Your life, Their Profits

David Hogg, student, Stoneman Douglas High School. Credit: screen capture.*

So, you’re a high school teen.


When you go to class tomorrow will you be worried about living through the day?

Are you worried that some deranged person will show up with his assault rifle – or worse -  and mow down your friends… and you?

I’ll bet you’re worried. And, rightly so.

How much is your life worth to you, anyway?

It’s yours. Not your parent’s. Not your teacher’s.

Certainly, your life is not owned by someone profiting by selling ammo, body armor and AR-15s.

Don't let them profit by selling the means to take your life from you.**

It’s your life, your future. 

Fight for it. 

Isn’t it obvious? No one else will.

A few weeks prior to graduating from high school I was heading somewhere and about out of the door when my father stopped me. Dad said, "Your mother and I have never asked you to do anything, but we are asking you now. Don’t go with your friends to enlist in the Army. Wait until you finish college. Then, if you decide to do it… then O.K. it will be your choice. Don’t let them waste your life, Ron. A few years from now you’ll see. We’ll be friends with the “enemy” North Vietnamese and selling things to them. Someone will be making money and a lot of young people will be dead. Please, do this for your mom and for me."

A decorated combat veteran of World War II, my father, Forrest R. Baker received the Bronze Star and Purple Heart while serving in the U.S. Army. He enlisted following Pearl Harbor and graduating from High School in 1942. He was a staff sergeant in the 3rd Army, 80th Infantry Division, 317th Regiment, K Company and participated in continuous combat, through several of the most fierce battles of the war, from the Normandy beaches through the Battle of the Bulge and into Germany, where he was wounded.

Later, after college, my brother and I enlisted. Gary signed up with the Air Force and I joined the Army.

Mom and Dad loved us. They helped us have a chance at life.

So, today as then, many are profiting on your life. It’s time to stop that. Don’t you agree?

*Parkland Shooting Survivor Rips Into NRA’s Dana Loesch, Eliot Nelson, Huffington Post, 25 Feb 2018.

Florida school shooting survivor David Hogg sharply criticized the NRA Sunday for its continued opposition to stricter gun control and lambasted the organization’s spokeswoman for misrepresenting its agenda.

“Honestly, it’s disgusting. [The NRA acts] like they don’t own these politicians, but they do,” Hogg said during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week. “They’ve gotten gun legislation passed before in their favor, in favor of gun manufacturers.”

“The NRA is an organization that’s completely broken,” he added.

Hogg was responding to comments made earlier in the program by NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch, who contended that the NRA was working to make people safer.

Please go here for the whole story.

**Lines Out the Door and Strong Sales at Tampa Gun Show, Tiffany Hsufeb, New York Times, 25 Feb 2018.

TAMPA, Fla. — "The lines stretched out the door this weekend at a gun show in Tampa, Fla., as thousands of potential buyers and the merely curious waited for their turn to browse booths stocked with the latest firearms, ammunition, customizable holsters and patriotic paraphernalia."

"Inside, parents pushed their babies in strollers past T-shirts emblazoned with phrases like “I study triggernometry.” A nonprofit group in one booth was raffling off a rifle to raise money to battle child and animal abuse. On large signs by the entrance, the National Rifle Association was offering refunds on the $11 admission if shoppers signed up for a membership. Outside, Girl Scouts were selling cookies."

"But the deadly mass shooting a couple of hundred miles away at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School cast its shadow. Both buyers and sellers were talking about the attack, as well as about the divisive debate that it had recently reignited."

"And there, on many tables, were racks of AR-15s — variations of the hugely popular semiautomatic rifle used by the 19-year-old Parkland gunman."

"Several sellers said they were on track to double their normal sales for a weekend. “It’s sad to say, but whenever there’s a shooting, business only goes up because people are afraid of losing their right to own a certain weapon,” said Quaidman Woody, who was running a booth with his father, a sales representative for CrossHeirs. “So even if they don’t need another AR, they’ll buy another AR or pieces of it.”

Please go here for the rest of the story.

Michael Jackson - Heal The World - 1991 (Official Video - 2009)

michaeljacksonVEVO

Published on Oct 2, 2009

The "Heal The World" short film furthered Michael Jackson's goal of making art and music that would inspire worldwide peace, love and tolerance, by showcasing a diverse group of children united in their abilities to love unconditionally and their wishes for a brighter future.