Look with your eyes, not with your hands.


Such a minute fraction of this life do we live: so much is sleep, tooth-brushing, waiting for mail, for metamorphosis, for those sudden moments of incandescence: unexpected, but once one knows them, one can live life in the light of their past and the hope of their future.



A grad student muses on her life, film, friends, politics, reality televizzle, and music.

 
Diabetic Nap & Gun Control

Woke up from one of those after-dinner naps where drugs or heavy clobbering seem to have been a culprit. I've actually done something with myself during these last 48 hours so I feel as if I was entitled to it. Made serious progress on my MIT essay. Visited with two old friends, both who share the same first name and the same first three letters of their last names, one has been in England getting a M.A. (or is it M.Phil.?) in Victorian Literature and the other has been home, but taking a storm of photographs, painting, writing, and trying out celibacy. It�s been a while since I�ve seen either of them, but it�s nice to catch up with people who have their lives in order for the time being. In a personally gratifying sort of way, I like taking stock of things in the general sense, where you can overlook the daily trials and things seem to be going pretty well for me too.

Yesterday my father and I finally had time to see Michael Moore�s Bowling for Columbine. As I dig myself out of my haziness, fearing my incoherence, I�ll try to do just description of my views toward guns in America. For what it�s worth, in the past year, I�ve really put my political beliefs through the ringer, and like most college students (esp. those at a place like Midd) I am finding myself to be radically liberal compared to most of America. In the simplest terms, my basic political stance is fiercely pro-individual rights � this is problematic because the two major parties in America seem to divvy this value up and choose pet individual rights to enforce, abortion, school vouchers, the right to bear arms. When Nixon went to China in 1972, he said something that probably resonates better than any other descriptor of my feelings toward politics, he said that �sometimes people on the extreme right can do what those on the extreme left only dream about.� Consider my current stance radical � somewhere between anti-establishment liberal and libertarian.

With that out of the way, we come to gun control. I think that this film does a decent job at exposing the best explanations possible as to why America is completely out of whack with the rest of the world. The main statistic referenced in the film is that over 11,000 Americans die every year from gun-related deaths, whereas about ten other similar developed nations count less than 300 deaths. Looking to explain why this is the case, Moore puts forth several hypotheses � gun control laws, the NRA, poverty, local media coverage that breeds fear & perpetuates racial stereotypes, bigotry, violent video games, teenage angst meets impossible standards in an advertising molded world, �satanic� rock music, a history disposed to bloodshed (i.e. Revolutionary War). That just about covers it, I don�t think I�ve ever come across another explanation. From this, and exploring the validity of each claim, I think the biggest problem with this film is that it tries to indiscriminately mix statistics and anecdotes. Stories and individual examples resonate with audiences. Moore even exposes this in the film � nationally, crime is on the decline yet handgun sales are up something absurd like 800%.

At the end of the film, I think Moore successfully proves that, generally speaking, like no other nation, our network and local media breeds fears in Americans to the point at which a firearm seems to ensure personal survival. He probes the idea of sketchy (inaccurate) coverage of American foreign policy and that the majority of Americans have no idea how many civilians / soldiers die around the world due to the government�s doings. In other words, there is nowhere to turn for accurate �news coverage� and we remain shaped and manipulated by a ratings-driven juggernaut that adds few positive contributions to our self-image or perception of reality.
I think it�s too hard to explain gun violence as a real manifestation of video games, movies, and rock music, Moore does too, because blockbusters and games seem to be equally popular in other places without the same death toll. He doesn�t get much from Charlton Heston and the NRA, aside from their truly tactless displays of public rallies in communities just after a school shooting and that they fiercely believe in the right to bear arms. The best retort in the film is that if guns are intended to provide a sense of security, why do we live in a place that is the opposite of safe.
Perhaps the most troubling case he examines is Canada � a country very much like our own (landscape, culture, diversity) but scoring much less on the crazy scale. In the 10 million national households, about 7 million of them own guns (mostly for hunting / sport). There is no shortage of guns. We watch the same movies and in both countries misunderstood teens turn to Marilyn Mansion. Canadian news is more substantive and from polling the average man on the street, there seems to a nationalistic faith in sound deliberation rather than military campaigns abroad or in settling affairs soundly between people. Go Canada, I welcome the opportunity to move to Toronto if it arises.
When investigating the case of Canada, Moore cites that unemployment in Canada staggers around 8%, almost quadruple that of the United States. But poverty / race remain a contentious point in the film and I don�t know what to think at the end of the day. Moore concentrates on a school shooting of a first-grader, by one of her classmates, in Flint, MI. This example is explored for a considerable amount of time in the film and close to Moore�s heart (Moore was born in Flint and the now-closed GM plant in Flint was the subject matter for Moore�s Roger and Me) and is explained from a combination of factors including insufficient child supervision, the break-down of the family unit, and a state welfare-to-work program that prevented a single black mother from being able to support her family. Just the same, it is youngest school shooting in America and might deserve this level of attention.
Although it slings a liberal agenda, and it is surreal that banks in MI give away guns as promotional gifts for opening a checking account or that anyone can walk into Walmart and buy a countless amount of live ammunition for about $.17 a bullet, I think the film really probes into the simplistic (shameful) explanations (excuses) we have for ourselves. So what next � how to counter act this � well, I think that we can point a lot of fingers � that the media shouldn�t sensationalize dangerous crime, continue to describe black men as a public enemy, we need to lighten up on what we expect from teenagers, and by all means, gun owners should responsibly store firearms to prevent accidents. If that makes me a liberal, guilty as charged.

Additionally � while I'll get into a lengthier tirade about violent / role playing games in society some other night, here are two interesting tidbits from Wired that seem to hint at some of the gun control points above. I still regret that I wasn't selected for my Watson, these trends fascinate and perplex me and warrant serious consideration. I'm still looking for the answers here.

Too many competitive words floating around this house. The weather has been lousy and too many shut-in nights have sent the Jasinskis reeling into boggle, master boggle, scrabble, and upwords overload. Every now and again, the usual vocabulary / spelling challenges are peppered by playing "sorry" or watching Eddie Izzard's "Dress to Kill." So this has become summer camp, retirement cruise, or daycare for grownups.

posted by lmjasinski at 10:59 PM