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MOTHER PERSPECTIVE
This is an email I got from a good Aussie
friend of mine in law school in his native
Melbourne. I thought it was an interesting per
spective on the United States from a foreigner,
nd thought it would be nice to share.
Jeremy Stallman
Athens
I don't want to sound insensitive, but with
all this media coverage about the shooting at
Virginia Tech, there are a couple things I want
to get off my chest.
It's also part of our
Australia-U.S. cultural
exchange where we
can explain to each
other some of the dif
ferences in our respec
tive cultures.
It's amazing to see
everyone on the news
saying, "what a shock.” Is it really a shock? It
seems every few months we are hearing about a
school shooting in the United States. Do people
just forget from one shooting to the next? Of
course, everyone remembers the name Columbine,
but how many others have there been? I guess
most mass killings have some element of shock
(depending on your perspective... 200 people
died in Baghdad yesterday, but that didn’t shock
anyone in our countries), but have Americans not
yet come to expect this kind of thing?
I want to give a bit of an explanation of how
Australia dealt with a similar event and maybe
it will give another perspective. Ten years ago
in Australia, a mentally disturbed guy opened
fire on a crowded caft in Tasmania and killed 35
people. The stories were so horrific; I can remem
ber it very dearly. There had been a massacre a
few months before in Scotland and many believe
this guy saw all the media coverage on TV and
was inspired to do something similar.
The point I wanted to make, and the subject
of discussion with respect to this shooting in
almost every other civilized country in the world,
is gun control. (Are Americans talking about it?)
I'm not sure if you'd be aware, but all the
bulletins on the (non-American) news services
covering this tragedy in America first talk about
the events and then move on to show the abso
lutely unimaginable ease with which guns can
be acquired in the United States. British, French,
Japanese reporters are in gun stores (or dealer's
houses) all over the United States, showing view
ers how cheap and easy it is to purchase a gun.
I imagine it was never like that in Australia, but
certainly after the 1996 massacre here, the gov
ernment completely overhauled gun laws in this
country. There was significant resistance from the
gun lobby and even three (out of six) state gov
ernments sought to avoid the enactment of the
new laws. But the federal government prevailed
with the support of the overwhelming majority
of people (who have at least half a brain) who
could see the result of lax gun control laws.
Today, it is much more difficult to get ahold of
a gun in Australia. You can't buy toy guns in
Australia that look real (old ones weren't banned,
itfc just not cool to sell them anymore; what
does it teach little kids?), and you have to have
a special license to own a gun. Automatic weap
ons became completely illegal* semi-automatic
weapons are severely restricted. People who
hunt, farmers, etc. can still own guns, but they
must comply with strict licensing requirements.
Like I said, people saw the result of lax gun
controls, they understood the horrors of what
had happened and they wanted to take some ac
tion to try to prevent it from happening again.
Survivors of the massacre conducted a nation
wide campaign to fight for gun controls and they
succeeded. It can happen.
The result today is that those disturbed youth
who would like to kill their classmates have
probably never seen (except in a policeman's
holster) or held a gun; they would not know
where to get one or how to use it. Therefore they
vandalize, bully, punch or whatever else it is that
disturbed kids do. They don't massacre; it's not
within their means.
Of course, having tighter gun controls won't
eliminate guns or gun deaths. Criminals will
always be able to get guns on the black market
(although they become much more expensive).
But criminals rob gas stations and kill gang
members, they don't walk into schools and mas
sacre children. Being able to buy guns over the
counter in shops without proper checking and
licensing requirements
means that guns will
not only be easy to
obtain, but they will
also remain a huge
part of American cul
ture, and the result of
that is what we see
and continue to see in
schools and universi
ties across the United States. I just hope that
you. my good friend, manage to stay safe.
Let me know if you hear anything about gun
control. I'd love to know.
Michael Hershan
Melbourne. Australia
BUSH AT VA. TECH
So I'm watching the CUM coverage of the con
vocation ceremony for those viciously murdered
in the shootings at Virginia Tech when another
murderer appeared before the crowd and gave
a speech; this murderer stood there before this
country and spoke of compassion, how we should
all be there for one another; he spoke of perse
verance and many other attributes of which he's
clearly void. One murderer paid the ultimate price
for his crime when he ended his own life with
the very weapon he had viciously used to take
the innocent lives of others; the other murderer
is free to stand before this whole nation and act
like he’s some kind of hero. It boggles my mind
to think that we can sit in awe, sickened as a na
tion of the horrible crimes that were committed
this week at Virginia Tech, sickened by the car
nage that one man was able to accomplish, and
then on the other hand allow a man responsible
for much more carnage to stand there and act
like he has done absolutely nothing wrong, stand
before this nation as one deserving of adoration,
as if the crimes Bush has committed are nothing
worse than the ones committed by sick-minded
Cho Seung-Hui.
