Part II
...Now I'm angry.
Not pissed because I very rarely allow myself to get to that point but I was definitely beyond annoyed.
Next thing I know my father inlaw brings up freaking Barak Obama of all people!
First he talked about how military weapons shouldn't be available to citizens. I reply that pretty much any and all weapons that he can think of have been used by a military from AK47s and the 1911 pistols I carry to shotguns and even hunting rifles that Daniel Shays who he often tells tales of admiration toward used to hunt for food as well as defend himself against the British and Indians too. Next thign I know he tells me Obama is against guns in our community as well and that I should be too because I like Obama am a representation of how modern Black people can overcome and advance.
Mother fucker what?! So does that mean Black people who unlike Obama or I do not speak so well or do not by fortunate chance have physical ability to look less scary to white folk are themselves worthless and useless? What the hell are you saying?! My wife stood there looking like a total idiot along with her daddy. My half Black kids are behind me on the floor playing and I'm standing there feeling hurt and full on angry. I felt like grabbing them bitches up and leaving the spot right then and there. For the first time ever I felt uncomfortable in my father inlaws home. This is the same guy who had supported me during the early years of racist commentary from their supposed friends when I first met my wife and he choose to drop them and support his daughters choice toward a mate.
So we continue and I counter his assertions toward military weapons. I then ask him what exactly is it about what weapons that makes them inherently evil versus the ones that are to his mind okay. I already know he's not going to be able to answer this because he knows zero about guns other than they use a 'bullet' and go boom when you pull a 'trigger'. He replies that the "semi automatic" guns are very dangerous and should be banned. I reply with what are you talking about. Pretty much all firearms are semi-auto aside from revolvers and muzzle loaders. I smell blood and go in further stating that if a person were to actually do a minutes worth of research they would discover that semi-automatic is nothing more than a type of 'action' and that fully automatic weapons have long ago been banned from civilian ownership and that less than 10 instances of crimes have been committed with as much in the US since the days of prohibition. He quiets down and my wife is silent. I continue going back to Obama saying that just because he's Black and gave a nice sounding motivational speech at the DNC and he looks pretty on TV and Oprah likes him and he's endorsed as being a 'nice guy' is no reason for me or anyone to vote for him. I said I have zero against Obama but at the same time I have nothing and no reason to be for him as his platform and positions are largely an unknown. He says many words but they in the end have no meaning. He replies that he likes Obama to which I ask why? Tell me something about Obama's position that excites you and matches your own beliefs. He sputters and says he doesn't have all the facts at hand but he can send me an e-mail. To myself I'm like an e-mail? A damn e-mail! You just stood here to my face pimping this guy and now you can't off the top of your head from recollection tell me why you are behind him? Thats some bullshit!
A few more minutes went by and I decide okay this guy is a clown. My wife has crap as assumptive beliefs in regard to firearms and the people who own them. And now I am feeling extremely uncomfortable.
I go outside and tend to the grill for an unnecessary amount of time and then we ate. We talked no more of the subject matter and that was that.
As I packed up the kids to leave my father inlaw says he'll send me an e-mail with links to the stuff we talked about. I reply yeah that would be great although in my mind I'm like fuck you you pansy ass peacenik cocksucker. I didn't say a damn word to my wife for the rest of the night. I was that mad, and disappointed.
FFWD to last Wednesday my mother and father inlaw along with her daughter (my strep-sister inlaw) stopped by to sit the kids for an hour while we went out for dinner. When I got back as they were leaving my father inlaw says he sent me an e-mail before leaving with links toward the crap we had been discussing. My wife knowing I'm sore about this literally pushed him out the door. I said to him yeah I'll check them out.
The e-mail I got from him was the following...
With that today after having some follow on discussion with my wife about this gun thing I spent two hours writing her an e-mail. I used e-mail rather than verbal conversation because I could provide links to the specific info I had been stating to her prior, which she and her dad could just not believe. Like when I told them the US is not the highest in crime. They were like no way. I said yes way when you compare population density we are pretty low,,,which most anti-gun sites do not consider or factually present. I also had said that dogs are far more dangerous than guns for all people and children too. They were like no way...like I'd just stand there and make crap up because I have nothing better to do than make shit up.
Well I put it all in an e-mail and if there was any confusion on her part I was clear toward the whats and why of my positions toward firearms and carry.
With that the following is a link to an HTML version of that e-mail.
I couldn't post the whole thing here directly because it was some 37K charachters and the limit is 10K. I tried to parse it into multiple page postings but that was just too much damn work as well the message has many links built in that would just not carry over here in a post. So I exported the sent message to an HTML doc and have hosted it via my ancient Yahoo/Geocities service.
The subject as shown is how I sent it to her and I made just one edit swapping out her real name for the as usual moniker of 'Mrs. Janq'....
Oh and for the record I read every page of the Obama website and I walked away knowing the same amount about his position as I did to start which is nothing. As I told my father inlaw I cannot and will not endorse some guy to be my president just because he's personable and might be fun to have a cook out with. Hell didn't we learn that lesson with Bush?! I cannot in good conciensce endorse muchless support a candidate I know nearly zero about just because he's Black, speaks so well, and Oprah likes him even as I personally am a long time fan and admirer of Oprah.
- Janq
CN: I got into a heated discussion with a pair of text book ivory tower liberals, my father inlaw and wife, toward guns and Obama only to walk away feeling insulted and wondering will there ever be a time when a Black man such as myself can live amongst whites in specific and not be constantly reminded that I'm Black and thus different as though I could some how forget or not know.
...Now I'm angry.
