A very thoughtful post which I so appreciate. And now I am also thinking about the children who were trafficked by Maxwell and Epstein and then raped, countless times. And the rapists have never faced prosecution that I know of.
The 3rd question I answered that we need More content because of question 2. I want you to keep doing what you're doing as a Human Rights lawyer but also want you to tell us what you know on the other aspects of political decisions. I trust your words and trust is not easy to find these days.
I "like" all four answers to those questions but would like you to not use your knowledge for just your lessons learned as a lawyer to help Human rights causes. People like you are rare and it's incumbent on you to inform us less educated to see under the veil of politics.
So what option do we have if they won’t listen to common sense gun reforms and common sense demands regarding arming Israel? Protesting is ignored by corporate media and although most people as you pointed out want things to change they are ignored and our taxes are used to further arm Israel while the gun lobby fills the pockets of politicians. Maybe we need to demand the gun lobby not be allowed to interfere in politics and any politician receiving anything from them needs to be removed immediately. If corporations are individuals as the Supreme Court has stated then they need to face the consequences any individual would for enabling crimes. They are aiding and abetting mass genocide of children not only in Gaza but for decades here in the US as well
We need to follow Qasim’s example! Withhold our 2026 vote for all incumbents on our ballot who are voiceless in the face of these atrocities against any children.
Anyone who doesn’t vote to stop arms to Israel. Anyone not signing on to legislation for basic gun control like universal background checks. Anyone receiving money from gun manufacturers and the NRA. Anyone who believes that the 2nd Amendment gives all citizens the right to arm themselves with any gun in unlimited quantities. Those actions and beliefs endanger our children. Magazine limits and banning of assault weapon ownership by anyone except the military or law enforcement agencies.
I would rather remove(impeach) any politician that continues to fund genocide but as far as weapons are concerned, e have to have extensive background checks but we have to have access to weapons because as you can see with what is happening in Gaza we the people cannot risk putting our trust in any government because people without self protection are easy targets for authoritarians.
You don't address my concerns about gun violence against children in our own country.
Yes, men are violent. They seem to crave it. War is their tool to subjugate and kill women and children. Starving them in the process. I can't stop Putin or Netanyahu. Not with guns. But I can protest the lack of sensible gun controls in my country.
Enough is enough. Stop electing white men to Congress and the Senate. Vote for women and other minorities who are the victims of male violence in overwhelming numbers. Pregnant women die more often than women who are not pregnant. It is the number one cause of death in pregnant women.
I see your point. I can't agree that it's a reason not to ban assault weapons and magazines with more than 10 rounds. Or to require universal background checks.
I agree with universal background checks and I think that needs to go further. What I can’t agree with is the idea that we can protest our way into safety. A lunatic with an assault weapon will not be stopped with words. I wish we lived in a society that didn’t need guns and that children and teachers didn’t live in fear of dying at school. However, the weapons are already in the hands of psychos and the solution is not to take them away from the rest of us leaving us at the mercy of any “strongman” that can manipulate those dopes. Nor is the solution to arm teachers and place guards at every door further rewarding the manufacturers. The solution is to make every single dollar the gun manufacturers receive a difficult strain. The manufacturers are people too 😒 according the SCOTUS. They are what we need to reign in. If it isn’t profitable to sell AK-47’s then they will stop selling them. As with any company the only thing that matters is the bottom line. People need to bankrupt the manufacturers with lawsuits. We need to destroy the gun lobby. Our democracy shouldn’t be in the hands of lobbyists and billionaires. We pay the taxes that allow this administration to do what it does, billionaires and lobbyists only buy their single votes on legislation. If we want this to end we have the means to force the issue but the asking by protest isn’t going to work and it hasn’t done a thing but received the standard response of “thoughts and prayers” from those that happily cash the checks they receive from the gun lobby. It’s all about money and greed and if a few citizens die THEY DON’T CARE. We the people support the government and their salaries and lifestyles. Billionaires and lobbyists buy single votes. If our government doesn’t listen to its one and only customer, We the People, We need to stop funding it.
I hear that this concerns you greatly. My fear is that mass shootings of children gets even greater. I certainly don’t see A trillion guns won’t win a confrontation with the US Military with the drones, bombs and all the things used to prosecute wars. We owe our children the safety they need to grow up to be contributing members of society. Not dead or victims of mental trauma.
