A U.S. Senate in the Grip of the Gun Lobby

Today in a shameful act that I find disgusting, the U. S. Senate defeated a bi-partisan authored effort to bring some minimal sanity to America's gun control laws.  The winner today was the NRA and the gun manufacturers for which it constitutes a front organization.  The losers were the nearly 90% of Americans who support background checks and minimal efforts to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill.  It goes without saying that GOP senators led the charge to kill the legislation.  Not surprisingly the families of children massacred at Sandy Hook elementary are outraged.  Similarly outraged is a victim of gun violence herself, former Congresswomen Gabrielle Giffords who has let loose with an op-ed in the New York Times.  The piece deserves a full reading.  Here are highlights:

SENATORS say they fear the N.R.A. and the gun lobby. But I think that fear must be nothing compared to the fear the first graders in Sandy Hook Elementary School felt as their lives ended in a hail of bullets. The fear that those children who survived the massacre must feel every time they remember their teachers stacking them into closets and bathrooms, whispering that they loved them, so that love would be the last thing the students heard if the gunman found them..

On Wednesday, a minority of senators gave into fear and blocked common-sense legislation that would have made it harder for criminals and people with dangerous mental illnesses to get hold of deadly firearms — a bill that could prevent future tragedies like those in Newtown, Conn., Aurora, Colo., Blacksburg, Va., and too many communities to count. 

Some of the senators who voted against the background-check amendments have met with grieving parents whose children were murdered at Sandy Hook, in Newtown. Some of the senators who voted no have also looked into my eyes as I talked about my experience being shot in the head at point-blank range in suburban Tucson two years ago, and expressed sympathy for the 18 other people shot besides me, 6 of whom died. These senators have heard from their constituents — who polls show overwhelmingly favored expanding background checks. And still these senators decided to do nothing. Shame on them. 

We know what we’re going to hear: vague platitudes like “tough vote” and “complicated issue.” I was elected six times to represent southern Arizona, in the State Legislature and then in Congress. I know what a complicated issue is; I know what it feels like to take a tough vote. This was neither. These senators made their decision based on political fear and on cold calculations about the money of special interests like the National Rifle Association, which in the last election cycle spent around $25 million on contributions, lobbying and outside spending. 

Speaking is physically difficult for me. But my feelings are clear: I’m furious. I will not rest until we have righted the wrong these senators have done, and until we have changed our laws so we can look parents in the face and say: We are trying to keep your children safe. We cannot allow the status quo — desperately protected by the gun lobby so that they can make more money by spreading fear and misinformation — to go on.

I am asking every reasonable American to help me tell the truth about the cowardice these senators demonstrated. I am asking for mothers to stop these lawmakers at the grocery store and tell them: You’ve lost my vote. I am asking activists to unsubscribe from these senators’ e-mail lists and to stop giving them money. I’m asking citizens to go to their offices and say: You’ve disappointed me, and there will be consequences. 

Mark my words: if we cannot make our communities safer with the Congress we have now, we will use every means available to make sure we have a different Congress, one that puts communities’ interests ahead of the gun lobby’s. To do nothing while others are in danger is not the American way.

Very well said.

The Republican Party's Virginia Tech Problem

The shooting and apparent suicide at Virginia Tech ought to make people wake up and ask once again why it is so easy for those who prove to be deranged to obtain firearms. As a piece in The Daily Beast notes, this week's events pose serious questions for Rick Perry who has supported a bill that would allow concealed weapons on college campuses. But Perry is anything but unique in his support for allowing guns in areas where they don't belong and in this regard, the article should have more strongly condemned the GOP as a whole. Here in Virginia members of the Republican Party of Virginia have been pushing equally insane bills (as the article duly notes) and gun advocates are livid with Old Dominion University which wants to restrict guns on campus. It would seem the GOP wants a return of the Wild West of old where guns are everywhere and the carnage will only increase.

And as for Eric Cantors feigned "shock" over this latest tragedy at Virginia Tech, it's is disingenuous at best. Carnage such as this is the natural consequence of the GOP's wrongheaded policies on gun control. Another Daily Beast article written by a Virginia Tech professor addresses the deadly consequences of the GOP's lust for unrestricted firearms. Here are highlights from this later article:

I was locked down with my class of journalism students during the April 16, 2007, shooting rampage on Virginia Tech’s campus. As soon as it was over, one of my students and I set out for the crime scene nearby, to report the story.

