Day 96: Oklahoma City (1)…

Monday, 01. October 2007, Oklahoma, USA.

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This sucks: a flat tire as a morning surprise. After all these rough gravel roads in Canada and Alaska…

Blöde Überraschung am Morgen: Reifen platt. Nach all den schlimmen Schotterpisten in Kanada und Alaska…

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Screw-Schraube-im-Ford-Taurus-SEL-flat-tire-platter-Reifen-Oklahoma-City-OK-USA-DSCN7361.jpg

… the first tire passes away through a screw on the parking lot of a motel in Oklahoma City. The son of the indian motel owner recognized us as Germans. He said he saw this “style” in magazines.

… geht uns der erste Reifen wegen einer Schraube auf dem Motelparkplatz in Oklahoma City kaputt. Der Sohn der indischen Motelführung erkannte uns übrigens als Deutsche. Er sagte, er kenne den „Style“ aus Magazinen.

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We brought the car to a tire repair shop (also for the second oil change after about 25,000 km / 15,000 miles). For the first time in ages we moved solely on foot. We didn’t even make it to downtown, the distances are just too big for pedestrians here. Particularly when it’s 33°C (92°F) in the shadow. During our holiday we had to amend our prejudice against the lazy yankees that go 10 feet to the trash can by car. The spaces are just much bigger here, soon we got our coffee from the gas station on the other side of the road by car, too. Pedestrian crossings are rare, there are no pedestrians outside the city centres. It’s much easier to cross the street by car.

Den Wagen gaben wir zur Reifenreparatur (und fälligem zweiten Ölwechsel nach ca. 25.000 km) in eine Werkstatt. Nach Ewigkeiten waren wir mal wieder ausschliesslich zu Fuß unterwegs. Leider schafften wir es nicht bis in die Innenstadt; die Entfernungen sind hier für Fußgänger einfach zu groß, vor allem bei 33°C im Schatten. Unsere Vorurteile gegen die „faulen Amis“, die drei Meter zur Mülltonne mit dem Wagen fahren, haben wir in diesem Urlaub übrigens revidiert. Alles ist viel weiter auseinander und weitläufiger angelegt, so dass auch wir bald den Kaffee an der Tankstelle gegenüber mit dem Auto holten. Fußgängerübergänge sind rar, denn es gibt kaum Fußgänger ausserhalb der Innenstädte. Das Überqueren einer Strasse ist mit dem Wagen viel einfacher.

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Eastern Bloc style building in Oklahoma-City

Ostblock-Charme in Oklahoma-Schitti

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A little rest for the feet in a swing hammock in a tiny park on Class Drive, somewhere between the repair shop and downtown. Once again malicious midges left mean substances in the holes they bit.

Füße schonen in einer Hollywood-Schaukel eines kleinen Parks am Class Drive, irgendwo zwischen Autowerkstatt und Innenstadt. Heimtückische Mini-Mücken hinterliessen hier mal wieder überdurchschnittlich fiese Substanzen in den Löchern, die sie stachen.

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But there were good insects, too…

Es gab aber auch liebe Insekten hier…

Monarch-butterfly- Schmetterling-Danaus-Plexippus-Monarchfalter-Classen-Drive-Oklahoma-City-OK-USA-DSCN7383.jpg

… like this Monarch Butterfly.

… wie z.B. diesen Monarchfalter.

confectionery-Bakery-Cakes-Kuchen-Motiv-Geburtstagstorte-Kruemelmonster-Spiderman-Torten-birthday-counter-Theke-Baecker-Konditorei-Oklahoma-City-OK-USA-DSCN7393.jpg

Funny birthday cakes in a supermarket next to the car repair shop

Gar lustge Geburtstagstorten im Supermarkt neben der Autowerkstatt

Happy-birthday-My-Little-Pony-confectionery-Bakery-Cakes-Kuchen-Geburtstagstorte-counter-Theke-Baecker-Konditorei-Konditor-Kuehltheke-Oklahoma-City-OK-USA-DSCN7392.jpg

Reward-Gun-lost-at-McDonalds-search-Flyer-pole-Belohnung-Verloren-Such-Zettel-Pistole-Schusswaffe-bei-Mast-Oklahoma-City-OK-USA-DSCN7394.jpg

