<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(34,34,34);background-color:white">Dear Visionaries:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#222222;background:white"><br></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in">
<span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(34,34,34);background-color:white">My thanks to Ron Force for correcting a few things about Swiss gun ownership with a reference to the article in the Journal of Public Health Policy (2/12). Only 25 percent of Swiss homes--not "nearly all" as I incorrectly claimed--have a military rifle standing in the corner.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(34,34,34);background-color:white"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in">
<span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(34,34,34);background-color:white">After reading this my daughter called me and said that she was glad that I did not become a hermit.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(34,34,34);background-color:white"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in">
<span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(34,34,34);background-color:white">Yours for balancing the Yin and the Yang,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in">
<span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(34,34,34);background-color:white"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:rgb(34,34,34);background-color:white">Nick</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#222222;background:white"><br></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in">
<b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#222222;background:white">Part 2: The Final Straw:
Tofu and the Land of Hindu Effeminates</span></b><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif""></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif""><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"">About 30 years ago I lost my
taste for beef, and then pork, chicken, and finally turkey as I slid into male
oblivion. Preferring tofu to meat means,
according to Bushmaster, instant disqualification as a man, even though it is
some of the healthiest protein known to humankind. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif""><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"">Securing my fate even more, I
went on sabbatical to India. According to the British, Indian males—except for
the Sikhs and the Gurkas in Nepal—are the most effeminate in the world. I guess Bushmaster would have called them
“cupcakes.” </span><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif;font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;text-indent:0.5in">Perhaps the macho men of the
world have not heard about the Hindu Goddess and her great powers.</span><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif;font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;text-indent:0.5in"> </span><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif;font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;text-indent:0.5in">I would bet on her in any contest with the
Jehovah of the Old Testament.</span><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif;font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;text-indent:0.5in"> </span><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif;font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;text-indent:0.5in">She
instills holy terror in the hearts of all male gods. Every drop of blood that
is spilled in battles with her turns into yet another fierce female warrior.
She is impossible to defeat, so forget your 100-round magazines.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif""><br></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in">
<b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"">Lederhosen,
Kilts, Barbies, and Mounties</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif""><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"">The NRA points to Switzerland
and Finland, which have are third and fourth in the world for gun ownership. In 2007 for every 100 Swiss 46 owned a gun;
the Finns had 45; but Americans were highest with 89 per 100 residents. Why is the gun death rate so low for the
Swiss (3.84) and the Finns (3.64), but so high for Americans (10.2)? Only eight
countries in the world—mostly violent Latin American nations and Swaziland—have
higher gun death rates than the U.S. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif""><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"">Maybe it is the effeminate
lederhosen and the family saunas that prevent the Swiss and the Finns from
killing each other more frequently. The Aussie’s low gun death rate (1.25) is
no doubt due to feminizing everything from “waste tidies” to “barbies.” A real
man would bellow “garbage can” and “grillin’.”
There have been no mass killings in Australia since strict gun laws were
passed in 1996. </span><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif;font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;text-indent:0.5in">Does having “Mounties” to
enforce the law lead to the lower gun death rates in Canada (1.25)?</span><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif;font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;text-indent:0.5in"> </span><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif;font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;text-indent:0.5in">Scotland, however, has an amazingly low .25,
so it must those kilts with no underpants.</span><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif;font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;text-indent:0.5in">
</span><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif;font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;text-indent:0.5in">No doubt a </span><i style="font-family:Georgia,serif;font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;text-indent:0.5in">Braveheart</i><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif;font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;text-indent:0.5in"> mooning
is much more humiliating than brandishing an AR-15.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif""><br></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in">
<b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"">Balance
the Yin with the Yang for Less Bang</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif""><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"">Pastor Anthony Robinson has
taken issue with the NRA’s slogan: </span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif"> “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a
gun is a good guy with a gun.” Robinson reminds Christian Americans of the
doctrine of original sin—that all of us are basically bad people and that we
are good only by the grace of God. So Robinson
believes that we should put weapons only in the hands of well trained and
mentally healthy (=grace-filled?) professionals.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">Robinson’s “everyone is a
sinner” is no better a solution than the NRA’s “good guys vs. bad guys,” or the
equally Manichean diagnosis of one evangelical pastor about mass killings: “The
Devil did it.” Far too many Christians fall into the heresy of giving that much
power to Satan. Martin Luther was right
to preach that Satan and every evil person act only with divine
permission. Just read the Book of Job.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">Even though they have not
necessarily practiced their own philosophy, the Chinese have a much better
theory about where evil comes from.
Nothing is either inherently good or evil, but the latter is due to a
lack of balance. This is the key to
Chinese medicine, most notably acupuncture, a therapy now gaining credibility
among Western doctors.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">In Chinese philosophy Yin
is a symbol for the female, the soft, the passive, the dark, and the empty, whereas
Yang stands for the male, the hard, the aggressive, the light, and the full. They are neither good nor evil, but social
peace and cosmic harmony come about as a balance between the two. Persons of virtue live in the Golden Mean
between Yin and Yang, but those of vice fall to the extremes. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Georgia,serif">Many Chinese sages have
been mountain hermits who eat berries and roots, and eschew the “five grains”
and pork of city slickers. The sage is unarmed and his inner peace tames bears
and tigers.</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif""> He also prefers crooked mountains paths to the straight
streets of towns. The sage balances the
Yin and the Yang perfectly.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif""><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"">North and South American
culture is the most Yang of any in the world. Mass killers are not evil
(certainly not Satan’s agents), but some of them are terribly unbalanced. I agree with the NRA that violent movies/TV
and video games are symptoms of a society that has not nurtured its
people—especially its young men—properly.
Dysfunctional families, especially those with absent fathers, have given
us a generation of far too many disaffected and alienated youth.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif""><br></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in">
<b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"">The
Gun-Crazed Hermit of the Applegate</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif""><br></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"">In June of 1962 I graduated
fourth in my high school class of 442, and I had earned two scholarships to
attend Oregon State University. But I
was a loner, had few friends, and showed my disgust with modern society at
every turn. At the end of the summer I told my dad that I was going to take my
guns and build a hermit’s cabin on the Applegate River. When my dad asked me how I was going to make
a living, I said that I was going to pan for gold. My father, brother, and I once had a very
good day on the Applegate with our home-made sluice boxes.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif""><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"">My dad was never forceful or
authoritarian (quite the opposite), but he was still able to convince me that
this was a crazy idea. Was this smart
kid just several steps away from becoming a Ted Kaczynski? Good parents and their basic moral education
saved me. In the worst case scenario, at
least many lives would have been saved by my very poor aim.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif""><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"">P. S. After reading this my daughter called me and
said that she was really glad that I did not become a hermit.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif""><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left;text-indent:0.5in">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Georgia","serif"">Nick Gier did get his degree at
Oregon State and taught philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years.</span></p>
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