Numb with disbelief, we quietly made our way through police lines and even stopped to chat briefly with two officers. I was taken aback when one of the policemen suddenly blurted out, “We’ve got to do something about people having access to guns. I don’t know what, but we have to do something.”

Later, given time to reflect, I understood that the officer had arrived at the only sane conclusion possible in those circumstances. No freakin’ guns. None. Just a few yards away, Tech’s Norris Hall was filled with the bodies of 32 very precious souls.


I stood outside Norris just beyond the yellow crime-scene tape that whipped in the stiff wind. We watched the grim faces of officers and technicians coming and going from the grisly scene inside. They were profoundly disturbed by the ringing of the victims’ cellphones as family and friends tried desperately to confirm their safety in the wake of news reports.

The peaceful little village of Blacksburg was forced to revisit that trauma this week when a gunman inexplicably killed a campus police officer and the university was plunged into another lockdown that lasted into Thursday evening. Suddenly, national media were again converging on Virginia Tech, invoking for many the painful and nauseating memories of 2007.

[T]ens of thousands die each year around the globe from gun violence. In the United States alone, better than 31,000 people died from firearms wounds in 2007 with nearly 70,000 more suffering injury, according to the advocacy group Legal Community Against Violence. Of that number, 12,632 were murdered.

So often in the wake of these incidents I’ve thought of the helpless complaint from that officer in 2007: “We’ve got to do something about people having access to guns. I don’t know what, but we have to do something.”

In recent years, there has been a movement to allow registered guns on college campuses. Having taught 20 years of college journalism and taught in the public schools for three more, I can say that schools are often places highly charged with emotion and conflict. Only an idiot could posit that guns would somehow enhance that atmosphere.

You cannot be injured by a weapon that isn’t there. So you can argue all you want about Second Amendment rights, but many countries don’t have anywhere near our level of gun violence simply because guns are illegal or deemphasized. Unfortunately, in this country, the killing isn’t going to stop, not unless we stand up to the gun manufacturers’ lobby and begin dialing back our aggressive firearms culture.

The only alternative is to continue to endure the succession of shootings and killings and public trauma and to continue to accept the idea that we are impotent to do anything about it. From Blacksburg to Little Rock to Tucson, we are discovering one terrible day after another that that’s simply no way to live a life.

Local Cutie, Erik Odom Lands Role in Twilight Series

A local guy from Norfolk, Erik Odom, has landed the role of the nomadic vampire Peter in "Breaking Dawn," part of the Twilight movie series. It's nice to see a young person's dreams come true and this role obviously could open some important doors. I'll even overlook the fact that Odom went to Virginia Tech, UVA's arch rival. I will confess that I like Twilight and pretty much everything else in the vampire vein be it :True Blood" or Ann Rice's "Vampire Chronicles." Here are highlights from the Virginian Pilot:
*
A few days ago, Maury High graduate Erik Odom was delivering gourmet foods for an outfit called Yummy in the Hollywood Hills. A good day included a $50 tip.
*
Now, Odom, 24, is one of the newest cast members of the wildly popular "Twilight " movies. The former Norfolk resident landed the role of the nomadic vampire Peter in "Breaking Dawn," the two-part treatment that will complete the big-screen adaptation of the best-selling vampire novels.
*
Odom graduated from Maury in 2004 and was captain of the cross-country team. He spent four years at Virginia Tech, where he earned a degree in exercise science and nutrition.
*
Odom won the role at an open audition. He met Thursday with a potential agent, one of many who have shown up in the past several days. "Suddenly," he's getting offers from everywhere," his father said. "Whereas, there was nothing a few weeks ago."

