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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (142090)	1/24/2002 10:28:09 AM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1579244

Tim, that's the most lame argument that the NRA uses. Because people are going to die any way, why bother to find the cure for cancer or any other disease for that matter. You don't understand the argument. Since you can't stop the guns, criminals will get guns anyway, but if you keep them out of the hands of law abiding citizens then they will be less able to defend themselves and more people will die. Not only because of the criminals that are stopped by the presense of a gun but by those who are considering criminal acts that are detered by the possibility of facing a gun. Sorry, I don't see this as being anything but paranoia. But you might want to think about why people see pro gun advocates as kooks. If you think there is a good reason for people to think that a group is all dangerous kooks and you know that some people actually do think this way, then why would you think that the press and network news would not be biased against these groups? I want to discuss why its so easy for you to believe that media people don't give pro gun advocates a fair shake but then you seem to be very willing to accept the premise of the Town Hall article which is that minorities typically get a fair deal now when minorities say over and over that things are better but not good. First let me say that any opinion about the outlook or thoughts of others in the next paragraph is mostly speculation. I don't claim to be able to read minds, nor to have some special insight in to how minorities think. Actually even the question "how do minorities think?" is stupid and could be considered insulting to them. They think in as many different ways as white people or any other large group of people and they shouldn't be lumped together as if they all think the same. Its my opinion that people should be treated as individuals not as a member or some racial or religious group. But you asked me to explain how they can say they are not getting a fair deal if I think they are. My view on "do minorities get a fair deal?" - Mostly they do. Legally they do and they face as much discrimination for them as against them. Why do they think they don't get a fair deal? Well some of them do think they get a fair deal. Others don't think so because they are told that all of the time by people or groups like Jesse Jackson, the NAACP, and the Democratic Party. Also even if they mostly face fair treatment many of them do remember being discriminated against more then once and it probably leaves a memory that causes them to be more likely to see discrimination even when they are not being discriminated against. Furthermore the removal of just about all official discrimination and most of the unofficial discrimination does not mean that overnight or even over the span of a generation or two that the results are equalized. Exceptional people of every racial or ethnic group can rise to the top (look at Colin Powell for example, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Secretary of State, and he could have had a shot at president if he went for it), but most people are not exceptional and a larger percentage of minorities come from a poor single parent families, and this is a major factor in minorities (particularly blacks and hispanics, asians overall do ok) having less wealth on the average. They know they have less wealth on the average, they might think "we are just as good as everyone else so it most be discrimination that causes us to have less." Another thing is that I am sure they face people who give them a fair deal but have some degree of prejudice in their hearts and minds. That prejudice can color words and actions, and minorities aren't a bunch of idiots they can pick up on it. If they feel it they are more likely to think the deal they are being offered is not fair. To the extent that such low level bigotry and occasional discrimination does exist I don't think the law is the best way to deal with it. Martin Luther King talked about "urgency of the moment", but he was fighting ubiquitous and legal/offical discrimination and prejudice. More subtle and unofficial discrimination seems to be fading away but if it does go it will take awhile and race conscious laws will only prolong it. Tim