America's firearm-free zones: Congress, Courthouses, Stadiums...

This morning's thoughts were about issues surrounding terrorism and firearm-free zones. One terrorism-related matter is the question of strangers in our midst. There are those who promote xenophobia; fear of strangers, as the answer to terrorism. But some terrorists (especially the xenophobia-promoting terrorists) are well known to their community or victims. Some terrorists have long suffered abuse and seek revenge; others may even be seen as heroes doing battle against those outside their faith.

The social vibrancy of cities is in no small part due to the number of people seeking to escape social traditions and try something different. Of course, traditionalists point to this as the root of moral decay, but this breaking from tradition may also contain the seeds of social progress (which fundamentalists may loathe). Cities are essentially places where strangers converge for commerce or myriad other reasons. Those from smaller, traditional places embrace the commerce, sporting, and some of the artistic exchanges, but are uneasy surrounded by strangers, those of different ethnicities, and those from different moral paradigms or religions.

Few in the United States question why Congress, Court Houses, and sports stadiums need to be firearm-free. Such are places where the heat of rhetoric or competition must be settled without the intervention of fatal force, and civilization relies upon acceptance of the outcome. Though there is a problem with post-sporting event riots, the advocates for one team rarely scour the town killing advocates for the opposition. The ground rule of no weapons in Congress, Court Houses, and sports stadiums is rarely questioned, and reliance upon armed security guards to enforce the measure is accepted without heated debate.

Beyond this core of civic temples, the possession of firearms and right to kill one another becomes a heated debate. The thought that I had - what if a neighborhood wanted to make itself a firearm-free zone, and even extend this policy to those charged with security? One notion is that the zone would have to be car-free as well, since drive-by shooting would be an easy way around the rule. If a zone were to be serious, it might also require airport / courthouse / stadium level inspection of those entering and leaving the zone; suitcases x-rayed; metal detectors? Unless the zone contained a hospital, it seems this would be difficult to enforce 24/7 unless entry points were limited and the zone large enough to fund a 24/7 checkpoint. But like Congress, court houses, and stadiums, it might be worth making some larger zones firearm free. Everyone has seen the science fiction images of cities under giant domes - this would not be to that level, but it's an interesting thought. Related clickbait: Top 10 Car-Free Places in the World

Ask not what your country should do

Americans have been taught to hate the word welfare. Even the phrase for the welfare of our nation would raise the hackles of those whose vocabulary is limited but have been taught this knee-jerk reaction. And these IRS instructions; shared responsibility also invokes allergic reaction from the Right Wing. Seems most US citizens now believe their only civic responsibility is to make money. Fewer than half bother to vote. Even national defense is no longer a shared responsibility but marketed as an opportunity for the impoverished (or contractors?). Trivia question: US troops are involved in combat in how many countries? Though President Donald Trump campaigned on a more isolationist foreign policy platform, he’s largely expanded or reinvigorated his predecessor’s conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, and Niger.

Kite-surfing, lessons 1 & 2

Imagine you have grown a new umbilical cord. Now imagine you're being dragged into the waves by your umbilical cord. That's lesson 2.

Learning to kite-board has been on my back burner for seven years or so - dating from my time in San Francisco. My first sighting of kite surfers was more than ten years ago along the coast just north of Santa Cruz. Later I moved to San Francisco, and witnessed a shift on the bay from sailboards to kite-boards. While sailboarding looked fun, my apartment didn't have room for that kind of equipment. After I got a decent, stable job, taking kite-surfing lessons in Alameda entered my summer to-do list. This wasn't the only to-do item waylaid by two years of dating across the Pacific.

Lesson 1 was fairly low-key - completely on the beach learning to set up and control the kite.

Lesson 2 I thought I was going to drown several times. Upwind body drag? As you might imagine, going downwind is easy. But upwind is an essential skill, unless you are willing to abandon a dropped board and drifting to shore. After awhile in the water you might realize you should have learned to go upwind to retrieve your board. So as I mentioned the umbilical cord, the kite is attached to a hook near your navel. Seriously. Near center of gravity. On a good day, you would be happy to have the kite pull you up out of the water and ski along the surface. You might even pop into the air. But you also might lose your board. Hence the upwind body drag.

The whole idea is to make your body into a plank, extend one arm forward so your plank becomes a keel, while your other arm controls the kite. Part of the trick is getting your body on its side while balancing the forces of the water pushing against you and the kite pulling you on an angle from your belly button. Add to this equation an instructor who is tethered to you and the kite as well, giving you advice as your head starts plowing into and under waves. Because if you're going into the wind, you're heading into the waves. Real-life, you're not actually going straight into the wind - just like a sail boat, there's an optimal angle. Your natural reaction is to try to swim, to keep your head above water. But the goal is to not swim, but use the force of the water on your outstretched hand, along with the lift of the kite to keep your head up. We did three rounds out into the water and back to the shore. The first round, on the way back we had drifted too close to some posts holding up a shark net, so the instructor had to take the kite while I swam back to shore. As you might imagine, I was exhausted. The second round, things fell into place, and somehow I pulled it off. We got back to shore not too far from where we had left it - not upwind, but definitely not much downwind (technically, the wind was at an angle to the shore, so maybe we really did land upwind). The third round, I thought I was going to drown again. The kite hook was pressing into my solar plexus and it was like the movie where the Aztecs thrust their hand into someone's chest and pull out their heart. All of that dragging in the water had loosened my harness. So we stopped and I tightened that up. Then I got a cramp in my leg. But then, I somehow managed to body drag back to shore in good form. In hindsight, we enter the water near a breakwater - things were not so complicated without waves. But add waves, even smallish ones, and there's the issue of your head going under them. I'm exaggerating. At no time was my head more than three inches below water. But water boarding is a real thing. The breakwater and waves are the reason my third round ended on a good note - returning to shore is traveling with the waves, rather than against them. We also practiced figure-eights - the power stroke used to pull you up on your board. But we didn't have a board yet. Having the kite pull you up out of the water is fun; a huge contrast to having it drag your head into waves. But that takes you downwind; not upwind. Next lesson... the board!

Note: I posted on social media, after Lesson 2 I felt like I had dislocated my liver. The leg that had cramped was sore, probably from trying to swim and rotate my body against the force of the kite. Parts of my spine not normally sore were. Two days later I was still re-stretching the odd inner-calf muscle that had cramped, and my other leg also needed exercise to get back to normal. But my liver was feeling back in place, and I was feeling like a survivor, ready for Lesson 3 !