A Call to Action in Virginia - and to Virginia College Alumni

In the wake of Uber-Christianist Virginia Attorney General Ken "Cooch" Cuccinelli's directive to all Virginia public colleges and universities to rescind their non-discrimination policies insofar as they include "sexual orientation" as a protected class, Equality Virginia is asking Virginia residents to voice their displeasure with Governor Bob McDonnell and others to protest the draconian anti-gay agenda being set by the Republican administration. Also, and perhaps most importantly, Equality Virginia is asking that if you are a graduate of a Virginia public college or university, you let your alma mater know that you will be closing your checkbook in terms of contributions if the college or university knuckles under to Cooch's demands. Many of Virginia's top schools - e.g., the University of Virginia, William & Mary, and Virginia Tech - rely heavily on out of state alumni contributions to meet funding needs. Obviously, if these institutions face a significant financial hit if they give into to what is in the last analysis religious based discrimination by the Attorney General, they will be much more vocal in their protestations against Cuccinelli and Bob McDonnell. As a UVA alumni myself, I am letting UVA know my views. I encourage others to do like wise. Here are some highlights from Equality Virginia's call to action:

*
Equality Virginia members and allies are urged to take the following actions NOW in response to this threat to the basic human rights of members of Virginia’s college and university communities:
*
1) Contact the Governor and let him know that you support policies that protect GLBT Virginians from discrimination and that you expect him to provide leadership in ensuring that Virginia is truly a “Commonwealth of Opportunity” for all Virginians, including GLBT Virginians.
*
2) If you are an alum, student, faculty or staff member of a Virginia college or university, contact your institution’s president and let him or her know that you want your college or university to stand with its GLBT students, faculty, staff and alumni and reject the advice of the Attorney General.
*
3) Sign EV’s online petition in favor of changing the law to provide nondiscrimination protection for all. Or download the hard copy petition and collect as many signatures as you can!
*
4) Spread the word on FaceBook, Twitter and other social media sites about the need to take action NOW.
*
5) Help EV make a statement about the breadth and depth of support for our work by ensuring that this year’s [Commonwealth Dinner] dinner is sold out. Buy your tickets now.
*
6) Write a resolution for your student group or faculty senate in response to Cuccinelli's letter.
*

The bottom line is that we need to make Cooch and Taliban Bob's lives a living Hell and make it clear that such religious based bigotry is going to cost Virginia dearly. It is also important to recognize that Virginia's colleges and universities are not the only targets on Cuccinelli's list. As the editor of the Falls Church News-Press has made clear in a public statement, Virginia's municipalities that have adopted non-discrimination protections for LGBT citizens/employees are likely next. Here are some highlights:
*
Because of its use of language protecting lesbians and gays from discrimination, the City of Falls Church is "in Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's cross hairs," Falls Church News-Press editor Nicholas F. Benton told the F.C. City Council in a public statement at the Council's business meeting tonight.

Benton urged the Council to take action to condemn the "unprovoked, inflamatory act of bigotry" by Cuccinelli in the form of a letter to Virginia's state colleges and universities last week advising them to remove any policy language protecting the rights of lesbians and gays.
Benton's comments were later echoed by F.C. Councilman Lawrence Webb. Following that, Mayor Robin Gardner urged that a statement on the subject be drafted for a vote at the next Council meeting.

The following is the text of Benton's statement to the Council, which he said he will also present to the board of directors of the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce at its business meeting tomorrow morning:

"The unprovoked, inflammatory act of bigotry by the new Republican Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli last week, in the form of a letter advising Virginia colleges and universities to remove language protecting lesbians and gays from discrimination, takes away existing protections from an embattled minority, and represents a profound threat to the Commonwealth in a number of important ways.
*
"First, it represents an effort to remove protections that currently exist for a minority that is well-known for its susceptibility to discrimination, hate and violent attacks, from elementary school playgrounds through adulthood.
*
"Second, it represents a major blow to Virginia's economic development efforts, including it is effort to secure the relocation of major corporations like Northrup-Grumman and other large business entities, because of the chilling effect Cuccinelli's action will have on the desire and willingness of those businesses and their employees to locate to the state.
*
"Fourth, it fuels a climate of intimidation and hate against minorities of all types in the state in a time when mouthpieces of the far right are causing such negative trends to grow, empowering bigots with a sense of entitlement to act out their hatred with impunity.

