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It’s not only the slaughter in Aurora that makes me sick. What also makes me sick are the pious words uttered by both President Barack Obama and his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, after the tragedy. You can talk about it being a time to unify and what a great country this is, but this isn’t about the need for unity and we’re not such a great country when someone can walk into a movie theater and mow down the patrons.
We need to reinstate the ban on assault weapons. Otherwise, it’s just empty talk. The president hides under the four poster in the Lincoln Bedroom for fear of upsetting the National Rifle Association. The NRA lovers are not going to vote for you anyway, Mr. President. No matter how silent you are on the need for rational gun laws, they still run ads telling everyone you are taking away their guns, so be a leader. Polls show Americans want a ban on assault weapons. There is no reason why any hate-filled nutcase should be able to walk into the nearest super store and buy a weapon whose sole purpose is to kill the most people in the shortest amount of time. You don’t hunt deer with semi-automatic assault weapons that fire 100 rounds of ammo.
Romney knows better, too. Back when sanity ruled and he was the governor of Massachusetts, Romney signed into law a ban on assault weapons. But that was back before he kissed the backside of the crazies who have hijacked the Republican Party. Romney no longer sees the need to ban assault weapons, despite the latest American gun tragedy.
We wanted bipartisanship and resisting a ban on assault weapons is where the two candidates meet, on the legal right to buy guns that are killing machines. The argument for not banning assault weapons was stated by the conservative columnist George Will, but it could just as well have been Ted Nugent. It goes something like this — if the maniac didn’t have an assault weapon, he would have bombed the movie theater.
People like to think they can fix the problem by finding a flaw in the system, but massacres even happen in Norway, says Will. But gun massacres don’t happen nearly so often in Norway than they do here in the good old U.S. of A. And while a ban on assault weapons wouldn’t cure the problem, it sure as hell would help if it weren’t as easy as using a credit card in your local super store to purchase a gun that can shoot 100 rounds of ammo without reloading. …
The entire Penn State mess makes me sick. While the NCAA penalties are severe, on the whole you can make a case for them. Personally, I was for letting the program continue to make loads of money and mandating much of it go not only to organizations that support victims, but also to the specific victims of Jerry Sandusky. I am also for the entire board of trustees stepping down. But here’s what also makes me sick: The hypocrisy of the NCAA. Hey folks, I hear your noble words about sending a message to other colleges and universities where the head coach is better paid and has more clout than the president of the university, but I’ve got news for you, they haven’t gotten the message. In fact, you have sent these football and basketball factories the opposite message.
Right after the NCAA announced Penn State’s football players are, in essence, free agents, the campus has been overrun by smarmy recruiters from the other big-time schools trying to steal players. Sitting Bull had less Indians when he attacked Custer at Little Big Horn. It’s as if the Penn State players were coated with honey and the recruiters were flies.
As I write this, the self-righteous wrath of the NCAA is nowhere in sight. Even the pros don’t allow tampering. Listen, if some Penn State players want to contact another school to investigate the possibility of transferring, that’s fine. But it’s not fine when recruiters from other schools descend on the Penn State campus like a plague of locusts. Didn’t the NCAA expect this?
A comment about our media in this town. This is the same media, some of whom continue to suggest shutting down Penn State’s football program altogether in the hope of what, punishing more innocent people? Will Bunch and Buzz Bissinger separately wrote in the Daily News that the entire Penn State campus should be broken up — turn the campus into a bunch of little community schools (or maybe a nunnery or a parking lot).
The only media guy I know who has actually made a sane contribution to the debate about dealing with the problem of big time athletics running roughshod over their schools is Bob Ford of the Inquirer. Ford suggested the NCAA put a cap on the enormous revenue a school can reap from their athletic programs. But the NCAA is awash with money from big time collegiate sports so nothing will be done.
And that really makes me sick.
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
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