Times change. Some changes are better than others.
I don't think anyone who reads this blog with any regularity will be surprised to hear that I consider myself to be fairly conservative. Fiscally and socially. I give thought to issues and try to view all angles before I take a side. I have occasionally surprised people with some stands I've taken, but that is probably rare.
Society has given me much to mull in the last few years. Some days more than others.
The hot topic today is gun control. It has saturated the media since the tragedy in Connecticut on Friday, December 14, 2012. That Friday saw a horrible, horrible event. It was the second incident in that week. The fourth or fifth this year.
Utterly senseless violence.
I believe only one of the victims in this whole year actually knew their murderer - and that was Adam Lanza's mother, Nancy - and none had done anything other than go to work, to school, shopping, to worship, or to enjoy a movie. And every time it happens the same discussions crop up.
Discussions. No answers, no actions.
Here is where I may take a turn for some of you.
I was not raised with guns. To my knowledge there was not one in the house in which I grew up. My Papaw had them out on the farm, but I don't know where he kept them. My uncle and cousins hunt, but that's as close as it gets to me. Billy doesn't hunt. I don't like guns and I have never wanted one.
You might think with that lead in that I would be encouraging the ban of all guns.
You would be wrong.
My position is that it is not the guns that are the problem but the hands holding them. And you will come back the argument that the hands wouldn't matter if the access were restricted.
Cars are deadly in the hands of a drunk driver. Do we ban cars?
No. We try to educate the drivers and remove them from the situation. Try to get them to face their underlying problem and seek help.
Why aren't we focusing more on the shooters in these cases? Obviously the people committing these crimes are not well mentally. Stable, well-adjusted people do not take up arms, even though they have access to them, and blow away innocent children and their teachers. They don't dye their hair orange and open fire on a movie theater.
They just don't.
So how have we gotten to this point?
Guns have been accessible for hundreds of years but we only started hearing about these massacres with any regularity since Columbine in 1999. I know there were earlier events but those were anomalies. What we're experiencing now is becoming the rule.
What has changed?
Lots of things. Most all of which are societal issues.
Media coverage. Violent video games. Social isolation with the advent of Facebook and Twitter. Families are fractured. The communities in which we live have changed. Do you know your neighbors? If not, you would have 40 years ago.
I don't think any one of these is the problem. I think it's part of the landslide that is growing into an avalanche in what is deemed acceptable these days.
Video games started with Pong and Mario Brothers, Donkey Kong and Frogger and Galaga. Climbing buildings. Shooting aliens. Trying to dodge cars while getting a frog across a street. Simple games that provided a litte escape and a change of pace on a rainy Sunday afternoon. You didn't have online games centered around characters immitating soliders, or worse yet, gangsters. Young people are playing these games for hours on end. Becoming desensitized to the violence permeating their worlds.
Ah, so now you think I want to ban video games.
Again, you would be wrong. I don't want anyone (read that as "government") telling me what to do. I am all about personal responsibility. If I mess up, it is my mistake. A mistake I can only make if I have access to all things legal. Instead, I would encourage people to not support the makers of these games. I would beg the media not to glorify the actions of these killers. It might only stop one gloryhound but isn't one better than none?
I look around and see what is "ok" and I'm shocked, and saddened, sometimes. Why is it acceptable for unwed teenage mothers to have their own "reality show"? What is entertaining about toddler beauty pageants and the mothers that push them?
Until we, as a civilized society, start putting our collective foot down and demanding some common
decency we are going to continue to see these kinds of tragedies. We've gone so far down the slope that I worry we can even work our way back up. We worry about bruising a child's fragile ego instead of setting hard boundaries for their behavior. Divorced parents overcompensate by indulging their children so they will continue to love them. And the children learn to play one against the other and get what they want. Or they find themselves alone for hours after school and become influenced by these shows and games.
We have to take our country back. And that is not a political statement. It is a judgment on our society.
Now I know what you're thinking again - what do you know about raising children? Have you tried it lately? No, I haven't. And frankly, I wouldn't want to attempt it in today's world. I only know that it something doesn't change, we will have no one to blame but ourselves. The limits of acceptable behavior that our grandparents and their parents and grandparents observed are almost nonexistent.
If anything goes, then everything will.
