Keep It On the DL

It seems I am not updating this blog as much as I did during the school year. I suppose it's because I have less intellectual fodder during the summer, and a lot less anonymity of that fodder since I interact with fewer people.
I mean, since this trip I took to Missouri was fairly well advertised... It's probably painfully obvious, to all the people who know me and read this blog, who the following people are. May I ask this kind of stay on the down-low? Overall it was a great trip.
I recently returned to Canada after a trip to the United States of America. Now, I attend school in the States, and living in the US for part of the year did give me a huge appreciation for my homeland and the real freedoms available there that I used to take for granted.
Like the idea of not having to pay 60$ for a flu shot. Like not being made fun of for my "Canadian accent", despite the fact my pronunciation of words matched American dictionaries's phonetic guide as well as the Canadian guides. But whatever.
My recent trip to Missouri led me to a whole new appreciation: the appreciation of racial toleration. Now, firstly, for those who haven't seen my profile here on Blogger, I am a white female. I didn't face any racism personally during my time in the States. That being said, I was certainly aware of the racism around me.
And I'm not saying that there are absolutely no racists in Canada (This also isn't Iran, I'm pretty sure we have gays too). But I've never seen it to the extent of here in Missouri. Nor have I ever really seen it. People might be thinking racist things about the black people on the streetcar in Toronto, but they wouldn't say it aloud.
In Missouri, I was walking in downtown St. Louis, from the Arch to a restaurant inside a casino, where my friend and I were meeting her dad, our ride home, for lunch.
A lady was walking a few feet ahead of us, and another lady (who was jogging to the waterfront for a proper run, I assumed) bumped into her lightly. The black jogger immediately apologised and then continued on her way. The white lady she'd run into said, and I quote, "Fucking jiggaboos, never paying any goddammned attention."
I didn't know what the hell a "jiggaboo" was, so I asked my American friend. She kindly informed me it was "a nicer way of saying nigger".
And I mean WOW! I knew since I was tiny you do not say the n-word. You just don't. You don't say kike, you don't use "Jew" as a synonym for cheap, and you sure as hell don't say nigger! If my mum caught me with that mouth, she'd beat me with a toaster. I was offended, and I'm not black or really very ethnic at all. I'm white. The extent of the racism I'll face in life will be the Americans at my school insulting my Canadianism and making fun of our Queen.
Now, my friend's family is the type where "crap" is considered a bad word. So, naturally, I was shocked when the dad, later that day, switched the radio station when some rap song came on and said, "You kids shouldn't listen to nigger-music; it just encourages them."
And this guy isn't some yokel with no teeth living in a van in Alabama; he's a college-educated guy who runs a landscaping firm and makes enough to send his two children private schools!
It's absurd to me, the fact that educated people don't understand it's poverty and desperation that makes people rob and steal, not a higher concentration of skin-pigment and a preferrence for rap songs about being awesome (I swear, the song he took offense to was entitled "I'm Awesome". Look that up, you'll piss yourself laughing.)
We were driving in their Jeep. The Jeep doesn't have doors. I ask my friend why there's a baseball bat under my seat. Neither she nor her brother play baseball, so I didn't know why it was there. "My dad calls that the nigger-beatin' stick."
To which I replied: "Why the hell does your dad run around beating black people with a bat?"
"Well," she amended, "the Jeep doesn't have doors so he thinks we'll get carjacked." And, OK, carjacking is a real threat in a big city, I guess. But calling your "method of prevention" a nigger-beating stick?
Another thing I didn't realise I really like about Canada: None of my friends's fathers carry multiple guns with them: one in their pocket, one in the car. Oh, and one in the bedside table, in case you get robbed. And don't forget the three shotguns in the basement.
I mean, what the hell? I'd like to point out the three shotguns were not for hunting, they just have them. For no reason. I mean, if maybe the mum and dad went hunting and took a kid with them, they'd kind of need three shotuns. But if you don't hunt, WHY THE HELL DO YOU NEED THREE SHOT GUNS?
Having a gun doesn't prevent you from being shot. If you have a gun in your hand, you are still vulnerable to high-velocity bullets, right? Just because you have a gun doesn't make you bulletproof. One can't really argue that fact. Being behind bulletproof glass technically makes you bulletproof; wearing Kelvar technically makes you bulletproof. Holding a gun in your hand or in your pocket does not offer these protections.
However, if you make it a lot harder for people to legally acquire handguns, then it will be a lot harder for bad people to get those guns. If they can't get guns, your chances of being shot drop dramatically.
I have never and probably never will understand the logic of "If they have a gun, I want a gun."
"They", criminals, shouldn't be able to buy guns at places like WalMart or the Guns N Liquor Store on Seventh St. It's as simple as that. They shouldn't have guns, and neither should you, you racist yokel. If you would like to shoot a black person just 'cause, then you shouldn't be allowed to buy a damne weapon. End of story.