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Thursday, December 27, 2012

Enough with the Excuses and the Enabling!

 Photo: Ana Grace Márquez-Greene 

Márquez-Greene, Ana Grace Ana Grace Márquez-Greene, 6, of Sandy Hook, beloved daughter of James S. Greene, Jr. and Nelba (Amaro-Márquez) Greene, passed away senselessly on Friday, (December 14, 2012) during the horrific massacre enacted upon Sandy Hook Elementary School. 

Ana was born in Hartford on April 4, 2006, and lived in Bloomfield before moving to Canada and recently settling with her family in the Sandy Hook section of Newtown.

Ana's love for singing was evident before she was even able to talk. In a musical family, her gift for melody, pitch, and rhythm stood out remarkably.

She never walked anywhere! Her mode of transportation was dance. She danced from room to room and place to place. She danced to all the music she heard, whether in the air or in her head. 

Ana loved her God, loved to read The Bible, and loved to sing and dance as acts of worship. We ask that you pray for the legions of people who are left behind to cherish memories of her. 

Ana is survived by her father, Jimmy Greene, a jazz saxophonist and an assistant professor of music at Western Connecticut State University; her mother, Nelba Márquez-Greene, program coordinator for the Family Therapy Institute at Klingberg Family Centers and Central Connecticut State University adjunct faculty; and her brother, Isaiah, a happy, intelligent and musical boy who loves hockey and very much misses his sister. 

Nelba Márquez-Greene said she hopes the tragedy of the school shooting will bring a greater awareness to mental health issues and to reduce the stigma attached to those with mental illness, perhaps preventing tragedies like the one that took Ana's life. 
Information on how those with mental illness can get help can be found at www.aamft.org . 

Cards for the Márquez-Greene family may be sent to WCSU, Department of Music, 181 White St., Danbury, CT 06810 or to Klingberg Family Centers at 370 Linwood St., New Britain, CT 06052. 

Donations in Ana's memory may be made to The Ana Grace Márquez-Greene Music Scholarship Fund, c/o Western Connecticut State University, Office of Institutional Advancement, 181 White St., Danbury, CT, 06810 or http://www.wcsu.edu/ia/greene-scholarship.asp ; or The Ana Grace Márquez-Greene Family Therapy Fund, care of the Outpatient Clinic/Family Therapy Institute, Klingberg Family Centers, 370 Linwood St, New Britain, CT 06052 or https://npo.networkforgood.org/Donate/Donate.aspx?npoSubscriptionId=1001402&code=klingberg%20home%20page or The Artist's Collective, 1200 Albany Avenue, Hartford, CT 06112.

In addition, friends have set up a fund to support the Marquez-Greene family at http://anagracefund.imageworksllc.com/ 
 Remembering Ana Grace Márquez-Greene, 6, of Sandy Hook, beloved daughter of James S. Greene, Jr. and Nelba (Amaro-Márquez) Greene, passed away senselessly on Friday, (December 14, 2012) during the horrific massacre enacted upon Sandy Hook Elementary School. 

Roland S. Martin writes:   America should see the Newtown carnage
“One of these mothers from Connecticut should do an Emmett Till moment; show the picture of their child dead in the classroom.”
That’s a text I received earlier this week from my TV One show producer. When I got it, a chill immediately went through my body just thinking about the possibility of seeing the carnage in such a photo.
When taping this week’s edition of my show, “Washington Watch,” Sirius/XM Radio host Joe Madison somberly said the same thing. Joe remarked that Emmett’s mother, Mamie, insisted on an open casket for her son so the world could see what was done to him by racists in Mississippi.

Left in Alabama resident's righty Old Prosecutor says the discussion shouldn't be about gun control, it should be about controlling violence, because guns are inanimate objects they don't kill on their own.  Sound familiar?

 Ironically, the discussion in a post calling for "controlling violence" taught me more than I ever wanted to know about assault rifles, semi automatic rifles, folding stock pistol grips, large capacity magazines, Ruger 10/22 rifles, pellet spread, short range weapons,  etc.  Call me crazy, but shooting a real gun at a living breathing animal, or, shooting a real gun at a target of a man/woman and aiming for their head or their heart, is just as violent as video games, movies and music videos.

Funny how we don't have the money to arm teachers with the tools they really need,  but we have plenty of money to train and arm them with weapons of mass destruction.  In the end, arming teachers with guns does nothing but provide false security.

What the Political Parent said;
I cannot keep having the same argument with the same talking points anymore. I do not believe in taking every one's guns away. I do believe we need to have sensible regulations that are enforced. You cannot compare guns with knives or cars or swimming pools. You cannot insist that I am going to be raped and murdered because I think 30 rounds is too much for any civilian. You cannot possibly think that your pistol and your cammo backpack gives you the tools to fight against a fictional tyrannical government. I will continue to fight for what I believe in, by donating to the Brady center, by contacting legislators, by writing letters to editors, etc. What I will not do is continue to waste my time arguing with buffoons who insist that repeating NRA lies and propaganda is the way to have a rational dialogue about safety. Go on the NRA site if you want to brag about your right to have whatever weapon you want and keep on tellin yourself that if someone gets caught in the crossfire somehow its their fault for not being "prepared". Or a video game's fault, or an atheist's fault, or a socialist's fault. I'll find a solution, you keep hiding from one.
How about this, let people keep their guns
Make possession of more than X rounds of ammo a felony. Pay whistle blower rewards for providing the name of ammo hoarders.
Require future ammo produced to go bad after 90 days.
Tax the sale of the new ammo to pay for the program.
There is no right to own ammo.
 The Founding Fathers never intended to for the second amendment to enable individuals to own what ever weapon they desired.
It was certainly not intended to enable groups of individuals to use deadly force against their own government. Instead, it was intended to enable government-led groups of white men to put down slave rebellions and to steal real estate from the Indians.
 Enough excuses.  Enough memorials.  Enough grief.   
 The problem of gun violence in the United States is complex, and as H.L. Mencken observed, "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." Advocating that we arm elementary school principals and kindergarten teachers is not only wrong but insane. We must stop allowing this kind of insanity to prevent us from having reasonable gun control legislation.
Amen and Amen.

2 comments:

yellowdog said...

Happy Holidays, Redeye! I hope you and yours are doing well.

"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state..." When this was written, the US didn't have a standing army and we had just overthrown the greatest empire in the world. You would wisely need an armed populous in case the British came back - and they did. This revolution went on for decades.

We also established a government we can throw out every 2, 4, 6 years. We vote, the most powerful weapon the world has ever known.

I see no Constitutional right to keep and bear arms when we have the largest best-equipped military force in history, and a 'well regulated' civilian law enforcement
arm to protect and serve us.

Is putting unregulated weapons in the hands of virtually anyone out there not the crime?

Redeye said...

I hear you Yellowdog. The problem is now we can't even vote them out of office because they gerrymandered the voting districts. They can stay in office forever and never have to sponsor a bill, just vote against the President. Nice government job with nice government benefits for life.