Pro-Gun Control Colorado
Legislators Recalled
I heard an NPR radio interview the
other day with Joe Neville, President of the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners
Association which recently was active in the recall of two Colorado legislators
who supported the gun control legislation passed in that state.
Neville's
group backed successful recall of Colorado Senate President John Morse (above) as well
as another legislator's recall
Neville
and his group support a “no compromise” approach in opposing all issues related
to gun control and is active in working against legislators with whom they
disagree. Of course, Neville and all those who oppose gun control
legislation (see the prior blog posting, or just visit www.americanrifleman.org
) are entitled to their opinions and the opportunity to encourage support of
their position.
But supporting Neville
involves something more than mere opposition to gun control. Here is a
direct quote from him taken from the radio interview, when he was asked about
his involvement in the recall elections:
"Any time you can get tens of thousands of people across a
state, in each district, to come out and fight for freedom, yeah, it makes me
happy. It gives me hope that the radical leftists that are controlling
Washington, D.C., and all the way down to the state and county levels, they
don't control the people. Which is what they want to do, they want to control
the people."
I raise several
questions about this kind of thinking:
(1) Does
opposing gun control legislation constitute “fighting for freedom”?
(2) Do radical leftists control Washington, D.C.?
(3) Does
this “control” extend down to the state and county levels?
(4) Do these
governments, assuming that they indeed are "radical leftist,"
actually want to control the people?
Apparently, Neville and
the many Coloradans who voted to recall those two legislators do believe this.
That is sad. Most Americans believe that our
government is there to serve people, not control them. I take his
quote as evidence that people like Joe Neville have a much broader agenda than
simply opposing gun control. And because the recall efforts succeeded,
that too is sad.
Neville
Neville
If you are
part of the minority of Americans who oppose expanded gun control, be certain that when you do
so, you do not buy into a far more extreme agenda such as that of Joe Neville's
group! Opposing gun control measures is not the same as battling those imaginary "radical leftists" who, in the eyes of people like Neville, supposedly control our government. (Legalization of marijuana in Colorado leads me to wonder what Neville has been smoking.)
Postscript: People like Neville manifest the extreme
right wing’s distrust of government.
That distrust, paired with an abhorrence of government spending and a
willingness to slash the economic safety net built up over the past half
century has seriously infected the Republican Party.
Right wing groups, such as those springing from the Heritage
Foundation, have told otherwise sensible Republican legislators that they can
cut off significant chunks of their political funding or even support primary challenges aimed at replacing them with Tea Party loyalists, if it appears that they are willing to
cooperate with the Democrats. Hence, out
of fear, the G.O.P. has swung rightward over the past few decades.
Finally, John Boehner, Speaker of the House,
has awakened and screamed “Enough!” and made it clear that the G.O.P.’s
elephant is not being wagged by its tail.
We hope it is not too late because we truly need a two party system.
Jack
Lippman
Who
did all the work on Starship Enterprise?
Of course, we all remember Captain Kirk and his StarTrek officers on
the bridge of the spaceship, but who was down there in the engine room, or in
the kitchen or behind the bar making those odd colored drinks? No one!
All of the tasks requiring labor were done automatically on the
Enterprise.
When they went to “warp
speed,” no one had to feed more fuel into the engines. It just happened. Computers and robotics ran everything, once
you got off of the bridge. The need for
human labor was limited to thinking and planning. Perhaps that is why, in science fiction, the
folks living in highly advanced far-away galaxies always seem to have big heads
and frail bodies. Muscular brawn isn’t
needed but brain power is.
This
may be where we are going in our economy.
The need for employees in technologically advanced countries is
shrinking. What took a dozen workers to
build now takes just a few, and robotics will ultimately replace even them. Of course, there will always be a need for
the engineers and scientists who design these labor-free means of production,
but their numbers will not be large.
Right now, the only countries which have flourishing labor forces are
those where paying for human labor is less costly than using computerized
robotic labor. Those days are
disappearing in the United States, Japan, parts of Europe and within a few
generations, will disappear from Asia and ultimately from Africa, Asia’s
logical replacement as a source of cheap labor, as technology takes over the
production of everything we need.
In
the future, in addition to the engineers and scientists mentioned above, there
will always be jobs preparing them for their careers (educators), a few people
to handle the distribution of manufactured goods (on line retail employees), a
limited number of health care workers and of course, some sort of government to
oversee all of this.
The
biggest problem facing a government in such a world will be the distribution of
wealth. The scientists, engineers,
educators, government people and physicians will be well paid. Almost everyone else will be out of a job,
for there will no longer be many opportunities for employment. Unemployment will be the rule, the norm, for
most people.
Marxist ideas have failed in Russia and China, so we have to come up with something better.
If
the riches of the world were to be distributed according to Marxist principles,
everyone would get a share based on their needs. Living standards would be relatively comfortable but far from luxurious. A higher standard of living, and a greater share of the world's bounty would be available, of course, for those involved in the remaining opportunities for human employment mentioned
above.
To avoid
this turning into a class or caste system over the generations, employment in
these limited high-paying jobs mentioned above would be permitted for just a
few years. Once educated and trained,
for example, scientists or physicians would work for no more than ten years
after which they would retire, and receive a far smaller share of the riches of
the world. (They had better have saved
their money while they were working, or else they would end up like everyone
else, on what would amount to a comfortable universal dole.) There would be an unending supply of freshly minted scientists waiting to step into their positions.
The
question of whether these kinds of things could take place in a democratic
nation, or whether a totalitarian government would end up running everything must
be addressed as the disappearing need for human labor becomes the key factor in
the ever changing world of economics and politics. I feel we have about a century to learn to successfully deal with these challenges. WHAT DO YOU THINK?
JL
Sid's Corner
In this posting, Sid includes an unneccessary thank-you note to me, a meaningful obituary and finally, a joyful poem describing his recent Thanksgiving revels.
* * * * *
THANX, JACK
Sid Bolotin
This is to thank you for inviting me and others to submit
our writings to your blog. When our community’s informal writing group
dissolved, I searched the Internet for a place to post my writings.
I hoped for a site that was akin to both our community’s
group and the one up North in which I participated before moving to Florida…a place to air my
ramblings sans a cacophony of “constructive” parsing of structure, theme, verbiage,
grammar, punctuation, etc.
By my count you’ve accepted about seventy of my creations,
be they stories, poems, or essays; and never have you editorialized any one of
them. You did the same when you were the Managing Editor of our community’s
by-monthly magazine.
Your relaxed editorial criteria has been an encouragement
for me (and others) to continue our writings … knowing that they’ll have a
“home” and be read by a world-wide audience far beyond the limited boundaries
of family and friends.
DR. ERLE
MYERS
Sid
Bolotin
He died November 28, 2013. He was ninety years old. He was a
dear friend and confidant.
He urged my wife and me to become involved with his group as advisors after one of our many chats with his oft repeated proclamation, “Sid, there’s a bigger world outside the confines of Temple Emanu-El.” And so began our long “tip-toe through the tulips” with this gnome-like bundle of compassion and his wife, Ida.
Although his New Age philosophies sometimes perplexed the
more staid members of the Board of Directors and some congregants, the teens
adored Erle and Ida. He and she were always available for them at any hour…of
need or just to kibitz. As a licensed Social Worker he offered family and
individual counseling to both members and the community at large. His gentle
heart and compassion poured from his twinkling eyes.
Even though he was not of a towering, impressive stature,
his appearance did capture my immediate attention. At about five and a half
feet tall with a thick, longish, brown comb-over, a bushy mustache, beak-like
nose, almost lash-less eyelids, with a gnome-like, cherub-like persona, his
loving soul’s energy poured from his eyes.
He encouraged my metaphysical explorations and introduced my
wife and me to the Spiritualist
Church where he and Ida
were certified mediums. In later years he founded and became ordained as the
minister of the Boston Church of Spiritualism in Watertown, Mass.
We attended many sessions that featured healing circles and channeling by
world-renowned channelers, many from England.
Over the years Erle became an intimate part of our
family…sharing in its joys and sorrows. Whenever
life’s twists and turns knotted our emotions, He was there to blanket us with
comforting, sage advice.
* * * * *
Bolotin Clan's Thanksgiving - 2013
Sid
Bolotin
Our three sons and their wives
Three granddaughters, six
grandsons
One with wife, one with solid
girlfriend
All in teens and twenties
Staid senior dogs - Bart, the Pug
and Diesel, the Cockapoo
Wary of new Golden Retriever
puppies - Sundance and Oakley
“And a partridge in a pear tree”
At oldest son’s house in Massachusetts
His wife finishing up weeks of
food prep
His brand-new pool table focusing
activity
Keeping the horde out of her
kitchen
Flashing hands and chomping jaws
Ferociously wolfing down fantastic
hors d’oeuvres
Beer, wine, and cocktails aplenty
Stimulating the exuberant chatter
Males bantering
Ladies twittering
Ultra-religious Chabbadnic
grandson
Chanting the lighting of Chanukah
candles
His demure wife beside him
Buffet-style serving of turkey,
cranberries, and all the fixins
Squash soup, taters, Brussels
sprouts, cauliflower salad, stuffing
Voicing of gratefulness for the
blessings of family
Spoken by all gathered ‘round the
table
Choking up Bubbie and Zaydee
Concluding with yummy desserts
Including home-made, kosher, Oreo
cookies
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