I see there's been yet another shooting in the States, in a shopping centre this time. It's a little bit scary to be living in a time when this doesn't suprise or shock me. As long as I can remember, America has been the violent country full of gun-weilding maniacs. People being murdered there seems the norm. It seems to me that they're doing something wrong; I only wish I knew what it was. If I knew, I would fly over there and kick the crap out of George W until he agreed with me and did something about it! Sadly, I'm left here shaking my head and wondering why. America is supposed to be the great world leader, the civilisation of all civilisations, the land of the free, the place with everything going for it. So why are there so many people pushed to breaking point, so many people who feel their only choice is to kill?
Far be it from my intention to suggest that Australia is murder-free - on the contrary, we have our share of whackos. We still hold the world record for spree killing, after Martin Bryant killed 35 and injured a further 37 at Port Arthur. We have our share of gangland executions, kidnappings, and child molestation. But our share seems disproportinately small compared to the good old US of A. Very little inspires patriotism in me, but knowing that makes me proud to be Australian. We might be small and mostly desert, but we don't kill as many of our own kind as Americans do!
I guess we leave that to our millions of deadly animals.
6 comments:
Stace:
I think us Canajuns feel much the same way as you in Oz, which probably explains more about why our two countries seem to have some kind of neat kinship.
Your previous post was about bipolar. I think the U.S. could be characterized that way, in some respects...brilliant, in large part, but still a victim of its own demons -- and firearms, of course.
"I guess we leave that to our millions of deadly animals."
We don't have that many. Just the five deadliest snakes, the brown, the typan, the tiger, the red bellied black, the other one. Red back spider, White tail spider. Blueies. And the sheep.
Cheers,
Andrew.
WW - love the new avatar. Is this permanent?
Andrew - sheep should have been first in that list. Nasty buggers. Not to mention balms. Dangerous animals, balms. They might bite him! (Monty Python moment, my apologies)...
I missed that Monty moment. What are balms?
Andrew.
Dare I comment on this piece? *feeble grin* There are soooo many differing opinions as to why these things happen primarily in the US , it seems. I don't know. I am just not convinced that gun-control is the answer and yet, guns ARE so prolific here. My husband and son have guns here at home along with ammo for them but it is a hobby for them. They hardly ever shoot them but they love collecting them and keeping them nice and all. But then along comes the whacko who goes off killing people and everyone starts yelling "gun control". I don't know. We have the right to bear arms, yet it seems there should be limits, yes. One big glitch is that each state has their own gun-control laws. It would help if there were laws that governed gun-controlfor the entire country. I will agree that things have gotten so out of hand here in the US. The government has burgeoned into this massive, almost useless albatross and yet the American people are wonderful and big-hearted and would do most anything for anyone in the world, yet we are criticized and hated by so many. It shocks me so when I see demonstrations of hate against the US. Of course, I realize that most of these are against the country and government as a whole, not against individuals, as such. (Should I consider defection? *grin* just kidding!) God Bless the USA.
Jewel, you can be an honourary Aussie if you like!
Andrew, balms are dangerous creatures, they might bite him! As per Life Of Brian. :)
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