The high cost of guns!

Our society is at a major crossroads. We have become so stuck on extremes that I almost think that we have lost touch with what normal is.  Our country lives for drama these days.  You hear it in the kids, in the adults.  It never fails to amaze me when I go to a store and see parents dragging their kids around like baggage yacking on their cell phone oblivious to what their children are doing or worse yet observing.  I am not talking about censoring, but I am talking about being mentally available to speak with your children if something pops up they do not understand or they witness a behavior that is unacceptable.

Our children really are blueprints of our society.  They are the litmus test by which we are judged.  We have children kill other children now, our very future is at stake and yet half the country we live in is more concerned with being able to get an AR15 and enough ammo to take out a small neighborhood.  They will toss the words rights around as justification.  Well let me toss one back at them then.  What about the right for children to grow up in a safe environment without the fear of being killed to get an education, without feeling like they are in police state.  We have just ventured beyond the scope of sanity here.  There is not a single weapon in the world worth more then a child out there.

Now I can feel the gun nuts loading their rifles and pointing at me.  I have no problems with guns,  I have problems with overzealous, irresponsible gun owners, and the general lack of knowledge as a whole in the gun industry.  How would I change things? Well lets see here.

1) All gun owners regardless of the weapon must submit to a psychological well being check.
2) If a gun is in the house and it is anything other then a single shot rifle IT MUST be stored in a gun safe.
3) A special permit must be issued to those owning assault weaponry and they MUST have previous military experience prior to being allowed to purchase said weapons.  No more college kids buying guns they saw on black ops shooting up movie theaters.  They need to have at least been in a setting where proper use, care and responsibility is taught for each and every weapon.
4) On a NATIONAL level if you commit a felony of a violent nature in any fashion you can never get your gun rights restored.  You have already proven you are not psychological capable of being able to exist within society without bringing harm to others. No gun for you!
5) Gun collectors may keep 1 clip round, etc for each weapon that is not listed as a primary. Sure they will want to go to shooting ranges etc to try out their pieces it only makes sense and while at the shooting range they may use as much ammo as they want but when they leave they can only have 1 clip worth, 6 shots etc etc depending on the weapon.  Their primary declared and registered weapon may maintain ammunition as deemed viable under law.
6) Every school should eventually offer some sort of basic gun safety course.  Let's demystify them a bit.  Perhaps if we take some of the glamour away from them it will reduce the number of accidental shootings that happen.

I personally own no guns.  I feel like with my decreased vision and lowered motor skills it would be pretty much redundant and more harmful for me to have a weapon in the house that could possibly be used against me rather then protect me.  Someone breaks in my home they are gonna get meowed at and beat senseless with a bat, my lightsaber (laugh if you want) or my steel crutch if I catch them off guard. 

I think gun law reform should be something we do focus on.  I don't want to see anyone lose their rights to protect themselves, however, there is a fine line between protection and creating a danger for yourself as well.  Lets apply some common sense to this and work together.

Chris

The high cost of vendetta's

Last night I had the misfortune to watch my local government at work.  First and foremost let me be clear.  On the issue at hand I will be discussing I am biased. I am a Medical Marijuana user.  So I won't lie and state I don't have a personal stake in the issue. I very much do. I am a handicapped, Disabled Veteran who for 3 years has enjoyed having the presence of a clean, professional establishment that provides medication for customers who have a Red Card (In Colorado if a doctor has certified your need for Medical Marijuana you are allowed to purchase it at legal dispensaries.) Why did I choose Medical Marijuana over opiates? ( the common treadmill of percocet, vicodin etc abused and ruining a lot of America's middle class today) Well, from research, for my condition of Multiple Sclerosis and other assorted fun disorders, it fit the best in the category of treatment I was looking for.  I wasn't looking for a way to be pain free, I was looking for a way to take enough of the edge off I could sleep at night. I was looking for a way to reduce my stomach pain and still have an appetite, to reduce my spasticity enough that I could function with my children through the day and at night be able to get real rest without the need to "chase my pain" with pill after pill.

In short Medical Marijuana has given me back a portion of my life I needed to function normally.  Sadly, even with all the support across the medical community, the stigma of the 60's taint upon the MMJ cause will not be removed.  Last night Dacono, the City I lived in, met for yet another meeting regarding this issue in their town.  They have 3 profitable dispensaries, that are clean, functional, supply a wide client base and count for a little over 3% of the tax revenue of Dacono. Yet certain members of the City Council for whatever reason feel the stigma of these businesses go against what they want Dacono's image to be.  An image they claim they work hard to cultivate. So I will let you my fine readers be the judge.

