Posted on 01/21/2013 8:08:40 AM PST by Kaslin
When people reminisce about what America used to be like, some act scornfully toward us. They say living in a Donna Reed world was great for a few, but that there were many suffering souls. The way our country is today makes some of us long for those days which seemed so innocent compared to the harsh, cruel, coarse, and sometimes murderous days we exist in today.
Yet most would argue that there were still injustices when we were growing up fifty years ago. Black people who had been freed a century before were still not treated equally in most parts of the country. Many women were limited in their businesses, political, and professional opportunities. And if they did enter any of those careers, they were capped as to what they could achieve. Few would want a return to those aspects of days past. Yet they would seem almost welcome compared to the experiences we have had in Newtown, Aurora and Tucson.
Even though now more than a month has passed, the pain of what happened in Sandy Hook Elementary school stills burns deeply in our hearts. There were some who started assigning blame for what happened within days which was clearly indecent during a national mourning period. Yes, we need to find paths to resolve the deep divisions that trouble this country. But will that really take us back to a simpler time? After all, the residents of Newtown likely lived there to avoid all this cultural degradation and live a Leave It to Beaver life where the biggest challenges were errant children chewing gum in class.
A yearning exists for the days when children rode their bikes to schools, which were open with flowing green fields where they frolicked under minimal supervision. Now children are escorted by grownups to their schools, which are fenced in and then locked down. Remember even at Sandy Hook the school was locked down at 9:30 each morning, just as almost all elementary schools are today.
What does it say to the children of our country that they have to be escorted everywhere they go? Are they left to think that wherever they go there are people in uniforms providing security and their parents are on a constant vigil watching them? What kind of country have we passed to them?
That we cannot as the grownups in this society come to some agreement of how to resolve this only makes matters worse. With every single massacre, we instantaneously divide into two camps. There are those who immediately shriek that it was the gun at fault, completely ignoring the other societal factors that brought a deranged madman to execute an unfathomable act. Then there are those who argue that there exists nothing that we can do to keep the means of mass murder out of the hands of these freaks.
Come on folks, we can do something about this, but the suggestion by Wayne LaPierre of the NRA to put armed guards on all campuses seems so distasteful. Already an estimated third of our children go to schools that have armed guards. We should not unreasonably restrict our Second Amendment rights because of these maniacs, but putting our kids on lock down would just make matters so much more obscene.
We have not yet had a coherent conversation about how to move forward. The people who want more gun control lurch into nonsensical talk about bazookas or tanks with very little knowledge of guns or how they function. People like the editor of the Journal News (Westchester area of New York), who listed the names and addresses of local gun owners in the newspaper, display to what extent the left will go to restrict gun ownership. They are scary as their actions are reminiscent of command and control countries that totally restrict gun rights.
Some people do not understand that there is a difference regarding gun owners. It is not like obtaining a drivers license. That is a privilege. The right to own a gun is embedded in our Constitution. It is there for a reason. The unrepentant Caryn A. McBride, Editor of the Journal News which listed the home addresses of prison guards and district attorneys in her cause to restrict gun ownership, scares us and should scare you. It brings into question the rationale for a federal gun registry when ownership is a right not a privilege.
Yet, there are things that are just not going right. We have lost sight of the faith, family, and community that built this country. Our government has become too big yet cannot even confront the truly mentally ill among us. As Charles Murray taught us in his most recent book, Coming Apart, even our rock solid middle-class communities are falling apart. The amount of children being raised without proper parenting is just appalling. And when people do get married, far too many are getting divorced for their own selfish reasons while thinking their children will be just fine. Boys need fathers and not just as appendages.
Never being a fan of video games, we would just as soon trash them, but that would be a First Amendment problem. Yet, when politicians decry weapons, they should really assault the culture vultures who sell these games that desensitize young males. Our President booted this issue to be studied in his recent proposal. That means zero will happen on this aspect of the problem. Why do we have to hear this nonsense that only protects these products? Moral suasion still works as has been effective with cigarette smoking, so why cant we do the same with these disgusting games? Why do parents acquiesce to allow the constant devolution of young male minds?
You may wonder why so many people bemoan our current culture and hark back to happier times. Maybe it is not as bucolic as we paint it, but our children certainly lived a more innocent existence. What our goal should be is to bring all children to those wonderful times instead of bringing every child down to the lowest common denominator. The innocence of childhood can never be devalued. It can only be lost. Lets not have the innocence of another group of youngsters lost like we have at Sandy Hook. Lets show some leadership.
That’s what I’m seeing.
The “formerly oppressed” don’t seek freedom,
they seek revenge.
Excellent response. Our early education forms our basic thought system.
Essentially we have been brain washed by ‘political correctness.’ We have been perverted by leaders that lie to us and use their power to be self serving for them and their falily. And we ignored these actions.
LOOK how rich all our Congress, and top government offices heads are after a very short time. They lie, and want above all else to stay in office for the rest of their lives.
CORRUPTION. SHAMEFUL!!!
God help America in Jesus name, amen.