Flyer in front of the tire repair: “Gun lost at McDonald’s – 200$ Reward – No questions asked”. In everyday thinking you forget it, but when you read something like this you get aware of every spaz on the street being allowed to carry a gun. On the radio we heard a talk show about firearms in schools and a teacher admitted to carry her own gun in class, as all her colleagues do. You have to defend yourself, she said. Later she suggested to place a security guard at the school entrance to search everyone for weapons. The host of the show had the great idea to bring a prohibition of guns to schools as practised in state buildings. None of the participants came up with changing the gun law to make it harder for morons to buy a weapon in a shop around the corner. This possibility is totally neglected.

Vor der Autowerkstatt: „Pistole bei McDonald’s verloren – 200 Dollar Belohnung – Keine Fragen“. Im Alltag denkt man nicht drüber nach, aber wenn man sowas liest wird einem bewusst, dass jeder Vollspacken auf der Strasse eine Knarre dabei haben darf. Im Radio verfolgten wir eine Talkshow, in der eine Lehrerin zum Waffengebrauch in Schulen befragt wurde. Sie gab zu, sich ohne Schusswaffe nicht in die Schule zu trauen, wie all ihr Kollegen. Man müsse sich ja verteidigen können. Sie schlug vor, einen Sicherheitsdienst am Schuleingang zu postieren, der dann alle nach Waffen kontrollieren könnte. Die Moderatorin hatte die tolle Idee, ob ein generelles Waffenverbot wie in Gerichtsgebäuden nicht auch an Schulen sinnvoll sei. Keiner der Beteiligten fiel ein, dass man durch eine Änderung der Waffengesetze dafür sorgen könnte, dass nicht jeder Kleingeist problemlos eine Waffe im Laden um die Ecke kaufen kann. Die Möglichkeit wird anscheinend völlig ausgeblendet.


20,000 Miles Canada/USA: Travel Overview


35 thoughts on “Day 96: Oklahoma City (1)…”

  1. Kidliminal_Sub: In Oklahoma City, im tiefen Münsterland.

    Fenke: Ja, und regelmäßig hörten wir von Waffengebrauch in irgendwelchen Fastfood-Ketten. Beim „Essen gehen“ muss man also immer wachsam sein.

  2. In the US we have a waiting period and a background check to purchase a handgun.

    Are you suggesting we also have an IQ test as well?

  3. Actually there are restrictions on handgun purchases beyond the 3 day waiting period. Ex-convicts, people with a history of mental disorder, juveniles, etc. are prohibited from buying guns. Many locations in the US refuse to issue concealed carry permits, so you may own a handgun but for all intents and purposes it it must remain in your home. Carrying it in public is a crime punishable by jail time.

  4. in_awe,

    Let me clarify that for you. Just because someone doesn’t get a CCW that does not mean they have to keep it in their home. They just can’t carry it concealed in public. It has to be unloaded and in a vehicle trunk or worn on the hip for everyone to see. Most people don’t want to look like cowboys or fools though and choose not to wear it in the open and conceal it anyway.
    As for the rest of what you said you are correct.
    As for the author of this blog, gun laws by the thousands — and I mean that, literally thousands of them — have been passed in this country regulating how and whom and when the citizens of the USA can purchase a firearm. And it all makes little difference. When people want guns, they will get them, just like drugs and booze.

  5. “None of the participants came up with changing the gun law to make it harder for morons to buy a weapon in a shop around the corner. This possibility is totally neglected.”

    this has already been tried (for example, washington, dc and england), and all get is more crime

  6. Dear visitors from michellemalkin.com: We say that idiots may carry guns, not everyone carrying a gun is an idiot. While travelling through the U.S.A. we constantly heard about shootings in fast food chains or where ever on the radio. Sometimes every second day. In Germany we don’t have that.

  7. seems like i recall Germany starting 2 World Wars. and also that Adolph Hitler stated:
    “This year will go down in history. For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future!” – Adolph Hitler, 1935.

  8. No, buddy. In Germany you don’t have school shootings. In Germany you have mobs of unemployed Middle Eastern immigrants who make their own laws and abuse who they please, and you can’t stop them because you’ve been disarmed.

