Gun Contol

My friend Jack, whose work on Capitol Hill includes ethics and public policy issues posted this on FaceBook:

Gun Control in Light of the Terror and Massacres of Innocents

One of the things I believe I learned in the 16 years I lived in Washington, DC and NoVA is that often the people we have elected to Congress have very little knowledge of normal, everyday American life.  And more often than not, they spend more time trying to stay in office than they do working on issues.  We have a "lobby-ocracy"

Had my eyes opened in the summer of '93 when it had been a long time since I had been out of the District and its environs.  I spent the summer taking part in "A Christian Ministry in the National Parks" at Mt Rainier National Park.

I found out that many people in the District and inside the Beltway live, eat and breathe politics -- even when they try to avoid it.  You can't be anywhere near the Capitol at night without even sub-consciously noting whether the light is on over the cupola -- when it is on, Congress is in session.

Just as almost everyone in Champaign-Urbana lived and breathed with the University of Illinois annual schedule, it's like that in the DC area, too.

Sometimes I was convinced that the bi-partisianship is just a way they have to blame one another for whatever . . . and that they get too locked away in their ivory tower of privilege, wealth and power.

But it is the responsibility of all citizens to take part in our republic.  We pretty much only have ourselves to blame when it all gets out of whack.

In no other building in the world is the adage "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely," more evident.

I have a friend who is now retired from working in the Senate Radio and Television Office.  Every time I was with her in one of the Members and Staff elevators, I was amazed to listen to some of the conversations young Pages were having with each other about their Senators or Representatives.  You can probably imagine.

There are so many misunderstandings about why The Billl of Rights was written and approved.  So many things have changed and if the Constitution and its Amendments do not remain living documents, we are all in trouble.