They are both valid concerns and hopefully a middle ground can be found my concern is that we can go easily from attempting to protect children in school to men, women and children being shot, starved and tortured with absolutely no hope or real help from anyone as is occurring in Gaza at this time. Those that are in charge cannot be trusted and we can’t hand over our only chance of self preservation. With all the greed and cruelty in this world women especially must understand that the only thing that protects us and our children from the violence is our ability to protect ourselves. Men are both the aggressors and victims of all this senselessness and as we have witnessed and studied throughout history women and children are the true innocent casualties of wars. Only when men stop each other from inflicting violence can we start to consider disarmament
I agree that with the SCOTUS ruling that corporations are people, we need a broad view to hold all large scale corporation/murderers accountable. For example, the big players in the fossil fuel industry (Exxon, BP, Sunoco and others) who predicted global heating decades ago, need to pull back, stop lying and curb their enthusiasm for making plastics and synthetic fabrics (all made from oil and gas). Have you noticed that it's really difficult to find any products in the supermarket that aren't in plastic jars or squeeze bottles? All the plastic trash and the microplastics we eat, drink and breathe are helping to destroy life around the planet. It's worthwhile searching for responsible companies and giving our all to responsible candidates for office.
Well said, Qasim. I wonder if these horrors are happening so often that we are becoming immune to reacting anymore? I'm feeling numb! Your column is such a help.
This is a both-sideism I can agree with. Children are still children the world over and whatever god you worship shouldn't be a consideration! The fact that at this very moment Tony Blair the deposed Labour Leader of 2 decades ago is now working hand in hand with the Israeli and American governments to divide up Palestine and allow some of it to be a "Riviera resort" for trump helped by his son-in-law Jared Kushner says it all. The only one missing in this "solution" is the legitimate leaders of Palestine. They are now using Colonial tactics. In 2025! I'm sorry about the children dying ALL OVER THE WORLD not just in America. Americans are their own worst enemy. They won't listen to the people about anything. The politicians and the war machines which are killing children in all countries don't seem to be on their radar. At all! This latest shooting in America will be talked about for a couple of weeks and then they'll move on until the next time it happens. Having guns in the hands of civilians does not make them safer! I've heard that the number of guns in America is over three to one. Has it saved you even once! NO! In the UK you cannot own a gun unless it's for your job. Even the police don't own guns. So therefore there are no school shooting, the police can go about their business of solving crime without being shot! If a situation needs an armed response the proper authorities listens and decides on it pretty quickly. Only a specially trained unit goes out there to stop that criminal. If the culprit dies by the hands of the police an intensive investigation is conducted to make sure it was a justified killing. America should have banned gun ownership over a hundred years ago. If they had people would all be living in the "safer" environment you claim you want.
Or people would be at the mercy of authoritarians and subject to torture, starvation and death at the hands of greedy sadistic monsters. Those monsters are what we should be focusing on removing from society not our ability to protect ourselves in this chaotic environment.
Something that stood out to me - Israel recently carried out yet another “double tap” strike, murdering five humanitarian aid workers and at least twenty civilians who had rushed to help.
Twenty civilians who should've been receiving aid from the workers, but didn't hesitate to try to help.
Guns, blundesbusses, were the thunder sticks that initially gave the New World's white settlers the edge over the indigenous first nations. Small pox and other ills swiftly followed to perform the continent's first genocide. The first white settlers, struggled to survive. Roanoke led by "gentlemen", staffed by some indentured servants, did not last long. The Pilgrims fared better. More ruthless? less gentlemanly? The Spanish in Central & South America never intended to settle, they came to loot and lost many ships to the violent storms and white pirates Settling the new continent with proper Christians, was a bloody business, that plagued the treasure fleets making their ways home at the height of hurricane season. Enough of the ships survived the Atlantic to rescue impoverished Royalty and to found the great fortunes that have sustained European elites to this day. While much preaching and prayer was expended in this conquest, the corruption of Christianity survived and crept like poisonous serpents underneath all that piety. Morals, Ethics? sacrificed to survival.
It is now a cliche to remark that the fleeing Europeans brought with them to the New World all their historical enmities, their preoccupation with capitalist profit, and all of it has filtered through, trickled down, metastasized through corruption to the monstrous end stage we have descended to.
Americans are NOT exceptional. Never less so since Trump & Co. have started systematic looting of our degraded democracy. Ben Franklin's mordant comment about establishing our Republic - "IF we can hold on to it!" has survived civil war, but it seems we will not survive the criminal corruption that now engulfs us.
And, as always, it is the helpless, the vulnerable, not the thieves, not the war mongers not the plutocrats, who will be victimized. At some point humanity's will to survive will be exhausted, extinguished. Only then will the plutocrats learn they are incapable of surviving on their own.
A very thoughtful post which I so appreciate. And now I am also thinking about the children who were trafficked by Maxwell and Epstein and then raped, countless times. And the rapists have never faced prosecution that I know of.
The 3rd question I answered that we need More content because of question 2. I want you to keep doing what you're doing as a Human Rights lawyer but also want you to tell us what you know on the other aspects of political decisions. I trust your words and trust is not easy to find these days.
