It is July 4th, and that means that Independence Day celebrations are afoot here in the United States. Today, this country celebrates its 246th birthday!
In the greater scheme of things that's perhaps not such a huge number — I was born in a country that became a unified Kingdom somewhere between the 8th and 10th centuries — but it's still a noteworthy milestone.
Interestingly enough, I went to my first July 4th celebration many years before I moved to the USA. You see, there is a big Independence Day festival held in Denmark every year as part of a fairly large USA-Denmark "friendship society."
I was maybe 10 years old at the time.
As I sit here and write these words, I can already hear people shooting off fireworks in the small town across the bay from where we live, and even though it is a rather gray and damp evening I am sure we will see the fireworks light up the sky, later on.
Sadly, this year celebrations are already marred by another violent mass shooting at a 4th of July parade just outside the city of Chicago. From what is known, a lone gunman on a roof opened fire on the crowd, killing at least six and injuring more than 30.
This all happened in a relatively affluent and "safe" neighborhood... proving that nobody is really exempt from the ongoing waves of violence that seem to afflict this nation.
It continues to baffle me why violent expressions are so prevalent in this country... I have no ready answers for that. My personal opinion is that it isn't really about GUNS, it's about a cultural value set that somehow makes it less than horrible to take another's life.
I'm no expert... I can only look at the situation from the "meta perspective" of looking at the greater cultural story arc. The entire idea of "deadly force" does not have the weight in the US that it did in the dozen-odd other countries where I have lived.
But today is not the day to dwell on such things, so I shall not. Instead, I will simply say Happy Birthday, America!
Thanks for reading, and have a great week ahead!
Engagement encouraged and welcomed! Do leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — NOT A CROSSPOST!!!)
Created at 20220704 20:58 PDT
x442
I think that there is no meaningful reason for private citizens to own and carry guns. In this respect, I find the gun laws in the USA really questionable and I don't like to attribute them to a certain culture. But I am also aware that in Germany and Austria - countries with very strict gun laws - there are an incredible number of weapons in circulation. Most of them are legal, but there are also illegal ones. So what can be done to really effectively prevent bad things from happening...?
Ich denke, daß es keinen sinnvollen Grund für Privatleute gibt, Waffen zu besitzen und zu tragen. Insofern finde ich die Waffengesetze in den USA echt fragwürdig und mag sie auch nicht einer bestimmten Kultur zuschreiben. Nun ist mir aber auch durchaus bewußt, daß in Deutschland und Österreich - Ländern mit überaus strikter Waffengesetzgebung - unglaublich viele Waffen im Umlauf sind. Legal zum großen Teil, aber auch illegale. Also was tun, um wirklich effektiv Schlimmes zu verhindern...?
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
It is difficult to say what can be done. Not long after I wrote this piece, there was a mass shooting in Copenhagen — I expect you heard about it? The laws on guns in Denmark are quite strict... and even so, it happened. In this case, it seems the shooter was mentally ill. Which leaves the question of whether mental illness is becoming more common in our world...
No easy answers, to be sure.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
May be it's not the best world we ever had...
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
First of all I would like to congratulate you with Independence Day that is a great event for the whole nation and it is really a Holiday.
This time unfortunately, we have more news about the shooting and one more time we see that the person, who did it has no respect for a human life not for his country. To live and enjoy the freedom that he has with people around him instead he simply chose the way of destruction.The matter is how easy and approachable to buy guns for anyone, it i snot possible to look into our brain and to predict such situation. More guns will definitely not resolve the situation.
You post is nominated for „Wold of xpilar“ Community Support Program, @booming account upvote. Only the posts that are not cross posted, original and posted from community page are eligible. If your post gets approval, then you get upvote within few days. Good luck!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit