If you are a man or a woman and you have kids, you need to get them off the damn phone and take them in the woods. Get them a hunting license and take them hunting. Take them shooting. If you have never done it yourself, shooting or hunting, then you need to learn. It's not hard and the thing about folks who hunt and shoot is that they all want to help you get started. If you show that you are serious AND you want to start your kid off right, they will bend over backwards to help you.
And why is this important? Because now we are getting further away from having our kids being independent and we are getting further away from having kids who ever get outside except on a playground during recess. And even then, the "teachers" (usually amazingly liberal and irrational and America hating and not ashamed to say so with their opinions in class) may say it's too cold to be outside. Already, some of my favorite memories are having my son in the duck or goose blind with me. And I didn't grow up a hunter. My Dad was a fisherman and that's what we did. I cherish those memories. But I had a yearning to learn to hunt when I was in college and it changed my life forever. I saw the value in it right away, the dog working, the sunrise, braving the elements, the camaraderie, the ball busting, the smell of the fire, the smell of the gunpowder, the moment when the geese land into the decoys. If that seems strange to you, all of that, then I suggest you try it. You will not be sorry.
They used to have hunter safety classes in the schools, and I think that most of that has gone away. Maybe down South they may still have it in places. Probably not in Virginia, with the Governor threatening to get the National Guard out there to take away guns from people. That asshole needs to go hunting. I bet he's never even shot a gun. And his buddy Bloomberg definitely hasn't. He needs a dip of Copenhagen and some Camo and a good old fashioned throat punch to earn his man card. He'd probably slap fight. He should fight Harvey Weinstein! Bloomberg is failing miserably as a man and a person, the coward. Don't get me started on those type of people who are guarded by guys with guns 24 hours a day, but want to take guns away from the everyman who is protecting his family and just wants to do a little deer hunting on the weekends. And people fall for this crap?
I just see where its going, and I see less and less kids who are shooting and hunting and there are plenty of laws in place that stop law abiding citizens from owning guns, and all of these lawmakers need to get out of their mansions and get dirty and cold and brave the elements and work hard to get a deer or a bird or just shoot some skeet. Damn! Why can't people see it? The stuff that I hear about what teachers say about the USA to the kids is AMAZING to me. In fact, the one of my kid's teachers was talking about how bad America was and how everything , yes everything, in this country is awful and how the USA is this and that and one kid raised his hand (after this went on for a few days) and asked, "Why do you hate this country so much?" We used to say the pledge and sing "Maryland, My Maryland" every morning at school. I'm not talking about blind patriotism here, I'm talking about showing some loyalty to the place where you live and for all the men have fought and died so that we are free. Well, more free than every other country. Free. To live, man. To write if you wanna be a writer, to be a salesman if you wanna sell. And really, everyone in this country has a shot. I don't give a shit how poor you are, you will get a shot. Nobody has the same shot to reach whatever heights that you want to reach that we do. You wanna just work enough to get by? You can do that here. Wanna be rich? You can do that here, too. Things have changed here. You have a shot at being whatever you want to be. And you want to protest something? Go right ahead. You have that right because you live here. Just do it peacefully, like 25 thousand gun owners did the other day in Virginia. No looting or killing or setting fires. Be tolerant, dammit! Oh! Just tolerant if people believe what you believe. It doesn't work both ways.
Part of what made America great is the outdoors and guns and they have both been part of the fabric of our country since its inception. And our kids are suffering because of all of this shit , pure shit that is clouding their brains, all of the stuff that keeps them inside all day long. And then they go to school and they are hearing these opinions from their teachers about what THEY believe in. Teach math and shut the hell up. Sorta like actors should do. Yeah, I'm gonna take advice from Barbara Streisand and Meryl Streep on how we all should live, God give me strength. As they pontificate from their lofty perches with walls around them and guns protecting them and the rest of them with their holier than though attitudes, feel the need to tell you about how YOU are screwing up the environment, you peasant, as they arrive in their planes and gas guzzling limousines. Seriously?
This is rambling a little, probably because I get so pissed off at this stuff, but I do have a point:
Take the step and man the hell up. Get your kids out in the woods and teach them how to shoot and take them hunting and keep the tradition alive for future generations. Don't listen to the crap that everyone is trying to sell you. Get back to nature and common sense. I think that if all of that goes away, we are in big trouble as a country.