When not in Rome

Ever see a movie or a TV show where some quack psychiatrist forces the hero to regress and determine where his pent up rage took root?

Of course you have.

Ever believe it could really work like that?

Of course not.

But maybe I'm starting to buy it just a little.

All thoughts, opinions, emotions, etc. have to have been born somewhere. Obviously, the most likely possibility is that they were born in our own past.

Anyway, the other night I came to a realization of why I may be so dead-set against this impending war in Iraq: I never went to Rome.

I know. I know. There I go again throwing out statements that make no sense to normal rational people.

Let me digress.

A dozen years ago, I was supposed to jump on a jumbo jet and jaunt across the Atlantic to the ancient city of Rome.

The planned vacation/field trip was jettisoned when George H.W. Bush (41) decided he wanted to go fight a war with the nation of Iraq.

Needless to say, I was distraught.

I remember being upset about not going to Italy. I also remember being upset about what I perceived to be Bush's war for oil.

What I don't remember is if I tied the two at the time.

It's easy to tie together now, though.

On Monday, I called my former Latin teacher — Bruce Strassburg — so he could refresh my memory on the whole ordeal.

Father Bruce, as we called him, told me they still haven't gotten to go to Rome.

Neither have I for that matter.

But I'm not bitter about that.

Not now, at least.

I'll tell you what I am bitter about, though.

I'm bitter that our president refuses to believe that there are options other than bombing Baghdad.

I'm bitter that the best war coverage I've seen so far was on MTV.

I'm bitter that our government is ignoring the scores of anti-war protests across the country.

And I'm bitter that somewhere in America there's a group of high school students glued to CNN — hoping that a war doesn't break out between George W. Bush (43) and the nation of Iraq.

And unfortunately, somewhere in America, a group of high school students is about to be let down by our president — just like I was 12 years ago.

---

A side note: I think it's humorous that Saddam Hussein has challenged "Dubya" to a debate and the White House has summarily rejected it.

White House Spokesman Ari Fleischer said he didn't think that Hussein was serious about wanting to debate.

But the White House should reconsider — from a purely entertainment point of view.

I would imagine that every major network would kill to get a piece of the debate.

ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, even Comedy Central would want in the mix.

And all of America would watch.

You know all the people that don't watch the presidential debates? They'd watch this.

I've always said that wars should be decided with chess matches instead of the senseless deaths of young men. A debate would be even better.

The only reason to turn the offer down, I suppose, would be a fear of losing.

The gun-loving liberal runneth amok

The Second Amendment makes all the others possible.

So sayeth a bumper sticker at the gun show I went to this past weekend.

Now normally, you wouldn't find me at a gun show — despite my staunch belief that people should be allowed to have them, carry them, etc., they actually scare me — but given the heinous shooting of two of our city's peace officers, I thought I'd go in and have a look-see.

First of all, I wasn't aware that there was to be a gun show, but as I drove down The Transit on Saturday morning, there were the big yellow signs: Gun Show Today. Arrows pointed to the South Lockport Fire Hall.

I drove by.

But as I thought more about it, I wanted to know what it was like inside and how were people acting — especially given the aforementioned tragedy.

Feb. 9, of course, 26-year-old Jason Kanalley shot Lockport Detective Captain Lawrence Eggert and Officer Steven Ritchie before fatally shooting himself. Eggert and Ritchie are on the long and slow path to recovery and this community is still in search of answers it may never get.

I turned around in the Lockport Mall parking lot and headed back to the fire hall.

I had a devil of a time finding a parking space. There must have been 200 people there when I got there - if not more.

I wasn't there to trick anyone into telling me anything they wouldn't anyway (I hate gonzo "journalism") so I dug my press pass out of my briefcase and pinned it to my jacket.

Entering the gun show, there was a man at the door asking if I had firearms and a sign stating that any firearms being brought in must be checked and not loaded.

And I thought: Hmm, not in Kansas anymore, huh?

I told the gentleman at the door who I was and that I wanted to talk to somebody in charge.

Enter Dick Cavagnaro, treasurer of the Iroquois Arms Collectors Associations of Western New York.

I told Dick who I was and asked how things were going, given the recent events. I asked if they considered canning the event or if they thought turnout would be affected.

Good, no, and no were the answers to my questions in that order.

"What happened in Lockport was a rare event," Cavagnaro explained, adding that there was no reason to link the gun show and the shootings.

And I wouldn't. It still hasn't been determined how Kanalley got his gun — an AK-47 — and I (surprisingly) haven't heard any rumors that it was gotten at a gun show.

Following the brutal Columbine murders, there was much ado about gun shows and how easy it is to get guns there.

One of the dozens of tables did have AK-47s on it. I counted four of them for $349 a piece.

As Cavagnaro and numerous law enforcement officers have pointed out, the AK-47 is legal to own.

But most of the guys at the gun show weren't looking for the firepower the AK-47 offered. Most, in fact, seemed to be looking at older guns - genuinely collectors guns.

"I don't get into the modern stuff," is how Cavagnaro put it.

Aside from the guns, there was also other military equipment: knives, helmets, canteens. There were people with video's about pheasant hunting. All sorts of stuff.

All sorts of stuff that wouldn't be legal to sell in this country if it weren't for the freedoms that we have — including the Second Amendment, which as the bumper sticker explained, makes the others possible.

I'd like to think that the First Amendment is pretty important too.