Cameras Prohibited in DeKalb Farmer's Market

By Annette Cotter

To the goon who sashayed into the restaurant of Dekalb County Farmer's Mkt. yesterday with an ammo belt and gun strapped to his waist...and sat down two tables from me: So you felt it necessary to demonstrate here at lunchtime, that at any moment you could take out that gun and kill anybody in the room. Me. The little girl in the princess dress who ate everything on her plate. The old black man praying over his lentil soup. And we have to deal with this. We do not know if you are sane. We do not know if you have a mental age of 9. We do not know if you are angry at some group or other. Or if you are a self appointed vigilante/messiah here to protect us against other gun-toters who might have some of the above listed problems. If you were wearing a policeman's uniform, or a Sheriff's uniform, or a military uniform, we would know something about you. We would know that you had been screened and found mentally balanced, not a drug addict, and that you had received instructions on the proper use of firearms and the heavy responsibility that goes with their possession. But dressed in your T-shirt and jeans we can surmise only that you have been screened by some seller at a gun show and the test you passed was simply to have enough money to purchase the gun. Am I afraid? A little. Am I nervous? Yes. Am I angry? Furious! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT! Oh, you say the second amendment blah blah blah. Stand your ground blah blah blah. You give me bad law. You give me a foolish and wrongful interpretation of the constitution handed down in a time when the inmates have taken over the asylum and wisemen stand in the corner with their backs turned. You want your country back? What country is that? The one where a black man cannot be president? The one where a woman's place is in the home? The one where gays are in the closet? No! No, I want MY country back! I want to eat lunch and shop for groceries free from worry about your flaunted ability to kill me if you take a notion. I want my country back for myself, for the little girl in the princess dress and for the black man praying over his food. I want my country back for all Americans who have agreed to go about our daily lives happily and without fear and who feel no need to shoot anyone dead.