12-17-2015 To Karmen Concannon, Publisher Sentinel-Tribune

Today I read how the Sentinel-Tribune fired the Editor under pressure from the gun lobby. Below is a link to that article and to the editorial that did not get published.

Please write to Karmen and tell her to protect the freedoms of our country.

kconcannon@sentinel-tribune.com

Publisher Sentinel-Tribune

Karmen Concannon,

The name of your institution implies that you stand as a guardian of the rights and freedoms put forth in our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. Yours is the only private concern named specifically in the Bill of Rights because of its centrality to a free people. If you bow to threats of the gun lobby you are giving away not just your freedom but that of this country.

I am fortunate to live in a fairly liberal place, Marin County California. This Sunday when I and 200 to 300 others marched with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense In America, we were graced with a retreat of the mornings heavy rains. Other marches around the country were met with gun-rights intimidators, mostly heavily armed men, countering mostly women and children. 

This summer I rode my bicycle across our country and through your state. I know there are many differences between California and Ohio. I know there is much courage, a history of pride, especially in the civil war era, battles fought on your soil, that Ohioans are much proud. Now is one of those times in history, as a free people, in a free country, that will remain so only if good people and our institutions show courage and mimic the actions of our ancestors.

In light of recent attacks in this country by those that think guns are for fighting social issues, e.g. the Charleston and Colorado Springs shootings, most of the participants in these marches commemorating the 3rd year anniversary of Newtown, showed great courage. There are real threats implied by these armed thugs.

In this county, where freedom is cherished more than in any other, where ‘Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness’ were to prevail, we are now living  in fear. More fearfully than citizens in any other prosperous country. Truly these rights enshrined in our Declaration of Independence have been stolen by the rich and powerful institutions who are now profiting (who sell more guns and ammunition after each mass shooting) off the fear they are sowing. 

They are blocking common sense gun ownership rules and stealing our freedom. They are stealing our freedom, our civil liberties enshrined in our Bill of Rights. Their intimidating presence at demonstrations, healthcare facilities and houses of worship is proof that their intentions are not for promoting liberty but are for limiting the freedoms of normal civil life.

They are stealing our freedom by intimidating those who were chosen to protect our First Amendment rights. They are directly stealing our freedom of the press, as evidenced by the censorship of this editorial of conscious. The thugs will win if our press does not stand up. It is written.

Dan Monte

PLEASE COPY AND PASTE THESE LINKS INOT YOUR BROWSER 

"Editor Is Fired, but Not Silenced, Over the NRA”

http://www.creators.com/liberal/connie-schultz/editor-is-fired-but-not-silenced-over-the-nra.html

The unpublished editorial by Jan Larson McLaughlin

https://www.toledoblade.com/attachment/2015/12/16/LarsonMcLaughlinEditorial-pdf.pdf

12-15-2015 The People of the World United Cannot Be Defeated

The People of the World United Cannot Be Defeated

In 1945 the United Nations was formed after 30 years of war and reparations and more war. Now seventy years later that organization has come together to save civilization from the economic development that occurred in the aftermath of that peace. Our climate change crisis is not over by any measure but now all that is left for a true fix is for a democratic movement to arise on a global scale and force the governments to respond to the realities they admitted to last week. 

The message of Paris is that tens of thousands of people from all over the globe came together and defied the terrorists, defied the state of emergency, and demanded action. We are the first species to face extinction and have the capability to consciously alter that course. This agreement is as important if not more so than the one signed by 51 countries seven decades ago. We have over 190 countries but more important we have the people of those countries united against the institutions of power that have to this point refused to change. 

12-14-2015 We are all Parisians now.

We are all Parisians now. The world has come together, both in the face of institutionally based opposition and threats of terrorism. Our nations have struck an accord to address our Climate Crisis. Scientists are wringing their hands that there are no enforceable mandates to lower our carbon consumption. 

There resides the space left for us, democracy, to push for 2°C or 1.5°C, for “Bike To The Future”, for “Soil Not Oil”, for “Leave It In The Ground.” And yes for "Peace and Environmental Justice." Democracy, that same force that pushed our national leaders to an acknowledgement of responsibility and requirement for action, is not written into the accord but it is in the streets of Paris. 

Neither two degrees centigrade nor 1.5°C are sustainable. Right now we are at 1°C and we are in the midst of the 6th extinction, a massive global die off of species. Our glaciers are melting and the world populations are on the move because their homelands are uninhabitable. So in my view the value of Paris is that nations recognize that there are limits, responsibilities and requirements for action.