Commentary: A Horrifying and Lethal Case of Boredom

BET ^ | August 21, 2013 | Jonathan P. Hicks

[Hojczyk]

Beyond that, it is yet another painful sign of how gun violence has become far too rampant in America and access to firearms has become far too effortless. Anyone with determination — including teenagers — can get a hold of a semi-automatic firearm as easily as buying hand sanitizer in a drug store.

Moreover, there is something so deeply amiss in a world where teenagers shoot and kill passersby simply to deal with their sense of boredom. For many, that was the void once filled by sports, the arts, pastimes and hobbies — even television. This sad incident in Oklahoma should remind the nation of the need for more homes to benefit from the presence of mentors who can provide guidance to a generation of young people for whom such models are painfully absent.

Instead of straining to make this a racial incident and indictment of the civil rights leaders, this event should be looked at squarely as an example of how the nation’s porous and lax gun laws have intersected with a deep-seated cultural void to produce young people with a lack of character and basic human decency.

[elcid1970]

Heck, I once thought Morgenstern and Rubenstein were German-only names. Still wondering if the haters have added `Jew’ to their list of GZ’s bad qualities.

[Sherman Logan]

Actually, that’s not true. Many millions of slaves and others have been worked to death over the centuries.