A petition was put forth earlier in the year.  It had almost 500 signatures if I recall, and I was a proponent for it along with another gentleman from Dacono.  It also had a business supported tax incentive for the city in which the business would pay an extra tax to support Dacono having to regulate some portions of the dispensary trade in Dacono (Even though the state has done all the hard work and there is really nothing left to do besides rake in tax revenue and ensure compliance with state standards)  It also was simply to allow a vote of the residents on the issue, not allow the city council to make decisions on such an issue without allowing the people they represent to have a say!

The council took said petition and found a loophole in which to invalidate it saying because it had a TABOR issue on it it was in fact turned in late.  A fact that is partially false, we supplied the petition within the timeframe we were given, it was the city clerks own error that caused it to fall outside the lines.  Not to be daunted a second petition went forth this time garnered well over a 1/4 of the registered voters of Dacono stating yes let there be a special election.  On top of that Amendment 64 passed in our city alone by 53.6% ( A fact the cities Mayor Charles Sigman tried to downplay and Joe Baker the Mayor Pro Tem conveniently chalked up to being weld county not Dacono, Sorry guys your wrong about your own cities statistics, it is fact true)

Amendment 64 is the ballot issue that regulates and essentially legalizes marijuana for recreational use, also allowing for non medical folks to grow their own marijuana for personal use. It passed in Colorado with more votes in fact then any candidate for governor or mayor has ever received in our state.  Nuff said on that!

Instead of put all the facts together and working with the business to at least stave off injuring them further while the citizens decide the issue with the special election now (that thanks to this apparent personal vendetta will cost Dacono's taxpayers around 15,000 dollars in tax revenue) Basically Joe Baker, Charles Sigman and Peggy Randolph as well as Mike Ayres think the fiscally responsible thing to do in light of the support of Marijuana let alone Medical Marijuana is to make these businesses shut their doors on Dec 31st, wait 2-3 months for a special election that with little doubt will show voter support for dispensaries and the revenue they bring in and then expect said businesses after being screwed by the City to move back in again.  I am sorry Council, but I call bullshit on this one.  In no logical frame of mine would any business let you screw them out of what is probably 10,000's of dollars in product (most dispensaries have to grow their own medicine on site as it has different requirements then recreational use marijuana has) Every single plant is tracked,registered and insured as well.  This is not a cheap business, and frankly with having to shut their doors now in their future, these businesses have to scramble. 

Anyone looking at the fact there is a special election looming in the very near future (might I add the lawyers involved even tried to strong arm us into dropping the petition for the election, further proof of dirty workings) would probably with common sense say, let the dispensaries remain open until the election results come in, that way if its positive no one is negatively impacted.  Your patients in the city can still have the convenience of being able to get to the store close to them, the business can still make money and still pay their taxes into the city and the issue can be laid to rest once and for all.  But that isn't how Mr. Sigman and Mr. Baker and Mrs Randolph and Mr. Ayres see it.  Despite their own council members telling them how dumb it is (the council meeting got very heated) they continued following what can only be construed as their own personal agenda.

Quite frankly, I have been to several council meetings now, and the story remains the same for most.  It really appears like and old boys club, with Joe Baker piloting the ship from behind Mayor Sigman.  Forgive me but I fail to see where taking out your personal dislikes plays into serving the will of the people. 

I am highly tempted to start a grassroots effort to find the businesses these so called servants of the people run (which might I add don't seem to be supporting the very city they run and so called love) and get a boycott going.  Let them feel the pinch of "We aren't closing them down we are just telling them they can't do business here"  Like that makes any kind of sense.  That is like telling a farmer you can grow corn, but not in this field. So pull up all your crops and maybe in 3 months you can put them back. 

So this is my take.  Dacono City Council on top of being manipulative (not all of them Steve Bruno, Genvieve Schneider, and Kevin Plain stuck firm in supporting local businesses) and very self serving, really don't give a rats ass what their constituents actually want.  Even with overwhelming support in their own City for recreational marijuana use, which should key them in to the fact that if they will support recreational use and sales, they will most definitely support medicinal use and sales, they refuse to see common sense and still force their agendas. They are fiscally irresponsible forcing a special election to essentially give a death sentence to the 3 businesses that made them lose face by involving local media.  Way to go Dacono. This is 2012 not 1962, no matter how much you want to turn the clocks back. 

Unbelievable.

If you read this and want to send your thoughts the city feel free.

http://www.ci.dacono.co.us/index.aspx?nid=319

This link gives you a way to address the council members directly.  Feel free to light up their emails with your thoughts. 

Thanks for reading
Chris

Where we find ourselves today

Tis the season to elect ourselves another president!

