The Aurora Tragedy: Plenty of Blame to go Around

The tragedy in Aurora, Colorado, has given this nation pause. Pyramided on top of the school shooting in Chardon, OH, and the Giffords shooting and the Virginia Tech massacre not to mention Columbine, America is once again asking the question what is wrong in our society that this keeps happening. Unfortunately, there is plenty of blame to go around, and none of it is fixable. Sure you are going to get the anti-gun lobby screaming and yelling, and maybe they are right but I don’t think so. The issues are much more profound.

We have lost our way in this country. The foundation upon which America was built is crumbling. For over two hundred years we were rooted in the Protestant work ethic and individual initiative. Our moral code was rooted in the church. Our support group was the family. Help and charity came from within, and we were a generous people.

Not anymore. Families are no longer important as alternative life styles have risen to the surface. Marriages are delayed…easily entered into…and easily ended. While the feminist movement has brought long deserved equality to females, the men in our society have been shoved out and ignored. Women readily accept the notion that they don’t really need a man around. They can have it all and on their own.

Religion has been ripped from our society. Attendance in mainline Protestant churches is at an all time low. The Christian roots of this nation have been sprayed with a good dose of Round Up. Separation of church and state, designed to promote religious tolerance, has been bastardized into an atheistic frenzy. Thou Shalt Not Kill is not on the school walls anymore. Where are we supposed to learn that?

In its place we have a religion of environmentalism, technology, and secularism. And our children are supposed to find a moral compass where? Certainly not from the government that has diminished human life sanctioning hundreds of thousands abortions being performed each year! Can you explain to me the difference between a late term abortion of a fetus that can survive outside the womb and the killing of a baby immediately after it is born? I don’t think so. So how does one learn the value of human life? We have genocide of the unborn…and next will be genocide of the elderly.

Technology has replaced human contact. Where does one learn empathy from Facebook or texting or emails? It is a cold, hard world. Dial up the telephone company for service and you get an endless phone tree usually ending up right back where you started. I have two telephone lines at home. The second line is out and I can’t reach anyone at ATT to fix it…just an email confirmation that service is pending. Been there! Done that! I need to set aside an hour to try to reach a human to fix it.

In today’s world, there are no rules by which to judge our actions. Take God and the sanctity of human life out of the equation, what is left? So….we get anger and disaffection. We get those who feel isolated and cheated. We get those who are depressed because they are alone. The question isn’t why these things happen. Given life in America today, the question is why it isn’t worse? And I suspect that it will get worse.

There is no greater hardship to individual esteem and well being than being sentenced to a life of hopelessness. THAT is where we are in America. Entry level jobs have been killed by do-gooders who think minimum wage should be able to support a family of four rather than a pathway into the job market. Employers are reluctant to hire people because they don’t know what the government is going to do them next. Corporations can’t repatriate overseas dollars thus boosting our economy because we are only one of six nations in the world that double tax overseas profits.

Even the most basic of tasks, like changing a light bulb has been made a chore by guilt for using incandescent light bulbs and guilt for disposing of the squiggly bulbs in the trash because of mercury. How many people does it take to change a light bulb? Ten…me and the Haz-Mat team!

Is it any wonder then that people finally crack? I mourn for those who died. I ache for their families. But we shouldn’t be surprised. Unless this country regains its moral compass and begins to use some common sense as to how we approach life…and begins to reclaim some semblance of human consideration…I fear it is only going to get worse.

Comments

Debbie Lawlor said…
Amen Mark!
2:25 PM
Anonymous said…
Mark, unfortunately you are right on target, but it is only going to get worse. As a note, I canceled my cell phone trying to teach kids and grandkids to communicate with a phone call to Grandpa. Its a test that is failing. Wish we could go back to the good old days? Mike K.
5:48 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Strouss-Hirshberg; Things That Aren't There Anymore

Image
Youngstown was at the heart of the American industrial revolution in the mid 1800’s. During World War I, more steel came from Youngstown than anywhere else in the world. It’s no wonder, then, that the area was home of some of the best of everything, including department stores. Strouss-Hirshberg and McKelvey’s were the Macy’s and Gimbels of northeast Ohio, and offered to local residents the best of what money could buy. Strouss will always hold a special place in the heart of this area. It is hard to believe that there are twenty somethings today that haven't heard of it, or go “huh?” when you mention it. I tried doing some research on its history. Believe it or not, it is hard to find. As near as I could figure, the Strouss Hirshberg Company was originally known as D. Theobald and Company. Isaac Strouss clerked there, and eventually bought the store in 1875 with his new partner Bernard Hirshberg. The store was incorporated in 1906. The Readers Digest version of the life of the ...
Read more

Hope vs. Aspiration

Image
Don't forget to visit http://www.markknowsitall.com/ Hope: to have a wish to get or do something or for something to happen or be true. Aspiration : a desire or ambition to achieve something. As the 2008 presidential campaign heats up, Barack Obama is in full gear selling his vision for the future of America. He is for “hope” and “change.” …and oh yes, peace. He is also for “peace.” Aren’t we all? Obama, the oratorical wunderkind with the speech cadence of Martin Luther King, is doing a fine job of telling us what we should hope for, and how he is going to give it to us. He is a riveting individual and a spell binding speech giver. Hope is a good thing, right? Obama believes Americans are “hope” deficient. Americans “hope” for universal (read “government run”) health care, even though 85% of Americans have coverage, and 25% of those who do not aren't American citizens, and an additional 14% of those who don’t can afford it but simply choose not buy it, and a portion of the re...
Read more

Donald Sutherland's Pants

An adult coming of age movie entitled Garden State made the rounds last summer. A friend of mine told me it was worth watching, so I bought the DVD. If you are a fan of movies filled with generational angst, which I am, this movie fills the bill. But if you are easily offended by casual sex, drug use, spoiled brats, and generally slovenly behavior, stick with Casablanca . Let's face it. A movie in which one of the protagonists is a grave digger who steals the jewelry off dead bodies prior to their being put in the ground is not exactly The Brady Bunch . Included in the movie soundtrack is a song called In The Waiting Line . It is a "head" song. Translated: play it while getting stoned. The lyrics ask the musical question: "Do you believe in what you see?" And that, my friends, is the topic of this week's essay. Animal House is the quintessential college frat house slob movie. It was fairly raunchy when it was released in 1978. By today's standards, i...
Read more