Substack has become the platform for information that the commercial media are disinclined to report because of their ties to investors.
I "like" all four answers to those questions but would like you to not use your knowledge for just your lessons learned as a lawyer to help Human rights causes. People like you are rare and it's incumbent on you to inform us less educated to see under the veil of politics.
Excellent, excellent post. Thank you. That James Baldwin quote is so on point.
Bravo. All the world's children are ours.
Zionism is Nazism rebranded
So what option do we have if they won’t listen to common sense gun reforms and common sense demands regarding arming Israel? Protesting is ignored by corporate media and although most people as you pointed out want things to change they are ignored and our taxes are used to further arm Israel while the gun lobby fills the pockets of politicians. Maybe we need to demand the gun lobby not be allowed to interfere in politics and any politician receiving anything from them needs to be removed immediately. If corporations are individuals as the Supreme Court has stated then they need to face the consequences any individual would for enabling crimes. They are aiding and abetting mass genocide of children not only in Gaza but for decades here in the US as well
We need to follow Qasim’s example! Withhold our 2026 vote for all incumbents on our ballot who are voiceless in the face of these atrocities against any children.
Anyone who doesn’t vote to stop arms to Israel. Anyone not signing on to legislation for basic gun control like universal background checks. Anyone receiving money from gun manufacturers and the NRA. Anyone who believes that the 2nd Amendment gives all citizens the right to arm themselves with any gun in unlimited quantities. Those actions and beliefs endanger our children. Magazine limits and banning of assault weapon ownership by anyone except the military or law enforcement agencies.
Our vote and our protests are our power.
I would rather remove(impeach) any politician that continues to fund genocide but as far as weapons are concerned, e have to have extensive background checks but we have to have access to weapons because as you can see with what is happening in Gaza we the people cannot risk putting our trust in any government because people without self protection are easy targets for authoritarians.
You don't address my concerns about gun violence against children in our own country.
Yes, men are violent. They seem to crave it. War is their tool to subjugate and kill women and children. Starving them in the process. I can't stop Putin or Netanyahu. Not with guns. But I can protest the lack of sensible gun controls in my country.
Enough is enough. Stop electing white men to Congress and the Senate. Vote for women and other minorities who are the victims of male violence in overwhelming numbers. Pregnant women die more often than women who are not pregnant. It is the number one cause of death in pregnant women.
I see your point. I can't agree that it's a reason not to ban assault weapons and magazines with more than 10 rounds. Or to require universal background checks.
I agree with universal background checks and I think that needs to go further. What I can’t agree with is the idea that we can protest our way into safety. A lunatic with an assault weapon will not be stopped with words. I wish we lived in a society that didn’t need guns and that children and teachers didn’t live in fear of dying at school. However, the weapons are already in the hands of psychos and the solution is not to take them away from the rest of us leaving us at the mercy of any “strongman” that can manipulate those dopes. Nor is the solution to arm teachers and place guards at every door further rewarding the manufacturers. The solution is to make every single dollar the gun manufacturers receive a difficult strain. The manufacturers are people too 😒 according the SCOTUS. They are what we need to reign in. If it isn’t profitable to sell AK-47’s then they will stop selling them. As with any company the only thing that matters is the bottom line. People need to bankrupt the manufacturers with lawsuits. We need to destroy the gun lobby. Our democracy shouldn’t be in the hands of lobbyists and billionaires. We pay the taxes that allow this administration to do what it does, billionaires and lobbyists only buy their single votes on legislation. If we want this to end we have the means to force the issue but the asking by protest isn’t going to work and it hasn’t done a thing but received the standard response of “thoughts and prayers” from those that happily cash the checks they receive from the gun lobby. It’s all about money and greed and if a few citizens die THEY DON’T CARE. We the people support the government and their salaries and lifestyles. Billionaires and lobbyists buy single votes. If our government doesn’t listen to its one and only customer, We the People, We need to stop funding it.
I hear that this concerns you greatly. My fear is that mass shootings of children gets even greater. I certainly don’t see A trillion guns won’t win a confrontation with the US Military with the drones, bombs and all the things used to prosecute wars. We owe our children the safety they need to grow up to be contributing members of society. Not dead or victims of mental trauma.
I think these are both valid concerns.
