2 • The Southwest Portland Post
EDITORIAL
January 2013
Is it time to repeal the Second Amendment? Guns are not sacred, children are
OPEN FORUM
By Tom H. Hastings
It is now long, long past time to repeal
the Second Amendment. It serves evil,
not good, violence, not peace, hatred,
not love.
The Second Amendment to the
United States Constitution is a relic of
a time when the citizens accepted their
general powerlessness and seemed to
live without imagination, just fear.
Still, it will likely take independent-
minded gun owners to lead the overdue
effort to rid our society of this curse.
We need gun owners with conscience
to finally, at long last, face morality, face
the truth, face the irrefutable terrible
facts on the ground, in the ground, that
perfectly innocent children are victims
again and again and again to the lack
of backbone of gun owners.
I’m a peace person, as are my friends.
I am striving to be nonviolent and have
tried to learn nonviolence for years. I
can point to alternatives to guns, I can
argue against them, and that’s about it.
What we need--what would dra-
matically change our na-
tional discourse
on this--is for
gun owners to
stand up and
tell the rest of
us, “We no lon-
ger want our possessions
to be regarded under our Constitution
as sacred and above the law. We reject
the kneejerk response from the NRA
and the gun industry every time there
is a tragedy.”
Not once—never, not even one single
time—have they admitted that guns
can ever be a problem and are just
things that should be subjected to laws
like anything else.
When I worked on high-rise con-
struction projects in my 20s and 30s
I was very glad for the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA). They inspected just often
enough to help us stay relatively safe,
even 300+ feet off the ground in the
Minnesota winter.
We didn’t have company owners
lobbying to declare scaf-
folding or tie-ropes
or other safety de-
vices somehow
related to near
sacralization. The
OSHA inspectors would
pick up a faulty extension cord,
pull out their wire snips, and cut it into
short, unusable pieces, and would then
write up a fine. Did that cost our com-
panies? Only once—then they told the
foremen to be careful to keep it all legal.
We regulate cars, motorcycles, boats,
and much, much more. Some things are
simply outlawed. People cannot have a
marijuana brownie but they can have
a handgun?
The lives of children are sacred; guns
are just objects. We choose guns over
children every day that we do not get
rid of that long-antiquated Second
Amendment.
Am I suggesting that ridding our-
selves of the Second Amendment
would solve everything? Obviously
not; guns haven’t solved much either.
We need to learn new ways.
Learn nonviolence. Work to end
poverty. Share. Support candidates
who will reduce military expenditures
and increase subsidies to all the many
new ways to manage conflict that do
not involve violence and the threat of
violence.
Learn about Gandhi. Learn about
mediation. Learn about de-escalation.
These are how we negate the “need” for
guns. Are they foolproof? Nothing is.
But the Second Amendment is not serv-
ing us well, not at all. Time for change.
Editor’s Note: Tom H. Hastings of
Portland directs PeaceVoice, a program of
the Oregon Peace Institute. Hastings can
be reached via email at pcwtom@gmail.
com. Due to the December tragedies at
Clackamas Town Center and at Newtown,
Connecticut, we felt this opinion piece was
particularly appropriate. The Post welcomes
reader response.
Candlelight vigil held for pedestrian killed on Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
By Don Snedecor
The Southwest Portland Post
A candlelight vigil was held on De-
cember 20 for 27-year-old Mara For-
sythe-Crane who was struck and killed
by a truck the morning of December 18
while attempting to cross Beaverton-
Hillsdale Highway at Shattuck Road.
Family, friends and neighbors met at
the Muchas Gracias restaurant park-
ing lot on the southeast corner of the
intersection.
“Mara had the promise of a full life,”
said one neighbor. “This is a great loss
for all of us.”
Some 30 people stood in the cold
night air during the evening rush hour
and watched the traffic speed by as they
remembered Forsythe-Crane, who lived
nearby in the Bridlemile neighborhood.
Many folks wore reflective clothing,
carried glow sticks, flashlights and
candles. Ann Beruton, a Bridlemile
neighbor, brought her basset hound
named Maverick.
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Janet Hawkins of Hayhurst was
among the speakers who needed a
megaphone to be heard above the traf-
fic noise.
“We want to remind all drivers that
pedestrians and bicyclists are present
at all times during the year, day and
night,” said Hawkins. “This means
that drivers should use extra caution
at intersections, especially during the
stormy and dark Oregon winter.”
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Roger Averbeck, chairman of the
Southwest Neighborhoods, Inc. Trans-
portation Committee, was among the
speakers.
“We are very saddened by this trag-
edy. This is the 14th pedestrian fatality
in the City of Portland this year,” said
Averbeck.
“Each of us wants to do our part to
prevent these tragic fatalities from hap-
(Continued on Page 3)
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