Guns Don't Kill; Money, Power and Corruption Kills

When you're gone from the homestead for a week, at this spring time blooming, one expects much yard work upon returning. I was after that lawn-cutting job with edging and trimming to boot. Shortly after the equipment 'clean up,' I was all over the project putting together my newly purchased three-seat backyard swing. Let me underscore a historical family tradition; this old boy has always had a backyard swing and that ain't never changing. I know two facts about myself: (1) I ponder best when swinging in the summer breeze and (2) I print smaller on rainy days; the latter informational item carries no particular significance, just is!!

I can report that my inaugural swing yesterday did not disappoint. It was a smooth to and fro' sway and the pondering was ...well, let me elaborate on the pondering. I was thinking back to those summer days as a young East St. Louis boy when I'd hear older folks sometimes bemoan that if someone did not stop doing whatever they were doing, "You're going to cause me to end up IN Alton." Explanation: The city of Alton had a State Mental Hospital thus the person's comment suggested they were going to 'lose their mind' and end up in that mental place.

Jacksonville, Illinois, as many communities across this nation also had a State Mental Hospital. Okay, back-in-the-day, before the plethora of medicines (pills), we placed the moderate to severe insane in such facilities. Let's be very clear regarding the events that find most of these mental hospitals closed, and mentally ill people in half-way houses subjected to 'willy-nilly' medicating and consequently emerging as one of the 'talking points' in America's rising gun violence.

Hardliners always vote for stricter laws to incarcerate the criminals and the insane, however when it comes to paying increased taxes to maintain prisons and mental hospitals we don't 'walk-the-walk.' In fact, Mr. Conservative, himself, Governor Ronald Reagan closed a bunch of mental hospitals in the 1970's and in the 1980's,  President Reagan closed more mental hospitals nationwide. If you like looking at 'numbers' then spend a little time researching the number correlation of mental patients displaced by hospital closings and the escalating 'homeless' population in our American cities.  ...And Jesus said, "That which you do for the least of My people you do also for Me."

Shamefully, we will see a continuation of many Congress persons voting against common sense gun-control measures due to 'checks being passed behind the backs' from the NRA to the lawmakers.

If you're ever nearby Decatur stop by and join me for a backyard-swing; we can cubits-a-spell after we ponder for a moment.