[Closed] The Great Turning Part 7

@deetoo Thanks for your kind words. My experiences in my childhood church are a comfort to me even now. I took my kids to church when they were younger, but never found the same warm and welcoming type of community. It may have been the large size of the church, or maybe it was the large number of striving, competitive boomers that never seemed to have much time except to write checks and drop their kids off at Sunday School. I could've spent more time looking, but I was also a full-time working boomer parent pushed to the limit for time. My heart goes out to those on our Forum that suffered from toxic religion as they grew up. But no doubt it helped to shape their deeper spiritual growth and understanding today.

@matildagirl     Re Gun ownership in America:  unlike Sweden which could successfully decree that on a specific day, all drivers would now drive on the right (and not have mass traffic accidents)... America's regional demographic and psychographic diversity may make a similar decree problematic. Change often arrives suddenly in my country; but on this topic we have been agonizingly slow to approve national legislation. Even Federal step-by-step incremental legislation eludes us.  At last count, I believe only 14 states have comprehensive background-check legislation. Last year the DOJ (Federal Department of Justice) began yet another study to determine how to confront the situation.

The extraordinary number of guns in the USA is horrifying to me.... but the reality is that Americans are as split on the subjects of gun ownership and gun control as we are on so many other crucial subjects.

Here are five important facts which you may already know.  (1) There are more guns than people in the USA. (2) The majority of Americans do not own guns. (3) The majority of Americans want gun control legislation. (4) Not every American agrees on the interpretation of our Constitution on the issue of citizens and guns. (5) The current average age of those who commit mass murder is 33.4 years old, according to the Rockefeller Institute of Government. Other data indicates the average age is trending even younger.

The Pew Research Center (a non-partisan think tank located in D.C.) recently released an analysis of American gun ownership, attitudes and demographics. A link to the analysis appears below. 

This ugly subject is complicated by the reality that in addition to the horror of mass shootings... we also have a high number of domestic shootings (violence within families). 

The Pew Research Center notes that 81% of Democrats/Dem-leaning citizens say gun violence is a big national problem.  Only 38% of GOP/GOP-leaning citizens agree that gun violence is a big problem. Guess which Party can claim the highest rate of gun ownership.

https://pewrsr.ch/48hGvdx  

@freya Hi Freya,

thank you for that information and I am thinking about some of the issues. We don’t have guns in most households so there is less deadly violence in domestic situations and less options for suicide or kids finding and shooting themselves etc.

We do have knives but a lot of what you guys have aren’t allowed here and you have to be over 18 to buy one without parental consent. 

maybe also because we have universal healthcare, the minimum wage is $23.23 per hour or $882.80 per week, we have good safety nets, you only pay a maximum of $31.60 for most medicine prescriptions. There is maybe not the need for a lot of crime to get by. You don’t lose a house because of a medical bill There is a lot more trust in each other as people as well.

Americans might consider us as a nanny state but if you had more of those types of benefits crime might go down. We have crime, don’t get me wrong, we aren’t all goody two shoes but I think we are just happier overall.

We are known as the lucky country.

Regards to all

Matildagil

@kathleen We moved all around the country growing up. I loved that life.  Anyway, because we always lived in the boonies my parents would enroll us in local activities.  Wanna know what local activities were around for kids in the 70s?? Bible study groups!!!! I should say we always lived in  waaaaaay out places! My father built nuclear power plants around the country.  Anyway, I'm getting off track.  In my bike adventures in KY I found this Baptist church! They were dancing and singing and do all these fun and wonderful things.  I made my mom sign me up. She was pretty weird at first, Catholics don't mix with Baptists, but our church was in town, 30 miles away. I have very fond memories of that place. It was never scary or vengeful.   I don't think I've ever shared that story.

@matildagirl Your benefits are wonderful! I think that people in the US strive constantly for more money just to pay the bills such as pharmacy, health care, housing, etc. We are a generative, productive country but at the expense of our population, many of whom have become twisted in their values. I believe that both gun control and universal health care are in our future, but it will take the significant reduction of our now-dominant right-wingers. I pray every day that we will not see another Trump term.

@impassionate Thanks for sharing that sweet story! It just shows that welcoming and loving communities can make a difference in any life regardless of their philosophy or religious practices as long as they don't abuse anyone by trying to control them -- typical of organizations that want to control their members and their pocketbooks for their own nefarious purposes.

Because my recent post was moved (rightly so) the the Meyers-Briggs thread, here's the information on the Treaty of Tripoli that was included at the bottom of that post:

For those who do like to discuss & challenge the current erroneous perceptions floating around out there in the political sphere, specifically those who are claiming this is a Christian nation, or that is what the founding fathers intended, here's a little ammunition for your reciept archives:

The Treaty of Tripoli signed by John Adams in 1796: 

 

 

Thanks for including this document. Reading this reminds me that our forefathers realized the destructive influences of religion on government, given that so many immigrants at that time came to the US because of religious persecution. Our "originalists" had only their own society on which to impose laws, and it did not include women or other minorities. Therefore, it stretches credulity when we have a majority of SCOTUS justices that interpret and apply governing language as it was originally intended rather than consider the natural evolution, growth and needs of our very different society today. Stephen Breyer, our most recently retired justice has it exactly right when he states that all SCOTUS decisions should consider the impact on our everyday lives.

@kathleen, if they were true "originalists", wouldn't they say that guns, other than muskets (flintlocks) and musket balls are the only legal guns / ammunition that US citizens can own. The founding fathers knew nothing of shell encased bullets, much less repeating fire weapons. But NO....

@kathleen I hope you can too.

regards

Matildagirl

And so the turning is starting to be seen: The International Court has ruled that Switzerland violated 22 women’s human rights by not passing effective climate change legislation. This ruling will affect more than just Switzerland! 

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/09/climate/international-court-judgment-human-rights-climate-intl/index.html