  9. Wow, these recent comments are incredibly tactless and dimwitted. Why not make an intellectual argument or a well intentioned correction and leave out the nationalistic bullshit?

  10. As a proud American, proudly of German descent I encourage you to take the time to visit the United States again sometime. Please try to make it to eastern Nebraska this time. You’d be welcome to visit my farm outside of Omaha.
    You’ll find Nebraska is a beautiful place, and Omaha a very dymanic city–called the “City of 7,000 hills”.
    As an owner of over 150 firearms–mostly historic ones–I am always disappointed by ad hominem attacks on our 2nd Ammendment. Sadly in a nation of over 300 million with decaying
    family and social mores, there will be tragic and violent assaults. Decades back when an even higher percentage of homes had firearms
    and more frequently unsecured ones at that, these high profile attacks were nonexistent.
    Vigilant, law abiding citizenry are about the only hope for minimization of these wretched events. Outside of gang &/or drug related incidents, the US is actually safer than many
    other first world societies. My firearm and militaria collecting is really just an extension of my real passion, which is the study of history, particularly the study of the horrors of war and of the Holocaust and the Gulag. I grew up in Omaha in a neighborhood and attended schools with a large Jewish population and at a young age developed an interest in the horrid crimes of anti-semitism. As a devoted Lutheran and proud German-American, I’ve long wrestled with the unanswerable questions of how the Holocaust could’ve occured. As I look back over the previous century with genocides starting in Armenia, proceeding through the massive crimes of the Soviets and Chicoms and Khmer, et al, to the Rwandans and Serbs, one common denominator always appears; disarmed civilians. Why is it so hard for sophisticates to acknowledge this simple, incontravertable fact? Why is it that suddenly the elite and sophisticated believe that humanity has entered a new age of Aquarius and rapidly evolved to the point where our beloved and trusted governing chosen-ones with all the power could never again resort to genocidal violence? Tens of millions of murdered innocents in the last century, dead at the hand of their own governments and occupiers because they lacked any means of self-defense, scream out from the grave for all free peoples
    to be always vigilant and never again trust their survival to governing bodies. Yadda, yadda, yadda and so on.

  11. Nice job Greg. My own impression is that liberals all exhibit one flaw. They do not seem to understand human nature, so they are always at the mercy of some criminal type that is more determined to do them damage than they are determined to defend themselves. Result: bloodbaths. Unfortunately, liberals with their gun control laws do a pretty good job of getting everybody else killed too.

    Mark, you talk about having a discussion. I do not see anything here that is not fact. If you want a well thought out argument, why don’t you start it?

  12. “While travelling through the U.S.A. we constantly heard about shootings in fast food chains or where ever on the radio. Sometimes every second day.”

    I’m sorry, but that is simply not true. There are not shootings like that every single day. It is VERY rare, but sadly some idiot will see a news story and become a copycat.

    When you remove the gangs & drug wars, we don’t have a lot of firearm deaths. Swimming pools kill 3 times as many people each year.

  13. Vier Monate, zehntausende Kilometer, fast 120 Berichte mit Photos, ein wirklich breites Spektrum. Und was davon bewegt die amerikanische Volksseele? Der Vorschlag, man könnte es ja auch mal ohne Knarren versuchen. Wir bösen Nazis.

  14. Christian: Tja, der Ami-Blog nennt sich “Conservative journalist’s analysis of current events and politics”, was will man von dessen Lesern erwarten? Zum Glück trafen wir während der Reise viele andersdenkende Leute. So schlimm wie es hier in den Kommentaren aussieht, ist es glaube ich nicht.

  15. After reading this blog, I am ashamed of my German ancestry. Keep out of America with your socialist ideas. The Germans were at one time a proud people but they are nothing more than a bunch of sissy boys today.

