Violent America

How many of you have seen Michael Moore's movie, Bowling for Columbine? In it, he discusses the issue of gun control and, of course, the columbine shootings. After that awful tragedy, America looked at what would cause such a terrible thing to happen. Was it TV? Video games? I know! Marilyn Manson and the devil's music (rock and roll) . But wait... other countries such as Canada and England have violent TV, Japan has way more violent video games, and the lots of countries have plenty of rock and roll.

Let's look at England. No guns. Not even the police carry these deadly weapons. They have realized that, actually, guns do kill people. So do knives, but you have to be a hell of lot more committed. The gun is the coward's weapon. You don't have to look your victim in the face, you don't have to double think what you're doing... it's really very convenient . But what about Canada? More people own guns there than they do here and yet, where's their violent crimes? Where are their high murder rates? What makes them so different? Or rather, what makes us so different? Why do other countries have murder rates of about 200 a year, while ours are around 11,000? I have a theory.

There's a direct problem and an indirect problem. Let's talk about the direct problem first. America has the perfect mix of poverty, wealth, liberalism, and fundamentalism to breed a nation ripe with anger and full of crime. People in America are, generally, unhappy.

Let's say you're not wealthy. Maybe you're lower middle class, lower class or even impoverished. You can resent the wealthy an strive to be wealthy yourself at the same time. You can't afford health care, even if you're both working or, if you can afford health care, you can't afford good health care and therefore can't afford your deductibles. This is, I believe, one of the leading factors in our society which makes it so prone to violence. If we had a health care system like, say, Canada, the UK, Cuba, France, and pretty much every other industrialized country (and even some which aren't. i.e. Cuba) then quality of life would skyrocket. Healthy people are just happier. It would lower anxiety and worry among lower class Americans (what an awful term to use... lower class, as if the upper class were really better people). I know in my household, half the fights we have are because we're touchy or worried about money in relation to health, dental, and vision care.

Another factor that leads to a nation of unhappy criminals is a poor education system. Among industrialized countries, America has one of the worst. It's simply a statistical fact that less educated people are more likely to commit violent crimes and simply statistical that many African American children are more likely to have a poorer education. The Bush administration would like you to put more emphasis on private schooling in order to get your child a good education, but this is simply unrealistic. (Stay tune for my next blog about the No child left behind act which elaborates more on bush's idiocy) The reality is that most of our children are learning from public schools and these schools are just not doing their jobs, mostly because they're all poor. Schools are some of the first places to be hit by federal cut backs. In my high school, teachers had to buy their own paper, staples, dry erase markers, and other materials that should not have been their responsibility.

Other than the poor education received by students in grades K-12, many students cannot afford to continue their education. Many places around the world, including most of Europe, have a complete socialized education system. Socialized simply means the government pays for it. Many people are objectionable to socialized anything without realizing that most of our education system is already there (though poorly so). The next step is to create a free college education. Again, better educated people are less likely to commit violent crimes.

Now let's get a little more indirect. We know some of the problems in America that breed violence, but what causes these problems? My theory? Fundamentalism. Who's against socialize health care? Fundamentalists and Republicans (which are often one and the same), mostly. Who's against funding our public schools? You guessed it.. Fundamentalists and Republicans. The nice happy countries with lower violence rates are all more liberal than America. Most of the prisoners in jail system are devout Christians. Perhaps this is because Christianity advocates not taking responsibility for your actions (i.e. the devil made me do it or, it doesn't matter cause God will forgive me.). Monotheistic religions are the only religions which say you can be a horrible person in life and still be rewarded for it.

Many people will say, "But if you're really Christian you wouldn't break the law". Well yes, but as I said earlier, we don't live in a completely conservative society. Many Christians aren't very Christian at all. Unfortunately these people haven't learned to think for themselves because the real Christians don't want to fund education or health care.

I highly recommend watching Michael Moore's movies, Bowling for Columbine (which can be found on YouTube) and Sicko (a few parts of this movie can also be found on YouTube, though i'm not sure if all can).

Remember, think for yourselves. Love for yourselves.