I’m proclaiming that every Wednesday on this board will now be “Zen-Day”.
I am going to post a Zen saying each Wednesday. I think it will be a nice follow up to Tuesdays’ Hottie Goth Day. I’ll simply post it and you take it as you wish.

Today’s gem:

The obstacle is the path

Zen proverb

Do with it as you wish.

Along with today’s Zen proverb, I am going to address the question of peace in our lives. I bring this up because as I was readying the young ones before work this morning, I saw a story about how to teach your seven year old to fight back against a school invader. No shit. They had tapes they were using teaching kids to throw stuff at a stranger who comes into a school. Brilliant idea. This follows the also brilliant idea by a Wisconsin legislator, a republican, I might add, to arm teachers. Just what we need. More guns. Instead of trying to find out the root problem, let’s just give everyone a gun. As if there aren’t enough shootings as it is. I don’t understand the conservative, and by that I mean republican, idea that if you have a problem, shoot it. Why is a gun and force the answer to every problem? I think the second amendment is overrated. It was put in at a difficult time when owning a gun was pertinent to even eating. When a revolution involved a gun every time. Now, what’s the point. I have no issue with sporting guns. Hunting, trap shooting, marksmanship, etc. But no one needs an assault rifle or even most handguns. If gun ownership meant less crime, we should have none. Why is it other countries with far fewer guns have far fewer crimes? Hmm? The NRA is way too powerful a lobby and has too many paid politicians. I was at Barnes & Noble on Sunday and there was a guy with a NRA hat standing out in front, passing out literature. I only caught the end the tail end of the conversation, but he was talking to a mid-thirties lady with a kid. I hear her say, “No, I don’t want it. I don’t agree with anything you represent.” The guy looked stunned, she handed him his flyer and went in the store. I wanted to applaud and buy the lady a present or something. I know I’m probably pissing off a lot of people, but fuck it. I don’t see a reason for it. I know it’s an amendment. But these gems were written into the constitution.
* Article I. Section 2.: Slaves count as 3/5ths a person when determining state populations
* Article I. Section 9.: Congress cannot prohibit the importation of slaves prior to 1808.
* Article IV. Section 2.: Slaves who escape to states where slavery is illegal must be returned to their owners.

It was written over two hundred years ago, shit has changed. Get over it. The constitution was designed to be a living document, to change with the times. The founding fathers would be amazed it has lasted as intact as it is, this long. Most of them didn’t give it a shot in hell.
Here are a couple of quotes from our founding fathers, who were, by any stretch of any imagination, some of the most gifted, intelligent men to ever walk the earth, more amazingly, at the same time and place.

"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms (of government) those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny”
Thomas Jefferson quote

Labels: peace, politics, The Constitution, voting, Zen