"I urge every fair-minded citizen, every civil libertarian, every elected official of any party, and every proponent of economic growth in Virginia, every advocate of civility, to go on record in strong opposition to the Attorney General's incendiary action and to affirm that every Virginian enjoys equal protection under the law.
*
Again, I encourage readers from both within and outside of Virginia to join in actions to pressure Virginia's government and courts to end religious based discrimination in the Commonwealth.

Life for Gays At Virginia Tech - And In Virginia

There is no denying that Virginia is NOT a gay friendly state. We have no employment non-discrimination protections, we are excluded from all other state non-discrimination laws, a constitutional amendment to the state constitution bars and recognition of our relationships, and the state seems to have an over abundance of Bible beaters and professional Christians, not to mention "universities" founded by Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. One lives one's life out and proud despite the hostile social/cultural climate which in rural areas in particular can be literally life threatening. Thus, I found it interesting when I came across a column in the Virginia Tech student newspaper that featured a letter received from an unnamed gay student at Virginia Tech (the #1 rival of the University of Virginia, my Alma mater). To better understand the student's feelings, one needs to remember that Virginia Tech is located in the very small town of Blacksburg which is socially light years away from Charlottesville, the home of UVA, which is among the most liberal cities in Virginia. Some of the sentiments expressed by this student resonate with me and I have indeed shared similar thoughts on some of the points mentioned. Here are some highlights from the Collegiate Times:

*

I am a homosexual male growing up in a heterosexual society. I feel uncomfortable almost everywhere I am. I stereotype everyone, not to discriminate, but because I need to. I use it as a defense mechanism to target my oppressors. Darwin's theory, survival of the fittest, is not archaic; it applies to my everyday life. I know the weakest person will die off and I refuse to be that person.

*

I live a normal life for the most part. I wake up, brush my teeth, shower, eat breakfast, go to class, and come back to my residence hall. I walk around this gorgeous Virginia Tech campus and all that people notice is me. The picture perfect scene is ruined. I am the outcast. I am the outlier you learned about in math class. I am just one of the many that are discriminated against everyday on this campus.

*

I am an American, despite what many may say. I am just as much of an American as you. It was the Native Americans that were discriminated against first when their land was stolen from them. Then, the wave started. The Irish, blacks, Italians, Hispanics and homosexuals lined up as the next targets of hate. What is your ethnicity? Were you here first? Unless you are Native American, you weren't. Why do today's Americans feel that their very short presence on this land entitles them to decide who has the right to enter our land of opportunity? Our land: it's our land to be shared, not to own. We have all been discriminated against, but you don't remember. You never had to deal with it. Your parents might have, maybe your grandparents, or possibly your great-grandparents endured the sacrifices so you never would have to suffer discrimination. You just remember the privileges you have each and every day.

*

Take a second and ponder the word homosexuality. What images or feelings are evoked? For most people, the word homosexuality conjures up images of gay sex. Now, stop and think about heterosexuality. For the word heterosexual, we think about two people in love. Did you ever realize that homosexuals are simply two people in love too? Has society affected you? If you don't think it has then why do you see such a huge difference between homosexuality and heterosexuality.

*

Why do you fear me? Do you fear me because I am different? I don't call you names or go out of my way to hurt you. I don't yell redneck, hick, or white trash to those of you that so proudly display your Confederate heritage. I don't judge you, the upper class, for the endless privileges your parents provide you. Your tuition paid for, your new car, and your designer clothes all in hand with no questions asked. If you don't want to be me, then don't discriminate against me.

*

Is your vocabulary so limited that you must hurt me with the words "gay" and "faggot"? I am not asking for a series of miracles or for you to change the world. I am simply asking you to stop and think. Really stop and ponder your actions and words. Please ask yourself the question: Who does this hurt? It hurts more than you will ever know.

*

Having lived 37 years in the closet, I understand this student's world of fear and just wanting to survive all too well. In this modern and supposedly enlightened country, it is a travesty than citizens are treated in such a manner and have to face such bigotry - most of which traces back to poisonous religious based prejudice.

Despite Pleas by Virginia Tech Families, Virginia Legislative Panel Rejects Gun Bill

One would certainly think that after the Virginia Tech tragedy back in the spring of 2007, Virginia would want to clean up some of the failings in the state's gun laws that allowed Seung-Hui Cho to legally buy guns despite his mental health problems. But NOOOOOOO. The wingnut Republican members in the Virginia General Assembly committee all voted to kill the bill that would change the gun laws to try to avoid some future tragedy.

