday night, president Mohamed Morsi recalled Egypt’s envoy in Israel following the Israeli attack that killed at least seven Palestinians, including Hamas leading figure Ahmed Al-Jaabari.
The People’s Record Daily News Update - Whose news? Our news!
November 12, 2012
Here are some stories you may not otherwise read about today:
- Workers at Target have expressed outrage after Target announced that they will remain open on Thanksgiving, joining retailers like Walmart & Sears. Workers are furious about the retail chain keeping workers from their families on Thanksgiving, according to a Change.org petition that’s garnered more than 170,000 signatures.
- Amazon, Google & Starbucks have been accused of diverting hundreds of millions of pounds to secret tax havens, in an effort to pay employees low wages, to take advantage of tax-payer funded tax credits and pay no tax themselves.
- In an effort to “tackle anarchists” and further criminalize the poor and working class, squatting is now a criminal offense in the UK. With the new law in place, the ministry of justice estimates that they could prosecute up to 2,000 people each year.
- Microsoft-owned company Skype did not even wait for a court warrant before sharing sensitive account data pertaining to a teenage Wikileaks participant for his involvement in Anonymous initiative “Operation Payback”.
- Protests were held in Portugal today over the arrival of German chancellor Merkel, who is visiting Portugal to support a series of austerity measures resulting in lower standard of living for the Portuguese people amid the worst economic crisis in Portugal since the 1970s.
Follow us on Tumblr or by RSS feed for more daily updates.
(via sinidentidades)
23 Days in Israeli Jails: A Palestinian Student Real Life Story
Twenty–three days is the amount of time that I spent in an Israeli jail. Twenty-three days seems like a small part of a person’s life, but it was enough time to change the rest of mine.
I want to share my experiences of the twenty-three days that I spent in jail; how I dealt with what I saw there and the people whom I met. For twenty-three days my freedom was stolen. Other Palestinians are not so lucky. They don’t know if they will ever be free.One cold night in March, I threw myself on my bed after a hard day at the university. It was raining heavily outside, the weather was cold. I was tired enough to go sleep early. I didn’t know what awaited me the next day; my thoughts were focused on how I would get to the university the next day in the cold weather. I had many exams that week and I was worried about getting good grades.
Because I was tired, it didn’t take more than a moment until my eyes closed and I fell asleep.
What felt like a second later, my eyes opened again.I wish they had not. Suddenly there was a noise I couldn’t recognize. A huge sound shook my house; I would later find out that the sound was the front door of my home being broken into.
I thought it was a nightmare. I closed my eyes and when I opened them again, a soldier was aiming his gun at me. It felt like a dream. I closed my eyes for the last time and then opened them again. The soldier was still there.
(Source: frompalestinewithlove, via themindislimitless)
