I've been struggling with gun violence in this country for many years. I've tried to understand the many perspectives of gun ownership from hunters and firing range enthusiasts to collectors and hoarders who fear for their lives. I'm still learning.
I'm not about to start a tirade on the issue here. This blog is about creative thinking and imagination and how I try to apply it in my life.
As a creative person, I have tried to think of fresh doorways into the discussion and common ground for all sides to start from. A sense of humor is lost on life and death issues, irony and satire can't function in a debate crammed full of hyperbole, and agreeing on the basic facts is impossible when there is so much misinformation and obfuscation that most people don't have a clue what the actual facts are.
As a political person who has been in elected office, run campaigns and knocked on doors to debate social and environmental issues for years, I know how to discuss contentious subjects with people. But this one has me baffled. There is an unbreachable gulf between them what's for and them what's agin. The only thing that sparks the debate is when people die - and even that isn't enough to create change, it just throws chaos back into the mix.
I pride myself on my ability to think outside the proverbial box but this box is so tightly sealed no one can see out. This means that thousands upon thousands more Americans will die before any action to change will ever be taken.
That in itself should unsettle the imagination of every American citizen.
I'm not about to start a tirade on the issue here. This blog is about creative thinking and imagination and how I try to apply it in my life.
As a creative person, I have tried to think of fresh doorways into the discussion and common ground for all sides to start from. A sense of humor is lost on life and death issues, irony and satire can't function in a debate crammed full of hyperbole, and agreeing on the basic facts is impossible when there is so much misinformation and obfuscation that most people don't have a clue what the actual facts are.
I pride myself on my ability to think outside the proverbial box but this box is so tightly sealed no one can see out. This means that thousands upon thousands more Americans will die before any action to change will ever be taken.
That in itself should unsettle the imagination of every American citizen.
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