Of course, these are the same Christianist ass kissing folks who are against abortion. In their view, you cannot kill a fetus through abortion. But once that child is born and grows up, they happily allow nuts to be on the loose with guns - including automatic weapons - so those children or adults can get shot up and killed. I do NOT understand the mentality. Fortunately, our Governor took them to task. Here are some highlights from today's Virginian Pilot (http://hamptonroads.com/2008/01/despite-pleas-tech-families-va-panel-rejects-gun-bill):

RICHMOND - Families of those killed and wounded during a deranged gunman's rampage at Virginia Tech implored a legislative panel to close the loophole in state law that allows criminals and the mentally ill to buy firearms at gun shows. The Republican-dominated committee ignored them, voting 13-9 along party lines Friday to kill legislation to require unlicensed sellers at gun shows to run criminal background checks on buyers. Such checks now are required only of federally licensed gun dealers.

Despite the setback, the gun show loophole issue is not dead. Similar legislation is pending in a Senate committee, and supporters plan a lobbying blitz and vigil in remembrance of the Tech victims Monday on the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. "We're not going to give up," Andrew Goddard of Richmond, whose son Colin was wounded in the Tech shootings, told reporters after the committee meeting. "We're going to be energized by this."

Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said the administration prefers the Senate bill, and he and others have only begun to politically pressure the proposal's House opponents. "There are those who apparently think it's fine for a felon to have a gun or a dangerously mentally ill person to have a gun or a domestic abuser to have a gun. They usually won't stand up and say that because they'll be laughed out of the room if they do, but apparently that's what they believe," Kaine told reporters. "Contrary to the clear federal law denying felons, domestic abusers with protective orders and dangerously mentally ill individuals the right to have a gun, these gun shows provide a very easy and public means for people who cannot legally have weapons to go in and get them," Kaine said.

The committee has long been hostile to gun-control measures and friendly to gun-rights groups and firearms dealers. Eight of the Republicans who voted to kill the gun show bill received more than $4,100 in contributions from gun advocacy groups or dealers last year, according to figures compiled by the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project.

Mentally Ill Shift From Care to Jails - There are more behind bars in Virginia than are in mental wards

As with gay rights, the need for mental health care is something Virginia would prefer to simply sweep under the rug and ignore. This article from the Richmond Times Dispatch (http://www.timesdispatch.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2007-10-10-0117.html) should be a state wide embarrassment. Sadly, most Virginians, especially those preaching "family values," do not seem to care or be embarrassed. Perhaps the family values crowd is once again literally applying the Bible and, therefore, believe that those in need of mental health care are sinners and possessed by demons? Hence, why take care of their needs. Virginia likes to think of itself as moving into the category of at least somewhat progressive states, but these figures prove sadly otherwise. Here are some story high lights:

Almost four decades after Virginia began emptying the mental wards of its state hospitals, jails across Virginia now house more people with mental illness than state and private hospitals combined. Of the 6,350 mentally ill people in hospitals or jails on a single day two years ago, 60 percent were in jails. And 43 percent of jails responding to a state commission's query said regional mental-health agencies do not provide mental-health services.

In 1936, only one person with mental illness was in jail for every six in state hospitals. In 2005, that ratio had gone to five people in jail for every two in a hospital. Those are among the statistics compiled in a 200-page report released yesterday by the General Assembly's Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission.

Virginia has 40 cities and 95 counties. Seven of the state's localities have more than half the roughly 1,500 psychiatrists in the state. Forty-seven localities have none; 87 localities don't have a child psychiatrist. The sobering analysis yesterday left legislators with few questions and state mental-health officials with few answers as evidence continues to mount about the state's system of mental-health care. Most of the issues have been festering for years and have been brought to the forefront by the mass killings at Virginia Tech in April by mentally ill student Seung-Hui Cho.