They are both valid concerns and hopefully a middle ground can be found my concern is that we can go easily from attempting to protect children in school to men, women and children being shot, starved and tortured with absolutely no hope or real help from anyone as is occurring in Gaza at this time. Those that are in charge cannot be trusted and we can’t hand over our only chance of self preservation. With all the greed and cruelty in this world women especially must understand that the only thing that protects us and our children from the violence is our ability to protect ourselves. Men are both the aggressors and victims of all this senselessness and as we have witnessed and studied throughout history women and children are the true innocent casualties of wars. Only when men stop each other from inflicting violence can we start to consider disarmament
I agree that with the SCOTUS ruling that corporations are people, we need a broad view to hold all large scale corporation/murderers accountable. For example, the big players in the fossil fuel industry (Exxon, BP, Sunoco and others) who predicted global heating decades ago, need to pull back, stop lying and curb their enthusiasm for making plastics and synthetic fabrics (all made from oil and gas). Have you noticed that it's really difficult to find any products in the supermarket that aren't in plastic jars or squeeze bottles? All the plastic trash and the microplastics we eat, drink and breathe are helping to destroy life around the planet. It's worthwhile searching for responsible companies and giving our all to responsible candidates for office.
w
Well said, Qasim. I wonder if these horrors are happening so often that we are becoming immune to reacting anymore? I'm feeling numb! Your column is such a help.
I am reminded that the Right to Life movement is only a Right to Birth movement.
Mammals are supposed to TAKE CARE OF THEIR YOUNG. Humans are a failed species.
This is a both-sideism I can agree with. Children are still children the world over and whatever god you worship shouldn't be a consideration! The fact that at this very moment Tony Blair the deposed Labour Leader of 2 decades ago is now working hand in hand with the Israeli and American governments to divide up Palestine and allow some of it to be a "Riviera resort" for trump helped by his son-in-law Jared Kushner says it all. The only one missing in this "solution" is the legitimate leaders of Palestine. They are now using Colonial tactics. In 2025! I'm sorry about the children dying ALL OVER THE WORLD not just in America. Americans are their own worst enemy. They won't listen to the people about anything. The politicians and the war machines which are killing children in all countries don't seem to be on their radar. At all! This latest shooting in America will be talked about for a couple of weeks and then they'll move on until the next time it happens. Having guns in the hands of civilians does not make them safer! I've heard that the number of guns in America is over three to one. Has it saved you even once! NO! In the UK you cannot own a gun unless it's for your job. Even the police don't own guns. So therefore there are no school shooting, the police can go about their business of solving crime without being shot! If a situation needs an armed response the proper authorities listens and decides on it pretty quickly. Only a specially trained unit goes out there to stop that criminal. If the culprit dies by the hands of the police an intensive investigation is conducted to make sure it was a justified killing. America should have banned gun ownership over a hundred years ago. If they had people would all be living in the "safer" environment you claim you want.
Or people would be at the mercy of authoritarians and subject to torture, starvation and death at the hands of greedy sadistic monsters. Those monsters are what we should be focusing on removing from society not our ability to protect ourselves in this chaotic environment.
Can't you walk and chew gum at the same time then?
So stupid
Preach, Qasim!
Something that stood out to me - Israel recently carried out yet another “double tap” strike, murdering five humanitarian aid workers and at least twenty civilians who had rushed to help.
Twenty civilians who should've been receiving aid from the workers, but didn't hesitate to try to help.
Guns, blundesbusses, were the thunder sticks that initially gave the New World's white settlers the edge over the indigenous first nations. Small pox and other ills swiftly followed to perform the continent's first genocide. The first white settlers, struggled to survive. Roanoke led by "gentlemen", staffed by some indentured servants, did not last long. The Pilgrims fared better. More ruthless? less gentlemanly? The Spanish in Central & South America never intended to settle, they came to loot and lost many ships to the violent storms and white pirates Settling the new continent with proper Christians, was a bloody business, that plagued the treasure fleets making their ways home at the height of hurricane season. Enough of the ships survived the Atlantic to rescue impoverished Royalty and to found the great fortunes that have sustained European elites to this day. While much preaching and prayer was expended in this conquest, the corruption of Christianity survived and crept like poisonous serpents underneath all that piety. Morals, Ethics? sacrificed to survival.
It is now a cliche to remark that the fleeing Europeans brought with them to the New World all their historical enmities, their preoccupation with capitalist profit, and all of it has filtered through, trickled down, metastasized through corruption to the monstrous end stage we have descended to.
Americans are NOT exceptional. Never less so since Trump & Co. have started systematic looting of our degraded democracy. Ben Franklin's mordant comment about establishing our Republic - "IF we can hold on to it!" has survived civil war, but it seems we will not survive the criminal corruption that now engulfs us.
And, as always, it is the helpless, the vulnerable, not the thieves, not the war mongers not the plutocrats, who will be victimized. At some point humanity's will to survive will be exhausted, extinguished. Only then will the plutocrats learn they are incapable of surviving on their own.
So beautifully articulated! If we act on that, every common excuse for inaction is exposed in all of its ugliness.