An Open Letter to the NRA

Dear National Rifle Association.

I am sure that your leadership is viewing the events at Sandy Hook this past weekend the same way the rest of the country is, tragic, horrific, needless and sad.  Many of your membership are educators and countless members parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts of school children.  I am sure you will mourn with the families of the victims as they are laid to rest this week.  Then I imagine you will go on the defensive as you prepare for a governmental and public outcry to restrict your second amendment rights.

I write you today to discourage the last action.  Now let me explain that I am neither a gun or anti gun zealot.  I am only zealous for a few things,  like Homeschooling, The Chicago White Sox and Sterzing's Potato Chips and not zealous enough in others like personal holiness.  That is to say I usually don't have a horse in the race which is gun rights.

However, since I do have a wife who is a school psychologist who sees caring for the children in her school as one of her callings for God much like the School Psychologist killed at Sandy Hook and since I have a first grader who loves to draw and encourage people like at least one of the 20 first graders shot multiple times at Sandy Hook and since I myself would do anything in my power to protect and shield children from danger like the heroic educators living and dead at Sandy Hook, I am putting a horse in this particular race.

It is important and fundamental that the N.R.A. be at the helm of protecting  not only your right to bear arms but also the safety and well being of the citizenry that you bear arms for.  Last year I attended one of your young hunters traiining classes with my son.  He was trained in orienteering, archery and other hunting skills.  He was also taught gun safety and the idea that guns, bullets, bows and arrows are tools to be used properly.

That educational wing of yor advocacy group not the legal wing need to be in the forefront in the weeks and months to come after this national tragedy which  hopefully is  not just another domino in the gun related tragedies of recent memory. 

And when it comes to the legal wing, surely some concessions can be made for the saftety of all.  If the N.R.A became known as a force for regulating gun use along side advocating the safe use of guns for recreation, by,   provision for and protection of our loved ones this would go a long way into strenghting your image in the 21st century.  The time for carrying a big stick will come, now is the time for walking softly.

Love,'

Dave

Puppy Upper

Puppy blew up this giant balloon all by herself.

Bill Nye, Creationism is Highly Appropriate for our Children

This is a video response of the last post. Spider Droid and I are still planning our own video response.

A Puppyism is Born

As I said in my last post, we had a recent addition in our family of a niece/cousin. So not surprisingly the kids had babies on their minds tonight as we were driving home from dinner/shopping. We were talking about how all our kids were born by C-section. Amy explained a little about why that was and puppy from the back asked when I was born I had an ear infection? As we all laughed, I remembered that we had studied both Julius and Augustus Caesar in our Mystery of History
curriculum last year.   So I asked the kids if they knew what the C in C-section stands for.   None of them did, so I said it stands for Caesar.  After a little while Puppy said so I must be part Roman.

I thought this quintessential Puppyism appropriate for my 700th post here at HSD.  I am sure there will be more posts and puppyisms to come.

Big Niece Little Niece

I have been an uncle for almost 20 years now.  My first niece was born in 1993 when I was living in Russia.  I didn't meet her until she was 15 months old.  My first nephew was born in 1995.  From 1997 to 2008 my sister and my sisters in law  added 2 more nephews and 4 more nieces to my  collection.  Making me the OctoUncle.  In February 2010, my wife's side of the family cried Uncle, when my wife's sister had her first child, a son.

My sister's 4 children including her oldest, all live near Washington D.C., while the rest of  my nieces and nephews live in the same Midwest state as we do.  This means that I am both a long distance and short distance uncle.  Last year my oldest niece started attending college a few hour away from where we live.  This means we  have seen a bit more of her in the past few years than we usually do.

In fact she was at Thanksgiving on Thursday at my folks  with the rest of her cousins, uncles and aunts.  Today she took a break from her studies and went swimming with me and  kids.  Our kids really like her and she is gracious enough to treat them as equals even though she is now much more adult than kid.

After swimming, Bunnygirl and I traveled to the hospital to visit another niece.  She wasn't sick, just extremely young.  She's also not naive, but she was born yesterday.  My wife spent Black Friday at the hospital helping her sister give birth to a beautiful girl.

When Bunny girl and I got to the hospital, I realized I had not been in the newborn department of that particular hospital since Bunnygirl was born 13 years ago.  The hospital rooms had not changed much.  My BIL and SIL were watching a rerun of Law and Order when we walked in.  I remember Amy and I watching Law and Order reruns there when Bunny girl was an infant.

One thing that had changed is that Bunny, who years ago, looked similar to my newest niece pictured below

.  now does not resemble her new cousin in the slightest.  But she does love her as do we all.