This is a raw, unedited conversation by what we call two great young minds searching for answers. My colleague D. Lewis and I had this conversation recently. Please excuse any grammatical and spelling errors:
D. Lewis: school violence
D. Lewis: too much violence, calamity, uncertainty in our society...
D. Lewis: we are left walking in a daze, not even comprehending what is happening or where our present path may lead.
D. Lewis: We've become, at the very least, desensitized, and at worst, demoralized.
D. Lewis: A 16yo. girl is brutally murdered in colorado, 5 amish girls in another act, and there are not even students out on the quad raising the issue.
D. Lewis: I am not writing letters to the editor about school security, and no one else is either.
D. Lewis: what have you or I done about it?
D. Lewis: and you and I are two people who could do something... could do alot and we have these discussions and we search frantically for answers for a moment, and we do nothing.
D. Lewis: what are we doing here!?!?
D. Lewis: We can influence change... you and I.
D. Lewis: We both know people that can't though; people who would give all that they have to be able to have one shot to do what we could do.
D. Lewis: And yet, we aren't being active, we aren't being brave.
D. Lewis: I want to make myself try, and I don't know how.
Didles: well you know what happened in 1972 when students did raise an issue
D. Lewis: we withdrew from vietnam
Didles: well i was going for they ppl died
Didles: but yeah....
D. Lewis: well, yeah
D. Lewis: if that is what it takes though, maybe we should
Didles: my point was students nowadays don't care about anything except their ipods
D. Lewis: people are dying anyway
Didles: and their finals
D. Lewis: we need to change that
Didles: and getting good jobs to pay off their student loans
D. Lewis: and i am not taking about hippie, nothing but a pony-tail and a dream types
Didles: they're not actually looking around them and seeing what's wrong with the world around them
Didles: i nkow you're not
Didles: it's just like
Didles: when you walk down west pine mall, do you pick up that subway cup or do you kick it?
D. Lewis: there are issues that anti-war protestors should be looking at too, and yet, people focus on somethings....
D. Lewis: at least they are protesting for what they believe, but they do it wrongly
D. Lewis: point taken...
Didles: it's easier to kick shit ot the side and not look at it than actually pick it up and put it where it belongs
D. Lewis: and there are people paid to pick up that subway cup
D. Lewis: i know i could, but someone is supposed to as their job,
Didles: and some people die while protecting my right to kick that subway cup
Didles: or have lost limbs
Didles: or vision
Didles: or hearing
D. Lewis: yes, and some people die because we are too busy kicking cups or picking up cups rather than changing policies and changing society
D. Lewis: there are imperative things that we neglect
D. Lewis: things more imperative than that cup...
Didles: we've proven that isolaitonism doesnt work from WWII
Didles: but complete world involvement only works in the right avenues
Didles: and back home we're so fixated on the fact that the second amendment allows us to carry guns that we forget that america is not a battleground the way israel is or thailand or indonesia or east timor; this is no longer the last frontier. if we're to be the last, best hope for mankind, we have to get tough on guns and gun control but we also have to have more compassion as a society for ourselves...we reached out ot the thirdworld after tsunami and yes that's horrible but what about the people in america that die from disease and hunger
D. Lewis: and guns!
D. Lewis: what about Emily Keyes and the 5 amish girls?
Didles: guns don't kill people, people with guns kill people
D. Lewis: this nation will forget them in days
D. Lewis: and guns make it much, much easier.
Didles: just like kartina
D. Lewis: the guy shot the girl in colorado as she was trying to run away after the swat team stormed in.
D. Lewis: if he had an axe, she would still be alive.
D. Lewis: axes don't let you kill people from 15 feet away quite the same way as a gun,
Didles: but one person killing someone with a firearm shouldn't affect the other 300 million law abiding citizens of this countyr from carrying one
D. Lewis: it shouldn't? because I think it should.
D. Lewis: I think one lost life should affect all of us.
D. Lewis: each life lost should be a lesson learned and not all of those 300 million want a gun, or think others should have guns either.
Didles: this is exactly why security guards in schools should be armed
D. Lewis: this isn't the revolutionary era anymore... a militia is un-needed.
Didles: but it's every man's god given right to own a gun
D. Lewis: unnecessary is a better word i suppose
Didles: what about hte drug dealers/whatnot?
D. Lewis: yeah, and it is every white mans' right to own a slave and hit women too.
D. Lewis: we should all have a right to take what is ours
D. Lewis: and yeah, a gun makes it easier
Didles: the more restrictions we put on guns, the harder it is for the people to actually use them for protection to obtain one while you've got criminals who can still buy them on the black market. what then? what happens when the only people that have guns are the criminals
D. Lewis: so lets just all have our guns, and run around and steal... hell, why not anarchy?
D. Lewis: we like independence so much, who needs a gov't?
D. Lewis: and then when we finish working out way back towards the dark ages we can write of the treachery that once was modern society.
Didles: only more guns in the hands of criminals leads to anarchy
D. Lewis: yeah, and how do they get into the hands of criminals?
D. Lewis: someone makes them, and someone sells them
Didles: they steal them
Didles: which is why
Didles: we need to have better police protection
D. Lewis: yeah, they steal them from places where they wouldn't be able to get them in the first place!
Didles: brb
D. Lewis: if they can't steal it from someone's home, someone who bought it legally, then they can't get it!
Didles: so you're advocating the blanket outlawing of guns?
D. Lewis: its also true that some people use them for sport, and with perfectly good intentions, and they should be able to.
D. Lewis: people who hunt deer don't need Glocks or Berettas or SW 9mm's
D. Lewis: no one needs an M16
D. Lewis: or a grenade launcher
Didles: but people use those for protection
Didles: but what about the gun collectors?
D. Lewis: people can't collect nuclear weapons
D. Lewis: there are lines that society draws, and this line already exists.
D. Lewis: there are certain things that we cannot have, and certain guns should be among those things
D. Lewis: and people don't use muzzle-loading grenade launchers or M16s for protection.
D. Lewis: and they would be much less likely to need them if the criminals couldn't break into some other law-abiding citizens house, take their m16 and use it on the other person who has an m16 for protection.
D. Lewis: it perpetuates the circle
D. Lewis: if we could stop making these constant right hand turns and make a left every now and then, perhaps we could get somewhere
