Second Amendment Simplified

The Second Amendment reads: "A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be
infringed." I think it is telling about our country that this Amendment has sparked almost as much controversy as the First Amendment. I guess the Founders wanted to get the tricky ones out of the way upfront.

But the truth is, this one isn't that tricky, at least not for me. It's actually not that tricky for anyone, because no matter what position they take on this issue, there is little room for nuance.

Here's why my non-nuanced view is correct: an angry man with a gun. How stereotypical.

Some random guy stole guns from his mom and planned to drive into San Francisco to shoot up the ACLU and the Tides Foundation. The latter is in the same building as where my girlfriend works. There is no excuse for not promoting gun control. The well-regulated militia of the Second Amendment does not refer to any random gun buyer at a gun show, but only the army or the National Guard.

The key to the interpretation of the Second Amendment is "well regulated." Individuals with guns are not well regulated. The Army and the National Guard are at the very least better regulated than private individuals with private arsenals.

Militia can be a misleading term. The Montana Freemen, and the Darby militia considered themselves militiamen. But they were not regulated, and they were not protecting the security of a free state. They were not heroes. They were assholes.

There are forces in the media that promote hysteria/entertainment in the guise of news. They paint progressive foundations as linked to an inevitable downfall of the country, using trigger words (literally) to whip people into a frenzy. In troubled economic times, people love a scapegoat.

When you fuck up the prospects of rational discussion by whipping people into a "revolutionary" mood, that's bad enough. When you use language that could have put my girlfriend in harm's way, that's beyond the pale.

Before I get too worked up, I'll end with this link. It's time to take a step to close a loophole involving gun shows. Make it harder for people to get guns without legitimate reason.

Guns don't kill people? They can sure facilitate killing people, though.

A Dream Partially Met

Don't tell me there is no magic in the world.

We went to Santa Cruz a few weeks ago for our anniversary, and we stayed in a compact vacation cottage literally around the corner from the ocean: a small road led out to a promontory where three solid, narrow fingers of rock formed two mini-coves between two beaches.

Our first night there, we arrived at the cottage in time to witness the sunset turning the water to a metallic, pastel sheen, and frolicking within the cove were two sea otters, not fifty yards away from us. One of my goals each time I've been to Santa Cruz since my return to California has been to see another sea otter, as one of my fondest childhood memories is that of seeing a sea otter floating beneath the pier.

The sea otters we saw that evening we named Phil and Peggy, because that was just obvious.

The next night, there were five otters larking about, showing no fear of the humans in the nearby cove or on the bluff, because they clearly know the ocean is theirs, not ours. In addition to Phil and Peggy, we saw Prescott, Petunia, and Pontius.

We were thrilled to be so close to otters, even though they moved too quickly for a good picture. And that was when I saw the dolphin. It was just the dorsal fin and a bit of the back, but it was enough. The dolphin cut in and out of the coves for a short time before disappearing. He never came all the way out of the water, but I was struck by how big he was.

This was the first time I've ever seen a dolphin in the wild; as a kid, I saw the dolphins at Marine World, but this was something else. And it is the closest I have come to fulfilling my desire to see a whale in the wild again--stemming from the memory of seeing a pod off the Fort Ross coast when I was five or six.

Actually, dolphins and whales are related, so I guess that probably counts, huh?

It was an elegant, simple statement by nature that our world is so limited, despite the damage we do to the environment and the ocean. There is magic out there, the magic of seeing these animals in their natural environment, an environment that beckons us even as we need technology to negotiate it.

It was a sublime experience, in every sense of the word, and I was as happy as I can remember being at any time.