Short post today!
In light of another school shooting our
president said America should be ashamed because of the repeated, to quote him
weekly occurrences. Now I am not privy to the intel that the president has but
that seems a little excessive to me. But for once I agree with the President.
America should be ashamed, but not in the way that he wants us to be ashamed.
Before this is over it will be spun to be another reason why we need stricter
gun control laws.
I don’t believe the problem lies with the guns! We should be
ashamed because we have allowed or created a culture that doesn’t value life
anymore. I am 52 and I don’t ever remember a school shooting when I was growing
up. We had guns all around us; some of us even had them in our trucks or cars
at schools. But we would never think to shoot someone with them unless they
were the communists attacking all the way from Russia. We knew the damage guns
could do because we were taught how to shoot and properly handle firearms by
our dads and granddads. We also knew both of them would wear our backsides out
if we even thought of brandishing a gun in anger at someone.
We valued life and we were disciplined by spankings not by
telling us to go think about our bad choices. We have taught our children not
to hit so they don’t fight it out anymore on the schoolyard. I am not
advocating violence but I can tell you that I had my small share of scraps with
other guys including my best friend once because we didn’t see eye to eye on
something. But most often the fight ended there. A bruised eye or ego. Now they
build up the anger until it comes spewing out in excessive violence. We need to
get back to teaching that life is sacred and should never be taken without just
cause. We need to help our young men learn to be men who handle their differences
without shooting someone. And we don’t need to turn them into girls to make
them fit into our systems either. As our old friend, Daddy Byrd, once said, “oh
let him be, he’s just being a boy. Rowdy boys are happy boys!”
So yes Mr. President we should be ashamed because we have
lost our moral compass as a nation. Instead of trying to pass gun laws which
won’t help curb the problem, maybe you should use the “bully pulpit” to help
our nation regain the moral fortitude we need to address the real problems that
lead to these senseless acts of violence.