CELEBRATING AN AMERICAN TRADITION!

CELEBRATING AN AMERICAN TRADITION!

(Green Bay Press Gazette/Frazer Chronicle)

People celebrate all sorts of rituals or traditions, family, city, county, state and federal stuff, we seem to be celebrating something almost every week or so, especially during the summer months. I'm just as gullible as the next guy; I love a good festival, or a good old fashioned "ho-down."

Here in Wisconsin you have your church picnic, township regalia, and all sorts of county organizational get-togethers, ball games, both soft and hard, and just plain old parties that celebrate living or life. The food is great, the entertainment first class, and the beer, well, here in Wisconsin, we sure like our beer.

Family oriented celebrations here in the badger state are, well, actually events, some call them "bust-ups," others just good old parties. Whatever they are called, no matter the time of year, it is obvious that they are an important to the fabric of family.

Sons follow fathers many times in their life's job selections, daughters do likewise, and it just seems to be an excepted path for young people to follow. The importance of family is driven home, "unintentionally" pretty much on a daily basis.

Out in the "heartland" the dominate profession is farming, dairy herds dot the countryside, huge barns filled with hay, silos jut out of the ground like rockets ships, all full of silage. Cows "mosey" the hill-sides, grazing on the green grasses of summer.

And the cheese that is produced here, well let me tell you friend, it is impossible not to like Wisconsin cheese and be a resident of this state. I don't care what they say about California "replacing Wisconsin as the dairy state," it's just not true, no way; Wisconsin will always be the dairy capital of the United States, and "our" cheese 2nd to none.

Water sports, fishing and picnicking and the Brewers in the summer, hunting and the Packers in the fall, and winter sports and celebrations during the frigid winter season makes Wisconsin a "people's" paradise.....and it's true. Wisconsin has everything that a heart could desire.....and more, so many things to do see and enjoy, Wisconsinites are truly blessed.

There is, to me, at least one "chink' in the armor of Wisconsin's idyllic existence in America's heartland, in the "bread-basket" of the nation. I'm sure there are other points of dissension that we could discuss, but sense this is my blog and I get to choice the subject and be the dominate opinion-maker.....we'll take a look at an issue from my prospective.

GUNS, GUNS EVERYWHERE:

In amongst all the family parties, picnics, camping trips, and ball games, after the last brat has been washed down with a good old Miller, or Budweiser, we come to the "bone of my contention," gun crazy! It seems that almost everybody in Wisconsin owns a gun or pistol, in many cases.....both.

Firearms are meant for two things, and two things only, either to kill, or to protect, there is absolutely no other reason to be in possession of this made-made instrument of destruction. Owning a gun doesn't mean that you are protected from robbers or thieves, and in many cases, owning a gun is not a deterrent to whatever violence is impending, I don't know about you, but I think it would be unsettling to me to point a gun at another human being, no matter what is happening.

I don't own a gun, I did, years ago, but got hard up for money and sold the damn thing, it was my fathers, he kept it by his bed.....for emergencies, I always felt it kind of ironic, I mean my dad, all 5'-5" of him confronting a thug in the night with his weapon, hell, I'm not sure it was even loaded.

My dad used to rabbit hunt, way back in the early 1950's, we owned 6 acres, and after a snow, he'd grab his rifle and track rabbits.....I don't remember him ever getting one. It's probably a good thing; my mother would never have fixed "his kill."

Yesterday in the Green Bay Press Gazette, on the front page was a picture of a 10 year old kid shooting a .22 rifle with the headline, YOUNG GUNS. A kid, as young as 10 can legally go into the woods, "with adult" supervision and hunt wild game, wow, the idea kind of "took me a-back."

In a kind of "bi-line" it was stated that it was "up to parents to decide when kids are ready." How about never, why does a kid of 10, still wet behind his ears, and in his jeans need to know how to handle a loaded gun, or worse, go tromping through the woods looking for something to shoot at.

I don't get it, and I can't figure it out, are these dads so hard up to be excepted in their child's lives that they stoop to allowing them to learn how to use a thing that can kill, put a hole right through a body and obliterate it, wow.

If I want fresh meat, I go to the meat market, less muss, no fuss, and it's safer, I don't have to use the "duck and dodge" method of walking in the woods in my effort to put meat on the dinner table. I understand the idea of hunting for fresh meat, deer, rabbit and whatever else might be legal to shoot, but a 14 year old kid in the woods alone, with a loaded gun, looking for a deer, give me a break.

Many gun advocates say that we need to "change" our gun laws, that they are to strict, and if guns are outlawed; only the outlaws will have guns. It all makes for great press, but that attitude has never did much for me, I always figured that if I was confronted with a gun toting crazy, even if I had a gun, I'd still be in the deepest kind of crap, I have never shot at anything.

So what do we do? I'm sure taking guns out of the hands of your average citizen will never happen, at least not in my lifetime. So we make the laws governing firearms as strong as possible, and we sure as hell keep guns out of some "butch hair-cut little 10 year old Marine Corp. wanna be."

There is no reason in today's world, here in the United States for a 10 year old kid to be running around the woods with adult supervision looking for little "Bambi" to shoot at. Likewise, there is no reason for a 14 year old to be completely legal hunting in the woods alone. Why any parent would put that much pressure on their kid is beyond me.

In the final analysis, no matter your opinion, one thing is certain and clear, firearms (help) to promote violence. Not all American traditions are P.G. and family oriented and need to be celebrated.