[T]he report found vast disparities in the quality of care from one jurisdiction to another and a failure by state agencies and local mental-health agencies to follow state laws mandating how patients are to be assessed and singled out for care. JLARC found that a decade-old state law requiring public hearings and regulations to set payment rates for temporary detentions has never been implemented. The rates are set unilaterally by the state Department of Medical Assistance Services.

Nor have state laws enacted 25 years ago been followed that require regulations for pre-screening procedures for patients entering state hospitals. As a result, some state hospitals have simply declined to admit some groups of patients who once received care. Those people include patients with dementia, substance-abuse problems and traumatic brain-injuries, according to JLARC.

In sum, it is NOT a pretty picture. Small wonder that Seung-Hui Cho did not receive proper mental health treatment and that he was allowed to be on campus with no one knowing how potentially dangerous he was.

Virginia-Vermont Lesbian Custody Fight

The U. S. Supreme Court correctly refused to intervene in a decision by a three judge panel of the Virginia Court of Appeals that rejected the argument that a Vermont joint custody order cannot be enforced in a state that does not permit same-sex civil unions. Had the Supreme Court taken the case, it would have had to follow the long standing precedent of the courts holding that states must enforce the custody rulings of other states.

Lisa Miller, who moved to Virginia and basically kidnapped the couple’s child, was attempting to forum shop, hoping Virginia’s anti-gay laws would help her cause. She is represented by Matthew Staver of Liberty Counsel, a self-styled “Christian” legal firm affiliated with some of the most extreme anti-gay organizations in the country that takes on cases all around the county seeking to deprive gays of equality. No doubt Mr. Staver found the case all the more attractive because Lisa Miller claims to have found religion and been “cured:”

“In a telephone interview Monday, Miller said she is no longer a lesbian, and she accused Jenkins of "religious persecution."
"She's trying to say that because of the way I am teaching Isabella to walk with the Lord and that homosexuality is a sin, I am not looking out for Isabella's best interest," Miller said.
Jenkins is seeking primary custody of Isabella in Vermont courts. One of her attorneys, Jennifer Levi, said their case is not based on Miller's religious beliefs but on her refusal to comply with previous court instructions.” http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=123807&ran=8040

Unfortunately, the Virginia Court of Appeals did not have to take evidence on the fraudulent nature of Ms. Miller’s “cure” claim and was able to rule to enforce the Vermont custody order based on long standing practice. If and when the right case arises that will allow it to be proven in court that the claim that gays can be “cured” is false, perhaps the Matthew Stavers of the world will see their job opportunities wither away. I would love to see an ex-ex-gay file a lawsuit against Exodus International or its affiliates for injury caused from their bogus cure programs.

The Virginia Tech Tragedy

Like people across the country, if not the entire world, I am shocked and saddened by the death and carnage that occurred at Virginia Tech on Monday. The senseless killings hit home, I guess, for several reasons.

First, the deaths of so many smart, young and talented people and the dedicated faculty members who lost their lives are a terrible loss not only to their families and Virginia Tech, but also the Commonwealth of Virginia and the entire country. Second, as a parent of three children, the youngest of which will be starting college in the fall, I can only imagine what the parents of the dead students are going through. It’s a parent’s worse nightmare come true – having nearly lost a child to meningitis seven years ago, I have experienced a sudden event that turn one’s world upside down. This event will no doubt haunt many parents sending their children off to college in the coming years. As a parent, one can never protect one’s children enough or try to all alleviate their unhappiness.

Third, I live in an area that sends hundreds of students to Virginia Tech – I keep scanning the list of the dead to make sure none of the children of friends or friends of my children appear. I cannot even count the number of Virginia Tech students my children and I collectively know. I continue to pray that no familiar name is yet to appear.

Lastly, as a Virginian this tragedy is a blot on the state’s name that will live on for many years to come – especially in light of Virginia’s pitiful gun control laws that make it so easy to obtain weapons. If it turns out that the identified shooter, Cho Seung-Hui, used extended ammunition clips, some of the carnage might have been avoided had the federal ban on automatic weapons not expired in 2004. It is also ironic that southwest Virginia where Virginia Tech is located is one of the political bastions in Virginia of those who oppose meaningful gun control laws. Perhaps this tragedy will wake up Virginians and others around the country to demand meaningful control laws.