I guess I'll just have to be one of Olbermann's worst people today. The winner of the gold had it right on the money, but there are other considerations.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia_b4N4SvT4 This is a letter I sent to the Albany (NY) Times-Union. They declined to publish it for reasons that will be apparent. TLE is free to publish next week. To The Editor: A tragic event occurred in Blacksburg, Virginia a few days ago on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute. The primary blame for this event rests with the soul of Cho Seung-Hui, who took his own life. However, all of us share some measure of responsibility as well. You reap what you sow: With very few exceptions, every student at Virginia Tech has suffered twelve years of very specific indoctrination at the hands of the teacher's unions and the government. Those students have been taught that it is better to suffer injuries from bullies and criminals than to defend themselves. All too often, the punishment for self defense far exceeds the punishment meted out to the instigator, both in school and on the streets. All too often, children (and adults as well) are told, "Call the police; Call a teacher; don't take the law into your own hands." The truth is the police can not be everywhere, and under law and precedent have no mandate to protect us from bullies and criminals. That responsibility belongs to us as individuals, no matter what lies certain police chiefs and school administrators attempt to sell. It is a sin of the worst sort to promise what cannot be provided and to deny honest citizens the tools needed to provide for themselves. We've seen the results. We've seen them at Virginia Tech, we saw them on 9/11. The actions of the Flight 93 passengers should not have been fodder for Hollywood; they should have been Standard Operating Procedure. Unfortunately, the schools, the courts, and the legislatures have decreed otherwise, to our detriment. This needs to change. And the ability to force change resides within each of us. Frank Ney N4ZHG WV/EMT-B NRA(L) GOA CCRKBA JPFO ProvNRA LPWV -- "Whether the authorities be invaders or merely local tyrants, the effect of such [gun] laws is to place the individual at the mercy of the state, unable to resist." - Robert Heinlein, in a 1949 letter concerning _Red Planet_ Kip Hawley Is An Idiot! http://www.kiphawleyisanidiot.com/ Abuses by the BATF http://www.elfie.org/~croaker/batfabus.html
