The last few days have been difficult to say the least.  Killings in El Paso and Dayton, death of a local  fellow citizen I’ve known for some time and a few other people lately who have passed — all serve to realize life is precious and at times fleeting.

I was expecting to muse on a completely different subject, but realize sometimes other things not planned take precedence.  To those who’ve passed, may God bless their souls.

The shootings in El Paso and Dayton have brought out the gun control advocates.  I understand, don’t agree, but I understand.  Any time something like this happens the “there needs to be a law” howling starts.  It is understandable and wrongheaded, but a way of dealing with the inability to control the world around us.

Guns are a tool, just like an ax or hammer, and all can be used as lethal weapons.  There were eight people killed in Chicago over the weekend and not a word about it.  I’m sure most if not all were killed by firearms, which are illegal to have in the city limits.  Guess the bad guys can’t read.

In 1996, there was a minister, Rev. Joe Wright, asked to open the new sessions of the Kansas Senate. This is what they heard:

“Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask Your forgiveness and to seek Your direction and guidance.  We know Your Word says, ‘Woe to those who call evil good,’ but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.

“We confess:

“We have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it pluralism.  We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism. We have endorsed perversion and called it alternative lifestyle. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.  We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice.  We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem. We have abused power and called it politics.  We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.  We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

“Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women how have been sent to direct us to the center of your will.  I ask it in the Name of Your Son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.”

Most of the mass shootings done the last few years are perpetrated by angry, lonely, dejected, rejected, bullied young men with a mindset of revenge for being in the state they were in before pulling the trigger.  The gun was the tool, the instrument. The killer was pulling the trigger and killing people. Young men who feel they had no other way for attention. Mentally disturbed – no doubt!

But reading the prayer of Rev. Joe Wright above, and you wonder why we are in the present state we are in?  We have raised a generation of young people with no guidance, no direction, no hope, no future – all because we have failed as parents?  Many without a father in the home.  I don’t buy the reasoning all of the millennial generation are hopeless . They just haven’t been tested by adversity, tempered in the fire of competition, and understanding how to shrug off nay-sayers and carry on to lead good, moral and productive lives.

What would have happened if these young men had just one or two good friends to help them cope with life, someone to talk to, to speak of the future and aspirations?  What if a teacher or counselor would have noticed the behavior of a lone wolf and tried to get them help? Did anyone care?  Evidently not.

We are not a loving country, one that I grew up in that you worried more about what would happen if the school called your folks.  You could put up with a whipping, but not “I’m so disappointed in you.”  We’ve lost the “village” that helped raise me and others of my generation that could have gone either way in growing up without others helping.  A kind word, a short talk about what’s going on in school or your life – what are you going to do next year?

Simple thinking, of course, but so true.  Most difficult problems when broken down have a simple solution once all the parameters are known. We will be angry and demand something be done about firearms. I will let those grinding axes keep grinding.  Sooner or later there will be nothing left to grind.

More “gun control” will not control killing – look at Chicago.

The rotting of America from within continues…