I do not have a gun... I am not a murderer

My usual Monday post Parlay View Parsnip... about what is going on around my home is being interrupted for what I have been thinking about since last week.
No fun post today with photos of Scotties or Javelinas.

Instead this post is about a blog I follow had posted some photos about artworks she had admired at an Open House show that seems to be held all over England and Scotland this time of year.

I am not writing about her blog...
a blog I really look forward to reading
or her right to post anything she wants to her blog
but about several pieces of artwork posted on her blog and how they affected me.

As I looked at the photos I was surprised to see several pieces that only attacked Americans. The potter Andrew Adair had used photos of repeating guns and words about the gun violence and death in America with what I thought were coying poems about guns and the fact your will never come of age, American Roulette.

When I commented about why was only America mentioned in his work, the answer was I didn't even see the American name I saw it as anti gun and like the design.

The only problem with that comment was America was the only country named .
So that means to me that the news in the UK is so slandered that the word
America now = guns or violence,
much like the parring of
salt and pepper
tea and crumpets
cake and ice cream
You can't think of one with out the other.

Another blogger from the UK also mentioned before about how all they all think of America is guns, anger and violence.
I agree there is way to much anger and violence in America right now but it seem to be everywhere in the world not just in America. And if this is the way sensational news is portraying us that is wrong.
I read the news and don't think...
The French are cowards.
Italians are mafia
Ireland everyone has a bomb
and all people in the UK are beer guzzling , steel toed boot wearing soccer brutish hooligans who can and will beat the hell out of anyone.

The artist listed places in America they had violence but forgot to look around at his life.
(plus his design can be seen in any American Frontier Newspaper from the 1800 but that could be another post and I have no desire to spend anymore time on him )

The LA Times had an article about the The European disdain for America violence but shouldn't spend too much time congratulating themselves. In 2000 the rate at which people where assaulted was higher in England, Scotland, Finland, Denmark and Sweden than in The United States. In the decade since England banned all private possessions of gun the number of gun crimes has gone up.
Some of the worst examples of mass gun violence has occurred in Europe from students and teachers killed in Germany, 14 legislators shot in Switzerland to 8 city council members being shot outside of Paris.
Just recently a taxi driver in Cumbria, England killed 12 people and wounded 11.

Unfortunately violence, whether it is beating the hell out of someone after a soccer game, using a knife or gun killing still means death. We all need to identify a dangerously unstable personalities not just point fingers. Or take a cheap shot.

Does the fact that violence is every where make it ok ? not by a long-shot but I think it means look around where your standing before you point a finger.
I unfortunately expect to be called the Great Staten by many countries, after all I am an educated, white woman, with health care who speaks her mind and doesn't wear a burka. But to see his kind of blatant rabble rousing, hypocritical thought and feeling coming from a country that I have always loved and thought of as family I am sadden.
I wonder how many people who passed this booth took his statements for the only truth.

Going back to the artist at the open house, I wonder if he knew I was from the US would he have sold me a piece of his pottery accepting my gun fueled, blood soaked tourist dollars ?
The nature of this work really upset me then it turned to disbelief and now to just sadness.
But...
Just as he has the right and ability to say what he wants no matter how one-sided I also have the right to disagree.

My trip to Ireland and England to celebrate when my son graduates University is now rescheduled to Poland with a stop in Paris. At lest we Americans know where we stand in France. I will not be showing off the places in England and Scotland that I love to my son and a chance to met some blogging friends but that will be replaced by tracking down some family history in Poland. I now look forward to that.

When I think of how many times we Americans have come to the aid of many countries in need of help and are usually some of the first responders, we may be somewhat overbearing sometimes but it all comes with a good heart and a want to help.

Just saying.... my Monday thought and because some of us live in Countries that have free speech... go right ahead and disagree.