  16. Greetings from Texas. I agree with Mark, we need to make a reasoned argument without the nationalistic crap and ad hominems. A simple statistical fact is that there is an inverse relationship between gun bans and crime. Less guns more crime, more guns less crime. This is well argued in John Lott’s appropriately titled book “More Guns, Less Crime.” Look for it on Amazon.com, if you would like to read it. I know there are passions in both directions on this issue, and in fact there is a case in front of the US Supreme court deciding on our Second Amendment to the Constitution which guarantees the right of citizens to keep and bear arms. Other posters here have pointed out that the first thing a totalitarian-leaning government does is ban guns. I think our Founding Fathers in their wisdom understood that on balance, weighing the pros and cons, Citizens need to have that right to balance the power of government. Does it seem absurd that the US government would turn totalitarian. Yes.. today, but what about in a hundred years? Two hundred? I apologize for the harsh words against Germany. My Father’s side of the family immigrated to America in the 1880’s. I have never visited Germany, but I would like to. I own a very fine German-made weapon that I carry for personal protection, a Heckler and Koch USP. It is probably the finest pistol I have ever owned, and my life depends on it. I thank your country’s fine engineering and manufacturing for that.

    bill

  17. Where were you travelling when you heard about shooting, daily or every 2 days. I pay attention to the new and am not sure what time you are talking about. Or even where.

    What I find striking is that the shootings are occuring at schools, ‘gun-free’ zones – why do you never hear about shootings at a police dept or gun range or NRA meeting? By using your logic that everyone who owns a gun uses it to kill daily – you don’t hear about violence at those locations where there are a lot of guns. Strange coincidence there, wouldn’t you say?

    Where is the teacher who carries daily, as do her colleagues? I’ve heard of one teacher in the last few years that carries – and it is for self-defense from her ex-husband, who has sworn to kill her. He won’t care about gun laws, he will get a weapon of some sort and go after her. Frankly, if I needed a gun for self-defense in that position, I’d HOPE that a co-worker carried also. What I do not understand is a person that completely gives over all responsibility for their personal defense to the government. That truly boggles my mind. I am responsible for my self-protection and that of my family.

  18. “shootings in fast food chains or where ever on the radio. Sometimes every second day. In Germany we don’t have that.”

    You probably don’t but I suspect that has much more to do with having a smaller, more communal and homogenized society. American society is more individualist and often alienated and that has a more drastic effect on crime in general, not necessarily gun related crime.
    The simple fact is, gun related crime in the US is still a statistical rarity. More than 100 million Americans have at least one gun, a full 1/3 of the population, and yet less than 1 percent of those gun owners, – legal or illegally owned – use a gun to commit a crime in any given year.
    You may be surprised to have your blog a bit overrun by so many people being defensive, but this is a sensitive subject in the US and most people are passionate here about their 2nd amendment right.

  19. Not a Monarch, that is a Viceroy (limenitis archippuipus) which is a member of the admiral & sisters family, and is not in any way related to the Monarch. The Monarch is a member of the milkweed butterfly family. They have very different appearances and behaviors. The Viceroy mimics the Monarch to avoid predators, in this case humans as well.

  20. Zach

    I hate to do this to you, but, you are wrong. That is a Monarch in the photos. Oklahoma is in the migration path of the Monarch butterfly and each year millions to them pass through the state on they migration from Mexico to Canada and back.

  21. Das mit der Schraube ist ärgerlich und Pech. Hatte auch schon mal das Vergnügen mit einem 10 cm langen Nagel. Da geht einem sehr schnell die Luft aus. Hoffe das Dir die Luft nicht ausgeht und ich noch viel bei Dir zu lesen habe :-)

    PS: bezüglich Waffen – die Waffenlobby ist in den USA sehr stark und deshalb keine Chance … leider.

  22. I see the post has generated quite many interesting comments. I think whether there is just one or a gazillion laws on gun ban or gun use, people will use guns whenever and wherever they want, if pushed by certain circumstances. I think the true issue here is in the implementation of the law and how those in uniform faithfully do their jobs.

  23. Loved that butterfly picture. Considering at the moment we are getting hit with a snow storm, we live in Canada and its May, anything Spring-like makes me envious.

  24. We have no idea about shooting and guns, but had horrible experience at Oklahoma state(the name of the city is Sayre) We stopped our truck for some minor problem at truck shop…next morning we had a “surprise” the whole engine was disassembled…as for the bill..don’t even ask…They say never stop your cars or trucks for even minor problem in Oklahoma!!!Nightmare!!We stuck for a week!!

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