A tragic trend

This American fad of school shootings, with yesterday’s Virginia Tech tragedy, seems to be taking off. What went wrong? Not until the last decade have we really had to deal with this, and I’m sure almost all Americans would be just as happy if we never had to deal with it again.

Would limiting access to guns make a difference? Possibly, but anyone intent on massacre will find a way to get their weapons. What about metal detectors everywhere? They’re a huge inconvenience to the 99.9% who aren’t out to kill, but they’d worth it if they did indeed prevent shootings like these. And yet we can’t have metal detectors outside; there’s nothing to prevent someone from going to Fifth Avenue and gunning down everyone in sight. Or any street anywhere in America. Will lockdowns give us safety? Or is safety a myth, an elusive phantom that lasts only until the enemy appears? We go about our lives, assuming nothing will happen. And most of the time nothing will. But more and more violence (Steven Pinker disagrees with me; oh well) is puncturing holes in our bubbles, and how much can we really do about it? Balancing freedom with safety is a dangerous act.

This is disturbing, particularly because there’s no easy solution. And I fear that all the media attention (including this post, I suppose) only exacerbates the problem. It’s becoming the standard pattern of behavior for that tiny troubled segment of society. Bad. Very bad. We have to change this, somehow.

But how? I don’t have an answer.

Like many other things, a man-made solution will not fix this problem. This is just one more element in Satan’s arsenal of war, corruption, and general wickedness. It’s only going to get worse, and yes, it will happen again.

Thus, the only remedy in sight is the gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s abstract for some, and too idealistic a solution for most, but while man-made and government-enforce programs and policies might seem to temporarily solve the issue, one need only look to history to see such events continue to occur despite any authority’s attempt to prevent them.

Living the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the antidote to the problems of our day. It is the only answer. It isn’t enough to preach the principles. We have to live the principles. We have to love everybody. We have to have charity towards ALL of God’s children. If every person felt God’s love for them and our love for them through our interactions with them, they would never get to the point that they would want to pick up a gun and do such awful deeds. The Lord has told us that charity or the pure love of Christ never fails.

To find out how I learned this lesson, you can read more about it on my post “The Photo of Bishop James” at janetwalgren.wordpress.com.

Thank you Janet, your blog was right on.

I had a similar response last evening as I posted to my blog http://donnasjourney.moorhouseacademy.org/?p=466
The post– “America Mourns Virginia Tech.”

I wrote another piece this morning about what introversion, extraversion and the difference elementary and jumior high school teachers can make in the classroom. The difference between a Teacher/manager and a Teacher Leader. OK it was a vent and got a lot out. I did not post that one. I know threads of it will show up later.

Then I read today’s news and findings. I believe that our peer socialization in schools is a Lord of the Flies mentality and this social darwinism that has replaced the golden rule in the name of separation of church and state, is coming back to haunt us.

I am glad you had the courage to open the windows of heaven to those girls at camp. That is adult leadership at its best!

I agree completely; there really is absolutely no other solution outside the gospel itself. The more things like this happen, the more solidly I realize that. Sure, we can come up with patches, duct tape and barbed wire kinds of things, but nothing except the gospel of Jesus Christ can strike at the root of the problem.