A young man I had worked with a few years ago sent me a note and picture recently. He and his wife had a baby after years of marriage, although attempts at starting a family were futile and with one miscarriage. I was please they now have a child and blessed with a healthy baby boy.

I remember when my grandson was born we were so happy after a miscarriage a few years before. How many others have tried and tried to start a family and have found it more difficult than ever suspected. After reading about the diminishing fertility rate in Americans, what is the cause?

There are many I have heard of in the past few years of work friends and their families that have experienced the same dilemma. When my wife and I were young it seemed like it was almost impossible not to get pregnant, whether you wanted children or not. Of course “the Pill” freed more people to have sex and not pay the consequences of raising a child or having an abortion for those choosing to do so.

Being a Christian, I never thought it was a viable option for us, no matter what the circumstances. I didn’t always think that way, but my heart softened and I turned around after seeing my child being born and raising him in the world.

Luckily, my friend and his wife have now what they always wanted as a couple and I’m so pleased to see joy in their faces as they look at their baby.

However, there are many children in the world being raised in a single parent family home by a parent or grandparent without any father figure. Of course, we all know a bad role model is sometimes worse than none, but I would submit a good male figure would help work wonders for these kids. I had great-grandparents, grandparents and a mother and father growing up, helping to guide me into a productive and good citizen.

But how many people, especially young boys and men need that role model and fail to get any? If you look at the recent school shooters in the past few years, you find angry, maladjusted, unstable young people. They probably were bullied and/or ostracized for whatever reasons, helping to push them to retaliate with gunfire and killing their fellow students.

I think part of the reason is taking the normal tension among young men, with testosterone and emotions high during junior high and high school, the normal fight to establish a “pecking order” is highly discouraged and banned. When I was in school, a few boys having a beef with each other duked it out, one lost, the other won, or a tie was evident. After a few days, all was forgotten and they were friends again.

Now it is discouraged to the degree any time a fight happens, kids are expelled or given days off school and counseling for something that is natural and happens in humans and the animal world.

I’m not going to attack the NRA or gun manufacturers. The school killing tragedies are a fairly recent occurrence. The guns were always there since the founding of the country, but nobody thought about killing others at school. Why in the past 10 years has it become commonplace?

I’m not going to point out the senseless displays of misdirected anger by the likes of David Hogg or others. But I am going to point the direct cause of the killings and it is the kid behind the weapon pulling the trigger. Do you ever hear about them any more? No, and the reason is if you put a human face on the actions resulting in the killings you can’t attack or disrupt those you want to destroy.

The incident is a catapult to the real impetus behind the David Hoggs of the world. A classic leftist tactic with Saul Alinsky’s (“Rules for Radicals” author) fingerprints all over it.

On another note, it is amazing the NFL is tying itself into knots trying to placate everyone in the anthem debate. If they would have taken the bull by the horns when the San Francisco quarterback took a knee to protest the anthem because of his view toward the treatment of African-Americans by police.

I’m not going to argue the merits of his actions. He should have been roundly excoriated by his management and fined and /or benched and directed if he wants to protest to do it on his own time. He was representing the San Francisco 49er football team, his workplace and teammates. To protest was certainly his right, just not on the premises or on their network or radio time.

Now the NFL has lost huge amounts of revenue due to the lowering of advertising and advertising rates and loss of viewership. The liberals will cry foul, he had a right to do it in the workplace! I direct them to do the same thing in their workplace, protest something during workplace hours and see how long they last with their employer.

The first action would be a warning and management consultation, the next would be time off (probably unpaid), the third would be termination. Don’t believe me? Try it at your place of work. If there is a U.S. flag flying in front of your workplace, walk out, take it down, stomp on it and set if afire. If you aren’t punched senseless by a veteran or patriot, consider yourself lucky. If you are just terminated, consider yourself an insensitive jerk and you might want to consider moving to another country.

My vote would be to hire a U-Haul and get on with it.