Blowing Things Up?
I can imagine the rage that leads people to seek revenge in terrible ways. I occasionally have the impulse to blow up something in response to such horrors as the abuse of our students by the college loan crooks, a report on which I viewed last night. Needless to say I divert this simplistic attack mode to constructive alternatives such as writing this blog -- as a retired college teacher and parent I am all too aware of the vicious means used to pry monies out of some of our most vulnerable.
However, my thoughts moved on in another direction as I recollected the force of a blast that one has set off -- I was an assistant to a blaster in a construction job once upon a time -- and I am horrified at the thought of such brutal force being directed at persons. Then I realized that our guys at war are facing such things daily and no wonder their breakdowns on returning home to live with such memories.
The only good thing I can say about the the NRA is that it has redirected impulses to kill others or oneself to modest weapons relatively limited in effects (those mass killings that are halted after a dozen or less gun killings and woundings).
If such a person had had the training I had, the damage could be massive -- remember Timothy McVeigh!
But there should be something that we can do with the Sallie Mae and other loan sharks who are ripping off us and our students?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CollegeConversation
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeaceEfforts
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndingPoverty
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/440neighborhood
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StudentConcerns
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AcademicFreedom
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PrivacyRights
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Israel_Palestine
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FindingHumaneJobs
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OurStupidEconomy
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
However, my thoughts moved on in another direction as I recollected the force of a blast that one has set off -- I was an assistant to a blaster in a construction job once upon a time -- and I am horrified at the thought of such brutal force being directed at persons. Then I realized that our guys at war are facing such things daily and no wonder their breakdowns on returning home to live with such memories.
The only good thing I can say about the the NRA is that it has redirected impulses to kill others or oneself to modest weapons relatively limited in effects (those mass killings that are halted after a dozen or less gun killings and woundings).
If such a person had had the training I had, the damage could be massive -- remember Timothy McVeigh!
But there should be something that we can do with the Sallie Mae and other loan sharks who are ripping off us and our students?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CollegeConversation
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeaceEfforts
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndingPoverty
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/440neighborhood
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StudentConcerns
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AcademicFreedom
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PrivacyRights
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Israel_Palestine
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FindingHumaneJobs
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OurStupidEconomy
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
posted by Ed Kent at 11:31 AM
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