This country began its descent into Progressivism and ultimate ruin exactly 100 years ago, starting with the income tax. Everything that began as “reasonable” has become progressively worse.
If you define “privileged” to mean rich like the liberals do!
JFK had a bad character, but look at his “privileged” life:
1) He attended Harvard back when it was hard
2) His eldest brother died in WW II at age 29
3) In 1941, after medical disqualification by the Army for
his back problems he joined the Navy and was a real hero
4) In 1947 diagnosed with Addison’s disease
5) He and Jackie had a miscarriage, a still birth, and a child who died shortly after birth
6) He was assassinated at age 46
Im not sure what his record is, whether he sought and saw combat?
*******
The answer is yes to both. Also, JFK famously said “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”. Imagine a liberal saying that today.
I’m actually not a big fan of JFK as he made some major blunders doing his brief politcal career. But he would be considered conservative by today’s standards.
False Dichotomy. I stopped reading right there. I already know this author is going to spend a good chunk of the balance of the article ragging the NRA.
Really miss the good old days...don't you...
No, you asked me what the “expectations” were.
I told you.
And yeah... sure... I’m a “racist”.
Pull the other one and it plays jingle bells.
Now, if you want to call me a “culturalist”, that I am.
We’ll argue for about 2 minutes about what culture is “better” and which is “inferior”.
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Oh, did Hollywood make up segregation in schools, housing, transportation, jobs...? Thanks, I really didn't know that.
Seriously, stating the truth about any point in history is not propaganda of any kind; and the lesser of two evils is still evil.
[[Im actually not a big fan of JFK as he made some major blunders doing his brief politcal career. But he would be considered conservative by todays standards.]]
niehter am I but liek you say, he was very conservative by todays stadnards, and does deserve soem respect by the right for that fact- He is a lbieral that, while I dissagreed with him, I could respect somewhat- there are very few such democrats today- their party has sunk to lows that previous dems woudl find astonishing
[[If you define privileged to mean rich like the liberals do!]]
I did mispeak somewhat- Yes, he had a hardl ife, and went through many tragedies, however, lots of peopel have just as ahard a time or worse due to fact they aren’t peopel of means- I was speaking mainly of the fact that he had a privileged life cocnernign wealth and the oportunities that average people never get-
For many generations parents have not been making sure that their children are being taught the Founding States' division of federal and state government powers evidenced by the Constitution's Section 8 of Article I, Article V and the 10th Amendment. Consequently, corrupt Congress and the Oval Office have not only been wrongly usurping 10th Amendment protected state powers and stealing state revenues associated with those unique state powers, but constitutionally ignorant state lawmakers are now regularly begging Congress for federal funding for state projects, state lawmakers not making the connection that federal funding is based on state revenues that Congress stole in the form of illegal federal taxes. (Are you listening bankrupt California?)
In fact, Justice John Marshall had officially clarified that Congress is prohibited from laying taxes in the name of state power issues, issues which Congress cannot justify under Section 8.
"Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States." --Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
Military issues aside, an examination of Section 8 shows that the main activity that Congress can regulate within the states is postal services (Article I, Section 8, Clause 7).
Sad but true, but not so much in my own family, thank God.
Interesting! I had not noticed that, but you may be right. 40 is the number of judgment in the Word of God.
Scary, yet exciting, at the same time.
“Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:32-35).
Long term use.
I would just wish the truth would matter to you.
You sound like Obama. Those rich people - it’s so unfair!
In Kennedy’s time, government was much smaller and anyone could get rich in America if they were willing to work hard. But, riches was never the definition of the American Dream back then. The America Dream was that a person was free to choose his own way of life and not required to follow in his father’s footsteps or class in life.
I know the truth very well. And it is not, as you would have us believe, that decades of institutional racism, Jim Crow, segregation and exclusion of Black Americans from schools, housing, jobs, transportation, etc are not the creation of Hollywood...they are the true history of our country. If you need to paper over that truth by blaming Hollywood or the media then it is you for whom the truth does not matter.
They're quite wrong about that. Marijuana is not even a hallucinogen like LSD.
Long term use.
I'm highly skeptical that even long term use of marijuana does "psychotic, LSD-like damage." What are the exact words your progressive liberal textbooks use on this subject?
[[You sound like Obama. Those rich people - its so unfair!]]
I am nothign liek his higness, and if you can’t see the difference, then whatever- I DO NOT begrudge rich people or their money- I never have never iwll- if you bothered to check on my past posts to learn soemthign about me before makign your comment you would clearly see this- You wqill CLEARLY see that I am all abotu keepign governemnt OUT of rich folk’s pockets- abotu refusting htose who claim the rich don’t deserve to keep their hard earned money, that I’m completely agaisnt punishign rich peopel for their hard earned success- so yeah- You obviously know nothign about me- but apaprently found it necessary to chiem in anyways abotu somethign you know nothign about?
I simply foudn it IRONIC that a person of means was lecturing peopel without means- if tyou can’t see irnony in that then whatever-
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