I read the Declaration of Independence yesterday, just to refresh my memory, so tt seems fitting today to debut a new featured post called “Tweet of the Month“, which will present some of the most thought-provoking, engaging interactions from our twittersphere every month. Wishing wish you and yours a happy, safe, Fourth of July, also!
End Stand Your Ground July 4th
A beautiful blog called KindnessBlog.com recently posted an article and pictures of a mother and daughter from Iran who were attacked with acid by the mother’s abusive husband.
I decided to blog about the article because despite suffering a cruel attack in which acid was poured on their faces, hands and bodies, leading to severe pain and disfigurement, the daughter and mother are clearly glad to still have each other. This is captured through one of the pictures in which the daughter kisses her mother. They are survivors, and that is inspiring.
Also inspiring is an organization called Acid Survivors Trust International. Here’s a bit about them from their website:
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Image courtesy of washwithcare.deviantart.com
When I read a news story like this, I can’t help but to wonder what a gun rights advocate must think when he or she reads the same story (theDailyBeast.com):
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Renisha McBride and her killer Theodore Wafer
Nineteen year-old Renisha McBride — an unarmed Black woman from Detroit — was tragically shot dead in a mostly white suburb of Dearborn Heights, MI on Saturday, November 2, 2013. She was seeking help after being involved in a car accident nearby. Renisha was lost and frightened when she approached the home of 54-year-old Theodore Wafer. But instead of offering this distressed innocent young woman a helping hand, Wafer fatally shot her through the front door of his home.1Jury selection in the trial of Theodore Wafer is set to begin today.2 Now is our chance to demonstrate that Renisha’s family is not alone in their calls for justice and that they have the love and support of people across the country who are counting on the Wayne County Prosecutor, Kym Worthy, to deliver justice the first…
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Courtesy of progressillinois.com/sites/progressillinois.com
There have been many mass shootings in America just within the past few years. But among these high-profile murders are countless low-profile ones like this, reported by ChicagoTribune.com:
Courtesy of Everytown.org
I received this news in an email on July 2nd from Everytown.org, a movement of Americans fighting for common-sense gun policies, and of which I am a member. This is great news for anyone who cares about reducing gun violence in America:
via Has America Gone Crazy? on Creators.com.
It might appear that the U-S-of-A has gone bonkers. So let me clear up any confusion that you might have: Yes, it has!
Yet, it hasn’t. More on that in a moment.
First, though — whether looking at the “tea party” congress critters who’ve swerved our nation’s political debate to the hard right, or at the peacocks of Wall Street who continue to preen and profit atop the wreckage they’ve made of our real economy — it’s plain to see that America is suffering a pestilence of nuts and narcissists in high places. These “leaders” are hell bent to enthrone themselves and their ilk as the potentates of our economic, governmental and social systems, and they are aggressively trying to snuff out the light of egalitarianism that historically has been our society’s unifying force.
Bill Moyers, America’s most public-spirited journalist, summarized the…
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Hendrik Hertzberg has a good column in the New Yorker:
Soon after the Isla Vista mass shooting, an e-mail from Breitbart News, one of the slicker right-wing Web sites, popped into my inbox. Considering the source, the breathless subject line was startling: THE WORLD’S FIRST SMART RIFLE – NOW IN SEMI-AUTO
A smart gun, as you probably know, is one that can be fired only by an authorized person, such as the weapon’s legal owner. Anyway, that’s the usual meaning. The way a smart gun works, smartplanet.com explains, “is that the gun’s biometric system is set up to recognize the rightful user through a unique identity marker such as a person’s fingerprint, magnetic rings, RFID chips or other proximity devices.”
A smart gun is a technological fix. If guns were smart, we wouldn’t need to worry so much about their falling into the wrong hands—such as the hands…
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Photo courtesy of bossip.com
Slate.com reports:
Using the most recent CDC estimates for yearly deaths by guns in the United States, it is likely that as of Oct. 25, 2013, roughly 28,477 people have died from guns in the U.S. since the Newtown shootings.
Being that the Newtown school shooting last December was one of the worst mass shootings in American history, you’d think that gun control legislation would finally be taken seriously. But is hasn’t.
I hope this disgusts you as much as it disgusts me. Maybe when enough people see these statistics, society will be disgusted enough to do something.
Slate.com has been collecting statistics on every gun death it can find since Newtown, even listing the names of each person killed, as well as dates and locations of deaths. I hope that when people see the names of individuals, it will humanize the tragedy of gun violence. There are also interactive graphs and maps.
A powerful image that speaks a thousand words. -Tanya
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