A teenager takes a knife to school and slashes as many of his classmates as he can. A man parks a truck full of fertilizer and fuel oil in front of a federal building and blows it up. A man shoots everyone he sees from a tower on a college campus. A young man kills his 4-month-old daughter because she is crying. We have seen this over and over again and still are surprised when it happens. Killing a large number at one time is sensational, but killing a large number one or two at a time gets very little air time in the media. There have been 600 killed in Chicago this year but very little coverage in the national media. It would be terrible if ratings were the cause of the difference in coverage.
Why these atrocities occurred has been explained many times in many different ways, but it is evident that over the years we have done very little to stop it from happening again. The true reason for a person to become psychotic enough to kill can be blamed on a lot of things, but we never dive into their environment as part of ours. Everything is local, and the society that one lives in is never mentioned. They had domestic trouble or they were bullied or there was a history of mental illness is the reason usually given with terrorism being added in the last few years.
If we compare our present societal morals and ethics with those started with the Founders’ dreams, it is readily apparent that we have changed our way of life. This country was founded with Judeo-Christian values, and freedom was given to man for the first time in the history of the world. This freedom allowed a citizen to pursue his dreams and become anything that he wanted to be. This has evolved to the present where freedom has changed to being able to shirk responsibility or disobey the law. We readily accept pay without working for it and free care for all of our needs. Both have become generational. Welfare has stripped people of all their self-esteem and returned them to serfdom without any responsibility. They have become slaves who do not work but have no future except the next government check.
Our modern moral code and ethics are driven by the seven deadly sins. We are exposed to many different ideas except those of the moral code of the great religions and the Judeo-Christian ethic of yesteryear. Religion is not allowed in our schools unless it is a prayer room for Muslim students and the Ten Commandments have been removed from public exposure. Mayors of many cities defy federal immigration law and a previous president refused to live up to his oath of office and only enforced the laws he agreed with. Somehow he appointed himself as judge and jury. Small minorities can shut down a public display by threatening to sue. A man I knew in Iowa lost his farm to the state university hospital after they had used up his capped medical insurance. They treated his daughter for a blood cancer, and the treatment was unsuccessful. She died, and the hospital continued to ruin the rest of his family. A local company just fired employees with over thirty years of service and close to retirement. Apparently even with the executives making salaries in the tens of millions, they have to make up for the losses incurred when lowering the price of the EpiPen. The freedom of religion and enjoying a holiday is now under threat because it may offend someone. Every now and then the threatened gets mad and grabs a gun or a knife or a truck full of fertilizer and fuel oil. The weapon will be what is at hand.
We can blame guns or mental illness or ideology or whatever, but if we are to stop the slaughter, the rule of law will have to apply to each one of us and our way of life, and our entertainment will have to return to one of morality and the ethics of our Founders. We need to fill our churches, synagogues and mosques. All of the Gods we worship now must be replaced by the one true God, and somehow we have to learn to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
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