It's common enough in our political culture. It's not entirely illegitimate, but it can sometimes be unfair and annoying.
Why do we not do something about Y when we do something about X?
Why are we worried about X when Y is a much greater problem?
And all sides of the political debate indulge in it.
Why are we letting refugees in when we don't take care of our homeless vets?
Why does Felicity Huffman serve 14 days for a $15,000 bribe to falsify her daughter's SAT to get her to the right college, and Tanya McDowell, a homeless person, is serving five years for using a babysitter's address to enroll her son into a good public school? (Hints: money and skin hue).
Why can't we be unified like we were on 9/12/2001? Wasn't that wonderful?
And the newest one, perpetrated by MY side of the aisle -
Why are we coming down so hard on vaping while we do nothing about gun control?
Yeah! Why?
I don't know. Maybe the flavored e-cigarette lobby is a lot weaker than the NRA.
Look, anybody who reads my stuff knows how I feel about common-sense gun control. I can never run for political office where I live because that one position alone would eliminate any chance I have of ever being a legitimate contender. So don't question my commitment to background checks, ban on assault weapons, bump stocks, magazine/clip capacity, and other basic reforms.
But VAPING? Really? That's how we're going to play this.
Vaping may not appear to be the threat that guns are. It doesn't kill you, instantaneously. But it can kill you over time. And it can endanger the lives of people around you.
Vaping is not good, and I'm glad they are taking steps to ban e-flavored e-cigarettes, who are primarily marketed to CHILDREN.
We sell a lot of stupid things to adults. Alcohol, tobacco products, and opiates are pretty damn bad. Marijuana is not as charming as some would have you believe. Should they be marketed and sold to adults? I don't know. I do think they should be regulated and controlled, even if not illegal. But I know one thing for sure - THEY SHOULD NOT BE MARKETED TO CHILDREN!
I'm sorry if I seem intense on vaping. But it's important to me that the damaging effect it has on our populace in general and our youth in particular not be trivialized.
And, yes, the vaping stuff has become intensely personal to me. I cannot explain in detail but suffice to say someone I love finds themselves in close proximity to a vaper, and that vaper ignores my loved one's pleas not to be exposed, and if they could just restrain vaping in their vicinity...AND THE VAPER REFUSES TO DO IT. The vaper is not courteous enough to restrain themselves and could care less that my loved one has asthma and extra-sensitive to the befouling that the vaper is causing.
Ever since this issue has come up, Alison and I have seen nothing but one story after another about how bad vaping is. I am not conceited. I don't think the world revolves around me. But it has been an amazing coincidence, this sudden deluge of vaping stories.
So please, yeah, by all means, let's stand four-square for common-sense gun control. But, please, stop dragging vaping comparisons into it.
There is no connection between homeless vets and refugees. Conservative politicians don't need an excuse to not support homeless vets - it's not a budgetary issue, they just don't want to invest in helping them.
There IS a tremendous disparity in sentencing - some of it is apples and oranges, but a lot of it is the rich get better lawyers. And skin hue - institutional racism is real and dominant.
9/12 was not nirvana compared to 9/11. I was scared and worried, and Cheney and crew were plotting disaster capitalism scenarios to take advantage of it. Blind prejudice and hatred of Muslims was just ramping up, liberties were starting to be stripped, and 9/11 responders would have to fight for their environmental ailments to be covered every day from then until now.
I understand. We can't help but appling the orange, and sometimes it even makes sense. But we need to be cautious. WE need to let some problems stand on their own.
Sorry. Trivializing vaping is just something I cannot abide right now.
Well stated!
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