Sending two OpEd pieces for Monday and Tuesday. The intended audience are readers in Saipan. Sending it to this listserv, in case, anyone is interested. Monday on Guns is along our currently gun conversation. Sending articles separately. j'aime la vie Yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate. In all, Celebrate! GUNS TheSandy Hook incident in Newton, Connecticut had our President drop a tear andlowered the flags of the nation at half-mast. In a shooting rampage reportedly of one named Ryan Lanza, 27 people werekilled, 20 of them children. The schoolhas students from kindergarten to fourth grade. Twohundred twenty-one years ago, December 15, 1791, the United States Congresspassed the Bill of Rights. The Second Amendment is worded, "A well regulatedmilitia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of thepeople to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." The first comma is missing in the versionratified by the States. No matter, theright to bear arms is the intent of the amendment. During America's revolutionary period, there were many reasonsto protect one's right to bear arms. Wikipedia lists the following in no particular order: deterring tyrannical government, repelling invasion, suppressing insurrection, facilitatinga natural right of self-defense, participating in law enforcement, and enablingthe people to organize a militia system. The image of the Minuteman inLexington, MA is in every American's mental playground! Inmy social process scheme of the economic, political, and cultural dynamics, theimpetus for the legislation in the political was the desire to maintaindomestic tranquility. Case law has sinceevolved to define that right, and to this day, the right to bear arms remains aUS constitutional right fervently defended by the powerful Vienna, VA-basedNRA. Inlight of the recent assault on the American consciousness brought about by theSandy Hook incident, preceded by the Oregon Mall, Aurora Cinema, and theColumbine rampage, we must once again raise the issue of individual rights upbefore the mirror of social responsibility. Surely, the question of securing domestic tranquility has gone waybeyond the capabilities of hand guns and assault weapons, but in our culturalheritage is a deeply seated defense of the "gun culture", from PaulRevere's alert of the Red Coat's heading to Concord's armory, to our Texan'sever vigilant call to remember the Alamo. Acountry that spends half of its discretionary budget on defense spending is nottoo distant from a culture of mass destruction. Defense right (in the language of homeland security) is foisted as arationale to maintaining order, domestically and globally, in an unrulyuniverse, by the self-appointed police of the world. The metaphors of competition, conflict, and war remain as the primary image of our social discourse. Onthe personal level, one of our own Saipan residents, after his home and hisdiminutive wife was assaulted by an intruder, opined on the "draconian gunban" in the CNMI. He wrote in theST in 2010: "Gun ownership in theUnited States of America is a right, not a privilege. Owning a car is a privilege. Owning a cell phone is a privilege, Internetaccess... a privilege, having Cable TV... a privilege... Self-defense is a right!" Oursympathies are with the writer. We donote that any gun ban in American territory has been observed in the breachrather than the rule. My impression ofhow authorities handle handguns and assault weapons in their personalcapacities is not a favorable one. Thetraffic of guns in the Pacific reportedly occurs in the confluence of criminalelements under legal cover. Individualrights are always weighted in the context of social responsibility. The historical context to guns in America isdomestic tranquility, and that cannot be maintained and sustained by simplyallowing citizens the right to bear arms. In fact, the record holds the reverse. Believing that access to tools to inflict fatal solution on unwantedintrusions has only been exploited by the malcontents against the unwary, andthe innocents are known to suffer. Wethink of the British ban on guns, and the unarmed Bobby of London. The Yakuza, known to inflict muscle on thestrength of the bullet, has not been deterred by Japan's banning of thehandguns, a reason often used to returning the right to bear arms back toNippon's citizens. The throve ofJapanese tourists in shooting galleries in Saipan and all throughout thePacific (Waikiki hand bills shows bikini-clad girls holding riffles) shows anative fascination with guns in Japan since Commodore Perry alighted on itsshores. In2008, figures reveal that of the 12,000 homicide cases involving handguns inthe US, there were 11 in Japan. The UShas the loosest restriction in owning handguns in the world! Japan holds one of the strictest. There were two handgun-related homicidesreported last year. Whatis clear to me is to have a national and local conversation on the secondamendment, then move it into every family's dining table (Kilili's office mightwant to get some figures from CNMI's experience in aid of legislation). If guns remain as the toy of choice (becausethey are cheap as well as preferred) under the Christmas tree this season, thenwe further the culture of guns in a manner as casually as we hold motherhoodand apple pie. InChina's latest assault on schoolchildren, 22 were reported to have been slashedwith the knife. Just think if thedespairing culprit had a gun! j'aime la vie Yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate. In all, Celebrate!