Goose
Well-known Member
I wrote the following piece several years ago after a school shooting. I just updated the years.
When I was a Junior in high school in 1951, the Senior class used a fully functional, however obviously unloaded, .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol as a prop in a class play?and no one gave it a second thought. It was simply an inanimate object necessary to the plot of the play.
Yet mass shootings were virtually unheard of.
So, what has changed?
Sixty seven years ago, most all children in the United States, regardless of skin color, were raised in a functional, two parent family by parents who looked at their role as parents as a serious lifelong commitment and responsibility, not as an inconvenience to be shunted off onto someone else.
Sixty seven years ago, divorce was obtainable only in the most dire situations, and the divorcees were viewed by society as failures because they had failed to honor the sacred oaths they took at the altar when they were wed. Nowadays, a divorce is as easy to obtain as a loaf of bread, with no stigma attached, regardless of the psychological aftermath to the children involved.
Sixty seven years ago, any woman who had a child out of wedlock was an outcast and was ostracized by her peers. The woman was considered ?damaged goods? and forever after unmarriageable. Therefore, women avoided having children out of wedlock at all costs. Nowadays, half the babies in this country are born out of wedlock and nobody gives it a thought.
Sixty seven years ago, it was unthinkable for a man and a woman to live together without the benefit of marriage, and if it occurred it was referred to derogatorily as ?shacking up?. Nowadays, it?s so commonplace as to become the rule rather than the exception.
Sixty seven years ago, there were no Politically Correct child psychologists shielding children from failure. If a child failed a grade in school, they unceremoniously repeated the entire grade until they passed. Children grew up learning to overcome failures and learned that failure is a part of life. Nowadays, psychologists refuse to let a child fail. Then when a child grows up and finds failure actually is a reality of life, they can?t handle it.
Sixty seven years ago, attaining adulthood, whatever your educational level, was a serious rite of passage that included obtaining a meaningful job and becoming a contributing member of society. Nowadays, in too many cases if someone does not hand a young adult a job on a platter, they simply withdraw, watch TV, and play video games all day. (And night). And their parents, if they have any functional ones, let them get away with it.
Sixty seven years ago, welfare existed for only the most dire situations. People worked at whatever work was available, no matter how menial, if they expected to eat. And at any level, they took pride in doing a job well. As long as people could scrape by, using any means at hand, personal pride kept them from accepting welfare. Nowadays, there?s an entire sub-culture in America that considers welfare an entitlement.
Sixty seven years ago, or even fifty, video games did not exist to numb one?s mind to violence and actually glorify violence. Entertainment was wholesome and was not based on the denigration of societal mores. Comedians knew how to be funny without resorting to crude and offensive language. Nowadays, it seems no stand-up comic can be considered funny if his or her routine is not a steady barrage of four letter words and comments on bodily functions. And nothing is simply entertainment anymore. Everything has to have a political agenda injected.
Sixty seven years ago, we didn?t have TV media going on a 24 hour obsessive blitz giving nut jobs the publicity they craved, repeating the same items over and over and over all day and night. The perpetrators nowadays know they will obtain the notoriety in death that they craved and were unable to receive by legitimate means in life.
So what happened? We?ve engendered several generations, parents as well as offspring, who are simply adrift with no real concept of social mores or responsibility, responsibility to society as well as to family and children.
Ladies and gentlemen, we do not have a gun problem in the United States, we have a societal problem of monstrous proportions. And the trend that has evolved over the last sixty seven years or so needs to be reversed. Guns are simply a convenient scapegoat to allow people to avoid responsibility for their own actions in allowing our once great society to deteriorate to its current level of moral decay. I don?t consider myself a moralist, but enough is enough!
In seeking a solution, many, many people need look no farther than the mirror. To reiterate an old clich?, guns don?t kill people, people kill people.
When I was a Junior in high school in 1951, the Senior class used a fully functional, however obviously unloaded, .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol as a prop in a class play?and no one gave it a second thought. It was simply an inanimate object necessary to the plot of the play.
Yet mass shootings were virtually unheard of.
So, what has changed?
Sixty seven years ago, most all children in the United States, regardless of skin color, were raised in a functional, two parent family by parents who looked at their role as parents as a serious lifelong commitment and responsibility, not as an inconvenience to be shunted off onto someone else.
Sixty seven years ago, divorce was obtainable only in the most dire situations, and the divorcees were viewed by society as failures because they had failed to honor the sacred oaths they took at the altar when they were wed. Nowadays, a divorce is as easy to obtain as a loaf of bread, with no stigma attached, regardless of the psychological aftermath to the children involved.
Sixty seven years ago, any woman who had a child out of wedlock was an outcast and was ostracized by her peers. The woman was considered ?damaged goods? and forever after unmarriageable. Therefore, women avoided having children out of wedlock at all costs. Nowadays, half the babies in this country are born out of wedlock and nobody gives it a thought.
Sixty seven years ago, it was unthinkable for a man and a woman to live together without the benefit of marriage, and if it occurred it was referred to derogatorily as ?shacking up?. Nowadays, it?s so commonplace as to become the rule rather than the exception.
Sixty seven years ago, there were no Politically Correct child psychologists shielding children from failure. If a child failed a grade in school, they unceremoniously repeated the entire grade until they passed. Children grew up learning to overcome failures and learned that failure is a part of life. Nowadays, psychologists refuse to let a child fail. Then when a child grows up and finds failure actually is a reality of life, they can?t handle it.
Sixty seven years ago, attaining adulthood, whatever your educational level, was a serious rite of passage that included obtaining a meaningful job and becoming a contributing member of society. Nowadays, in too many cases if someone does not hand a young adult a job on a platter, they simply withdraw, watch TV, and play video games all day. (And night). And their parents, if they have any functional ones, let them get away with it.
Sixty seven years ago, welfare existed for only the most dire situations. People worked at whatever work was available, no matter how menial, if they expected to eat. And at any level, they took pride in doing a job well. As long as people could scrape by, using any means at hand, personal pride kept them from accepting welfare. Nowadays, there?s an entire sub-culture in America that considers welfare an entitlement.
Sixty seven years ago, or even fifty, video games did not exist to numb one?s mind to violence and actually glorify violence. Entertainment was wholesome and was not based on the denigration of societal mores. Comedians knew how to be funny without resorting to crude and offensive language. Nowadays, it seems no stand-up comic can be considered funny if his or her routine is not a steady barrage of four letter words and comments on bodily functions. And nothing is simply entertainment anymore. Everything has to have a political agenda injected.
Sixty seven years ago, we didn?t have TV media going on a 24 hour obsessive blitz giving nut jobs the publicity they craved, repeating the same items over and over and over all day and night. The perpetrators nowadays know they will obtain the notoriety in death that they craved and were unable to receive by legitimate means in life.
So what happened? We?ve engendered several generations, parents as well as offspring, who are simply adrift with no real concept of social mores or responsibility, responsibility to society as well as to family and children.
Ladies and gentlemen, we do not have a gun problem in the United States, we have a societal problem of monstrous proportions. And the trend that has evolved over the last sixty seven years or so needs to be reversed. Guns are simply a convenient scapegoat to allow people to avoid responsibility for their own actions in allowing our once great society to deteriorate to its current level of moral decay. I don?t consider myself a moralist, but enough is enough!
In seeking a solution, many, many people need look no farther than the mirror. To reiterate an old clich?, guns don?t kill people, people kill people.
