An original acrylic painting on gessoed Masonite panel
8x10", unframed
$350.00, - (plus $12.00, pack and ship)
In many homes across America, remnants of our recent Christmas celebrations are
still in evidence, waiting to be discarded or put away again until next year. Items such as
the Christmas card and small, bisque, angel figurine in this painting, are still decorating
many fireplace mantels, quietly offering a final moment's opportunity for us to to reflect
on the true meaning of Christmas. But sadly, their messages of love and peace, always
seem to get lost somewhere amid the the many conflicts and stresses of our daily lives,
and on some days it seems that there is little hope that love and peace can exist in our
merciless, violent world, where even the most innocent among us often pay the price
for our senseless hubris.
(Click on image to enlarge.)
And now that I have opened the subject of one of the most contentious issues
facing congress, I might as well make my position clear, even though few will read or
care about what I write here.
Automatic and semi-automatic, military, assault rifles, with large ammunition clips,
are designed for one purpose --- to kill people in large numbers, as quickly and
efficiently as possible! That is why we want our soldiers to have such weapons, in
order to provide them with as much protection from enemy fire as we can give them.
These guns were not designed for the love of sport; hunters get along perfectly well
with hunting rifles, and target shooters have a choice of thousands of different weapons
which can be used for target practice. These assault rifles are collected by people who
desire to own the weapons with the greatest possible killing potential and lethal force.
They enjoy the macho image of being able to say "Look at the power I have! See what
I can do with this!", and describe the shooting as "Awesome!", or "Cool!", or other
proud adjectives. It is as senseless as buying an expensive sports car, with enough
horsepower to achieve speeds which are several times greater than the legal speed limits.
It's all about image, not necessity!
We have reached such a perverted sense of personal freedom in this country, that
when we write out our daily shopping lists, along with the butter, milk and eggs, we
may include a military assault rifle with enough loaded clips of ammunition to kill an
entire community, children included. That unlimited freedom is based on an amendment
to a document written over two centuries ago, when our guns were muzzle loaders.
We have all heard the arguments of the gun lobby and the opponents to the appeal
for sensible restrictions on civilian ownership of these weapons of mass killing. They
say that crazy people will always find some weapon to use in fatally attacking innocent
people. The answer to that blind lack of reason is, "Why do you insist on making it so
much easier for single, deranged individuals to commit these multiple horrors, on such
huge numbers of victims, during just one bloody assault?"
It is the gun manufacturers and gun dealers who reap the lucrative, monetary rewards
for this insanity. (No doubt, if it were legal to sell rocket-propelled grenades to the
general public, there would be some who would be willing to profit from the business,
and many eager customers willing to pay the price.) Unfortunately, it is much too often
the innocent civilians who pay the much higher price to these merchants of death.
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