If you were unsure of this fact and were somehow not around a phone, radio, or television or computer, then you probably have a lot more sanity then most.  I look around at our climate here in America and frankly it scares me.  On one hand we have those who are the working poor.  They work a job till their hands bleed, their nerves fray, their very wits are about to leave them.  We have the sick, the slighted and those in between, worried once again that they will be forgotten.  Then we come to the Haves.  Those who were either fortunate enough to eat cereal with a silver spoon, or the smaller majority it seems who got there by blood sweat and tears.  Because of our current economic peril in our country, hell the world, the Haves desperately try to place as much distance between the Have Not's and themselves.  We have a vice presidential candidate who practically worships a book and author that glorifies greed and self preservation above all.

Ayn Rand rejects altruism, the view that self-sacrifice is the moral ideal. She argues that the ultimate moral value, for each human individual, is his or her own well-being. Since selfishness (as she understands it) is serious, rational, principled concern with one's own well-being, it turns out to be a prerequisite for the attainment of the ultimate moral value. For this reason, Rand believes that selfishness is a virtue

Are you frigging kidding me.  Selfishness is a virtue.  I am pretty sure that was not what I was taught by my mother, my kindegarten teacher or heck even that one guy everyone use to quote from time to time before being "A Christian" became all about being an amoral anus who pretty much did the exact opposite of everything the Bible teaches us. You know that guy, long hair, incredible abs, Jesus was his name.  I mean really folks, WAKE UP!!! We have become so use to the convenience of our lives that we have completely lost track of our basic human connection.  All these social media apps out there and yet in some ways we have never been further apart.  I am just sad and astonished at where we are at.

It is hard to be a parent and point our children to the right path anymore.  Not because it isn't there but just because at some point the mainstream of society veered off into the insanity we now face.  We use to be a nation that built things, and took pride in our craftmanship.  We use to be a country that welcomed everyone wanting the "opportunity" (not the entitlement) to make their way to their own sort of dream life. At some point though, we let things get out of control.  We slowly went from a country that built things to a country that calls each other about it and complains.  Our main products we export now are crappy reality shows, tobacco products and ideas that we don't even build into tangible items here anymore. 

I sit with my son, and I try to teach him how to be a man.  How you can still have empathy for others, and be strong.  Kindness is not weakness, if anything it is the strength to know that you can do without for a bit just to bolster someone else.  A hand up is not a hand out.  If you are one of those folks out there saying "hey all these sick people, all these veterans, all these jobless folks need to go to churches, and community charities to help them survive.  That is how its suppose to work". Ok great, my question for you is have you donated enough to feed one family.  Have you given enough money to pay for a treatment for cancer or AIDS or any myriad of diseases that cost in America in some cases (this figure is based off of my own experiences with MS drugs) 20 times the amount they cost in other countries.  I can say with all my donations, I am not even close.  But the magic of everyone giving a little is it adds up to a lot and the burden is spread out so thin its barely tangible.  

We are facing dark times folks.  Unless we stop our gluttony, our obsession with having to get every single little gadget that comes out (no I am not talking about a bohemian lifestyle) we are very quickly going to be a nation for sale to the highest bidder.  And the highest bidder is going to be one of many faceless corporations, who care not a wit for your welfare.  Look around real close.  Read for yourself.  This is not some conspiracy theory, it is in your face every day.  Fact Check the hell out of your presidents and their comments.  Have they both made mistakes in some cases.  Sure, but I can tell you one of them has told the truth and has numbers to support either already in place or soon to be (such as job figures for instance) Sure currently were at 4.5 million jobs, not 5 million as stated in the first debate. But we know by February 2013 those numbers will actually be raised by another 750,000.  Is that a lie? It sure isn't.  Look at your economists telling you "one plan makes zero sense and will not work with what we have been shown"

Let me put this plainly folks.  If I walked up to you and said "Hey man, I got this nice shiny gold nugget at my place.  I really want to sell it to you, but I need you to trust me its there. So how about you give me 700 bucks and then tomorrow I will take you to see the nugget"  Most of you who barely know me, would tell me to go take a flying leap.  So why the hell would you vote someone into office who is telling you "trust them, they have a plan" but is not showing you the full plan.  I am not telling you who to vote for.  I am telling you who not to.  If your gonna vote for a liar at least make sure he is smart enough to not get caught most of the time. 

Lets take our country back folks.  Lets remember what being a Christian is really about, not what the right wing zealous wack jobs or the far left lets give it all away is about.  Lets come back to the middle, where we want a good days wage for a good days work.  We want to take care of our families, and if we have a roof over our head, food in our belly and a little money in our bank to do something once in a while, were lucky, happy and content.  The American Dream is still out there to take by the roots.  Lets cut up our credit cards and stop trying to live beyond our means.  We can vote everyday with our dollar, and believe me if we do, the faceless corporations will listen.  Their golf games, the rolls royces and their mistresses demand it.

No this will not be a rant with every post.  But I just had a lot on my mind the last few months and yes its exploding onto the printed page.  We can do better.

Get out there and vote! And vote smart!

Chris