Wars kill people; starting them always brings
death and destruction to both the innocent and
the combatants. Bush and his administration of
fools wanted this war, the evidence of this is so
overwhelming that it can no longer be disputed!
That means Bush and everyone that knowingly
misled this nation into this war are killers; they
purposely engaged this nation in an action that
was sure to have death and destruction as a re
sult. They did this knowing that Saddam wasn't a
threat whatsoever. Retired Centcom commander
Anthony Zinni reiterated what we already knew
on “Meet the Press" on a recent Sunday when he
recounted the non-evidence Bush Administration
officials used to sell this war to the American
people: “I did consulting work for the agency,
right up to the beginning of the war,* Zinni was
quoted as saying in a Washington Post article ref
erenced on the show. *1 never saw anything."
Later Zinni said, “I think the WMD problem,
we'd always had a suspicion of WMD programs,
but never any hard evidence. And, as time went
on, it seemed less and less likely there was an
existing program. I mean the vice president's
term was he was 'amassing' weapons of mass de
struction. Clearly, there was no evidence of even
an existing program, let, let alone amassing of
weapons of mass destruction.* Not that Zinnfs
statements are conclusive evidence that the Bush
team trumped up the case for war, but this cou
pled with what we already know, the continued
ties about Saddam's nuclear abilities. Saddam's
ties to al-Qaeda, the personal attacks on those
who knew better than Bush's lies and didn't con
form ... It's alt there in black and white for any
patriot to read, and yet there the murderer is free
to stand before this country and talk about trag
edy. One murderer takes hts own life while we as
a nation allow another murderer to stand before
us in our time of grief; stand before us like he's
done nothing wrong, like he's someone that can
unite this nation in this turbulent rime.
It is king past the rime for Bush the murderer
to pay; it must happen before we have another
tragedy befall us where we need leadership, be
fore we take a time of sadness and tum it into a
time of anger, downright anger over the audacity
and utter lack of humility that Bush displays
every time this murderer addresses our nation.
Anyone that can sit in anger over the acts of
one insane man must be equally enraged by the
acts of another; anyone that now defends Bush
defends a murderer, an out-of-control madman
that has shown a propensity to commit acts
so vile that they have resulted in the deaths
of thousands. Bush can't be allowed to be the
voice of this nation any longer for this reason; it
makes me sad that it took a tragedy like the one
at Virginia Tech to hammer this thought home to
me. but when I saw him address the victims of
this foolish act on the Virginia Tech campus, it
really hit me hard! Any patriot that believes in
justice should be compelled by the overwhelming
evidence to feel the same.
Charles Muff
Athens
FUQN6 HEALTHCARE
On the subject of universal health care, it is
both interesting and disturbing that most gov
ernment employees are insured with better than
average protection, both on a national level and
on a state levet Even local government employ
ees usually have some type of health insurance
coverage. In the private sector, however, compe
tition for consumer dollars is squeezing health
care coverage for even corporate employees out
of the picture. Adequacy of coverage diminishes
as the organization diminishes m size and sub
stance. Moreover, quality of coverage is diminish
ing across the board. More and more people are
becoming uninsured. Trimming production costs
through health care benefits reduction is a mon
ey-saving measure inherently available to those
who competitively manage the machinery of the
marketplace; and it is a measure that is difficult
not to utilize. Health insurance is a wild card
for business planners, constantly increasing m
cost... and non-predictable in scope; it's a "sack
of rocks to tote* for management, a burden it
would just as soon do without, especially in the
context of this global market. Adequate health
care coverage for the small business person is
too often non-existent and continually gets more
difficult to obtain and maintain. Ironically, it is
the private sector that supports the government
sector. An analogy would be that one's house
keeper is insured but one's self is not.
Universal health care is not a dirty word. It
is a real issue affecting everyone. The function
of government is to address the issues that face
us all. I repeat, the function of government is
to address the issues that face us all! Not ad-
fry
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4 FLAGP0LE.C0M • APRIL 25,2007
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