Not pissed because I very rarely allow myself to get to that point but I was definitely beyond annoyed.
Next thing I know my father inlaw brings up freaking Barak Obama of all people!
First he talked about how military weapons shouldn't be available to citizens. I reply that pretty much any and all weapons that he can think of have been used by a military from AK47s and the 1911 pistols I carry to shotguns and even hunting rifles that Daniel Shays who he often tells tales of admiration toward used to hunt for food as well as defend himself against the British and Indians too. Next thign I know he tells me Obama is against guns in our community as well and that I should be too because I like Obama am a representation of how modern Black people can overcome and advance.
Mother fucker what?! So does that mean Black people who unlike Obama or I do not speak so well or do not by fortunate chance have physical ability to look less scary to white folk are themselves worthless and useless? What the hell are you saying?! My wife stood there looking like a total idiot along with her daddy. My half Black kids are behind me on the floor playing and I'm standing there feeling hurt and full on angry. I felt like grabbing them bitches up and leaving the spot right then and there. For the first time ever I felt uncomfortable in my father inlaws home. This is the same guy who had supported me during the early years of racist commentary from their supposed friends when I first met my wife and he choose to drop them and support his daughters choice toward a mate.
So we continue and I counter his assertions toward military weapons. I then ask him what exactly is it about what weapons that makes them inherently evil versus the ones that are to his mind okay. I already know he's not going to be able to answer this because he knows zero about guns other than they use a 'bullet' and go boom when you pull a 'trigger'. He replies that the "semi automatic" guns are very dangerous and should be banned. I reply with what are you talking about. Pretty much all firearms are semi-auto aside from revolvers and muzzle loaders. I smell blood and go in further stating that if a person were to actually do a minutes worth of research they would discover that semi-automatic is nothing more than a type of 'action' and that fully automatic weapons have long ago been banned from civilian ownership and that less than 10 instances of crimes have been committed with as much in the US since the days of prohibition. He quiets down and my wife is silent. I continue going back to Obama saying that just because he's Black and gave a nice sounding motivational speech at the DNC and he looks pretty on TV and Oprah likes him and he's endorsed as being a 'nice guy' is no reason for me or anyone to vote for him. I said I have zero against Obama but at the same time I have nothing and no reason to be for him as his platform and positions are largely an unknown. He says many words but they in the end have no meaning. He replies that he likes Obama to which I ask why? Tell me something about Obama's position that excites you and matches your own beliefs. He sputters and says he doesn't have all the facts at hand but he can send me an e-mail. To myself I'm like an e-mail? A damn e-mail! You just stood here to my face pimping this guy and now you can't off the top of your head from recollection tell me why you are behind him? Thats some bullshit!
A few more minutes went by and I decide okay this guy is a clown. My wife has crap as assumptive beliefs in regard to firearms and the people who own them. And now I am feeling extremely uncomfortable.
I go outside and tend to the grill for an unnecessary amount of time and then we ate. We talked no more of the subject matter and that was that.
As I packed up the kids to leave my father inlaw says he'll send me an e-mail with links to the stuff we talked about. I reply yeah that would be great although in my mind I'm like fuck you you pansy ass peacenik cocksucker. I didn't say a damn word to my wife for the rest of the night. I was that mad, and disappointed.
FFWD to last Wednesday my mother and father inlaw along with her daughter (my strep-sister inlaw) stopped by to sit the kids for an hour while we went out for dinner. When I got back as they were leaving my father inlaw says he sent me an e-mail before leaving with links toward the crap we had been discussing. My wife knowing I'm sore about this literally pushed him out the door. I said to him yeah I'll check them out.
The e-mail I got from him was the following...
So thats the setup of what happened.
With that today after having some follow on discussion with my wife about this gun thing I spent two hours writing her an e-mail. I used e-mail rather than verbal conversation because I could provide links to the specific info I had been stating to her prior, which she and her dad could just not believe. Like when I told them the US is not the highest in crime. They were like no way. I said yes way when you compare population density we are pretty low,,,which most anti-gun sites do not consider or factually present. I also had said that dogs are far more dangerous than guns for all people and children too. They were like no way...like I'd just stand there and make crap up because I have nothing better to do than make shit up.
Well I put it all in an e-mail and if there was any confusion on her part I was clear toward the whats and why of my positions toward firearms and carry.
With that the following is a link to an HTML version of that e-mail.
I couldn't post the whole thing here directly because it was some 37K charachters and the limit is 10K. I tried to parse it into multiple page postings but that was just too much damn work as well the message has many links built in that would just not carry over here in a post. So I exported the sent message to an HTML doc and have hosted it via my ancient Yahoo/Geocities service.
The subject as shown is how I sent it to her and I made just one edit swapping out her real name for the as usual moniker of 'Mrs. Janq'....
Next I will be drafting a similar but more toned down response to send to my father inlaw.
Oh and for the record I read every page of the Obama website and I walked away knowing the same amount about his position as I did to start which is nothing. As I told my father inlaw I cannot and will not endorse some guy to be my president just because he's personable and might be fun to have a cook out with. Hell didn't we learn that lesson with Bush?! I cannot in good conciensce endorse muchless support a candidate I know nearly zero about just because he's Black, speaks so well, and Oprah likes him even as I personally am a long time fan and admirer of Oprah.
- Janq
CN: I got into a heated discussion with a pair of text book ivory tower liberals, my father inlaw and wife, toward guns and Obama only to walk away feeling insulted and wondering will there ever be a time when a Black man such as myself can live amongst whites in specific and not be constantly reminded that I'm Black and thus different as though I could some how forget or not know.
