Another post, but I warn you, it’s not funny…

.. but I probably won’t be able to resist putting in a panda or two.

I woke up this morning, turned on my computer (even though I PROMISED I wouldn’t do that till after I’d done some work first), checked here and saw that more people than I could even imagine visited the Panda Chronicles in just one day.  Maybe it was some kind of computer malfunction, I thought.

Then, after I got done congratulating myself, I logged on to Fezbook and saw the news about the latest shooting in Aurora, Colorado.  What is going on here? How many times does this have to happen before more restrictive gun laws are put in place?

OK, OK, do I really have any business talking about gun laws on a cartoon panda blog?

It’s really not that simple.  I do think that weapons are too, too present in this country, particularly automatic-and semi-automatic weapons.  Do we really need to be armed to the teeth?  But even more than that, I start to wonder, have we fostered such an atmosphere of hate and disrespect that people growing up in our world think that if they have an impulse to go shoot a bunch of total strangers in a crowded movie theater, that they should give in to it?  If all you hear when you are growing up is nasty rhetoric on television by pundits and politicians at what point do you start thinking that it’s okay to hate everyone or maybe just people who are different than you?

As difficult as my 20’s and 30’s were, as a young artist trying to make her way in the world, financially, it had far less peril than a 24 year-old of today.  I got through 5 years of undergraduate studies, and 2 years of grad school, with less than $10,000 debt TOTAL for 7 years of schooling.  I could live on $500 a month, pay my rent and have time to paint, as well as a social life, and still pay back my loans.  The financial pressures on graduating students today are enormous.  If you top that off with the stress of not being able to find good paying work, a violent culture, and hatred and disrespect being spewed over the airwaves, is it any wonder that some people go off the rails, and try to take others with them?

I’ll be the first to admit that I do not dwell in the trenches.  In many ways I have retreated from the hub-bub of the current culture to frolic with the (cartoon) pandas.  I pose the question: If, instead of listening to certain television news shows, with their misinformation and meanness that they spew out night after night, what if we spent that same amount of time watching panda videos of adorable little pandas, following their keeper up a slide, eating bamboo and cuppycakes, or riding a rocking horsey? Would that feeling of peace and “awwww” affect the way we felt about our fellow humans?  I think we should try it.

We have everything to gain.

Be the (peaceful) Bear (well, except for the panda kindergarten and they are not armed)

Bob T. Panda

26 thoughts on “Another post, but I warn you, it’s not funny…

  1. Carole

    Love you, Bob T. Panda! Not only are you very wise, but you have a heart of gold (and this same message goes to Anne Belov, thank you very much).

    Reply
  2. Carole

    Love you, Bob T. Panda! Not only are you very wise, but you have a heart of gold (and this same message goes to Anne Belov, thank you very much).

    Reply
  3. Faith Wilder

    The cat is always right – a sane voice amidst the panda moanium…….how about we shave the fur off their appendages – then they’d be bare armed……
    I’m with Jimi Hendrix – “when the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will know peace”…..this needs to happen at the me level as much as the we.

    Reply
    1. Bob T Panda

      Right you (an the late Jimi) are. Maybe instead of torture by a thousand small cuts, we could have healing by a thousand small kindnesses. (And the pandas don’t REALLY want guns, they just like a good pun.)

      Reply
  4. Bob T Panda

    Right you (an the late Jimi) are. Maybe instead of torture by a thousand small cuts, we could have healing by a thousand small kindnesses. (And the pandas don’t REALLY want guns, they just like a good pun.)

    Reply
  5. AuntiJackie

    Watching panda videos definitely calms me and cheers me up when I am having a bad day. … and checking out the latest Panda Chronicles post always gives me a smile or two.. even when those naughty PK’ers are up to something.

    Reply
    1. Bob T Panda

      I’m so glad that The Panda Chronicles adds to the quality of your life. I am always amazed at how good watching a panda video makes me feel too. Should I be worried? Nah…. I love having found kindred spirits in the world of pandas.

      Reply
  6. Norma Cooper

    When the constitution was written, the way of life, and ways to take lives did not exsist as it does today. There are many fine amendments to the constitution, like equal rights for women etc. so why not at least consider amendments that protect our lives while protecting our rights. Wasn’t the Bear Arms one so the government did not havre 100% power over it’s citizens?? So they couldl protect itself from illegal actions by the government???
    I do not own guns, I do not have American citizenship (I am Canadian by birth but have lived, worked married and born Children in the United States for 55 years), and consider myself a part of it since I will live here until I die~but hope it is not by some nutcase who can do what he did in The mIddle of the Night.
    I married 3 American Citizens, gave birth to 2, stepmothered 9 more, and am the Grandmother of 4 other Americans…..you would think that alone would show I aught to have an automatic in. When I was younger I was having my kids, and the place I had to go from our Navy base to take action to become a citizen was quite far. My second marriage was quite busy raising 3 of my 5 teenage stepchildren-no time, my third was a WW II diabled Vet who adopted my young 2 children, then I nursed for 18 of our 25 years of our marraige due to heart and lung diseases. Now I am the sick one, but my Son is here to help me, and in the next few years my daughter will join us, when her girls have all left home. I am blessed with wonderful children and stepchildren (even the ones I went to high school with), and I cannot think of any of them ever committing an act like the ones we so often hear about simply because they want to be remembered. All of us can be remembered for good things we do, and if not how would we know, or would we even care. I think heaven is where we all go to get our own panda….and we all live in peace under the rainbow bridge.

    Reply

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