A Rock in the Head

I grew up in Texas and in Idaho, an awkward and chubby child born to an intellectual professor dad and a liberal librarian mother.  As an adult, I also spent a few years residing in Alabama and a few other places (yeah, I've moved a lot).  Texas, Idaho and 'Bama are not states well known for openmindedness, although gratefully I grew up (and my parents still reside) in Moscow- (pronounced Moss-co not Moss-COW), the liberal mecca of North Idaho.  Living in these different places, I've been exposed to all sorts of thinking.  Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, such diversity of thought floods my facebook feed and I get to see gems like this:

Posted by someone named Bamboo Bob on Facebook.

And this one is interesting as well:

This one originally came from a page called Tell it to my Handgun.  

There are people I've deleted from my facebook friends list, don't worry.  Some of them I've deleted because of political posts.  However, some people post things like the gems above and I keep them in my feed.  When it comes down to it, the connection I have with them is more important to me than their political views.  While I do not agree with the perspective, I care for the person and value my history with them.  For example, I had every class my senior year with the guy who posted above.  He now lives in Montana, hikes in amazingly beautiful places and sometimes kills bobcats, which I find both terrifying and fascinating.

Besides the fact that I simply like these folks even though our political opinions differ, I also keep some of these folks on my feed because it reminds me that Seattle is not normal.  Not everyone in this city is a liberal, but I am usually surrounded by other social workers or yogis so that tends to being more open minded type of people.  The US of A is a big country and quite diverse.  I know this already from the various places I've lived, but it is helpful to have these reminders, it keeps me grounded in the reality of our current country, for better or for worse.

That being said, I am deeply concerned about the current state of our country for a variety of reasons.  It seems like more and more days we're turning on the news to learn about another shooting.  It is absolutely tragic.  Sure, the shooters are very sick people, but the fact that the guns are so accessible to them is disturbing.  It makes me think of the importance of mental health care AND gun control, and we don't have much of either in this country right now.  The irony is that often the folks who are all about "bad people" and not guns being the problem also tend to be the ones who don't believe in spending money on social services to help the "bad people".

Surely the issue of gun control is so different for those who live in rural communities than it is for us in urban areas.  I was pretty scared when the Cafe Racer shootings occurred, as many were in Seattle.  We didn't know what was going on that day for quite a while and there were multiple shootings around the city, including the University District, downtown and West Seattle.  The shooter committed suicide while surrounded by police a mere half block from my dear friend's house, where she distracted her toddlers who wondered what all the sirens were about.  I can understand wanting some guns (and diapers) if you live in a place where a bear might come to your door, but I'm not comfortable with guns being so accessible when at any time, there may be a mentally ill person at my door, or my place of work, or behind me in line, etc.

I mentioned the shootings in Aurora, Colorado after we saw the new Batman movie the other night. My husband lamented on the sadness of that shooting and then said (warning, his sense of humor is kind of sick), "Wow- I am glad no one threw a bunch of rocks at all of us while we were watching that movie."

Anyway, as far as Facebook goes, as much as I love my friends and family, the best part of it is George Takei.  That dude has the best posts ever, like this: