Some Thoughts on How and Why

Unlike many, I don’t expect anyone to think as I do or agree with my ramblings. In fact, newspaper people are not supposed to curry rousing applause of readers. Instead, our task is merely to put stories and thoughts out there for the reader to love or hate, shake one’s head in approval or scowl in disapproval. If they evoke a response, that’s wonderful. We are often like police officers, seen only in the worst of times, certainly not to be befriended or become part of a social circle, always on the outer perimeter of events simply neutral observers.
As the nation collectively holds hands and weeps bitter tears for the slain elementary school children in Connecticut, everyone asks the same questions. Why? How could it happen?
As I talked with John R. the other day, he confirmed what I long have held as truth: This was the outgrowth of a society that cuts its eye teeth on killing. No? As John opined, “We train our children to kill starting at around 4 years old, should we expect any less?” Of course he did not mean we send our babies to military academies and school them in the art of slaughter before they may be potty trained, but what of the steady diet of filthy television shows, movies and video games that are before their tender eyes?
Video games, which most youngsters adore and are far superior in playing compared to an old man, desensitize young players to killing.
No, they do not load up an AK-47 with bullets, but their little video games often have space-age ray guns or something similar that blast “aliens” to smithereens all for points. The more you “kill” the more points you get, and if you “kill” enough, your score is worthy to merit a medal or some high honor. Is that not the basics of Killing 101?
No one ever mourns the loss of “alien invaders.” No mother or father must consider a funeral and a change to a life of darkness because a space “enemy” was killed. On no, that’s different. Is it? The young players are thought heroes if they wipe out legions of imaginary beings.
Is that the only reason we see society filled with thoughtless killings of children, intended or otherwise on city streets every night on the news? No, of course not, but it’s a contributing factor. It’s a factor as much as that bag of potato chips adds a few hundred extra calories, which, when added to everything else, means a bigger waistline and heavier on the scale.
Believe it or not, we are witnessing the fruition of a society that has lost its moral way. John mentioned that, too. He noted the ousting of God’s mention from schools, from virtually every forum of public life. Lacking that absolute belief in a Creator, someone larger and far wiser than weak mortals, we begin to believe we control our every action and thought. Again, dear reader, I’m not asking you to agree. I know many of you do not agree, this is simply my view. Lacking a sense of awe, not paying reverence from the creature to the creator, gives one a false belief he is master of his own destiny. Some think they answer to no one for their actions.
Some let the words roll loosely off their tongues, in song or sentence, “God bless America.” That’s sheer nerve. Spit in His face at every opportunity, and then expect Him to be there at the snap of our fingers when mass killings occur, when shoppers are murdered as they go peaceably on their rounds, when it seems we are going to be deluged by an ocean slowly filling with melted icebergs.
Regardless which religion one chooses all of them point to one God a special diety. All revert to the family as the basic building block of society. Lacking a strong, firm moral foundation, guided by aged parents and grandparents, how is a young person to find his or her place in the world? A moral foundation is just as vital as a strong foundation to a building. What folly it would be to build one’s house on a foundation of straw. Incredible, yet that is the moral equivalent of what modern American society is serving its citizens.
Another reason we see the slow disintegration of a society we once cherished: The core family is devalued by many as some old folly. Perish the thought of being married and having children, then raising them, side by side through good and bad, sickness and health, with love. And no, not the tawdry notion of “love” that sells clothes and jewelry, but the kind of love that lasts through hospital stays and cemetery visits, through bankruptcy and wealth.
Without that basic family unit, mother, father, as building blocks, society becomes skewed, and never really gets back on track.
Should the Second Amendment be changed? No, it was placed there for a very good reason. However, having a rifle or handgun to hunt or protect one’s home and life is far different than owning an arsenal of semi-automatic weapons with armor-piercing bullets. John and I agreed on yet one last fact, for which I’m not asking consensus or agreement. If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.
We will never change the past. We can only work to alter the future in the hope of making this a better world.