Thinking Out Loud, Volume CCCLIX

Something has changed. There's no question about that. There is a question, however, about whether or not we can change it back, and if we can, do we have the will to do so. You see, I started school in the late fifties, graduated from high school in 1969, and then from college in 1973. I can honestly say that during my school age years, I don't think the thought ever crossed my mind even once that someone could walk onto our campus and start randomly shooting students and teachers. If that ever happened during that period of time, I never heard of it. Now it has become almost commonplace. Somehow, somewhere along the way, something has changed. When I was a child, it would annoy me when I would hear older people running down the younger generation and saying things like, "I don't know what's gonna happen to this world when they're in charge," but now I look back and wonder if maybe they could foresee some things that we couldn't. I have to admit that things haven't gone so well on our watch. One could argue that it's not our generation that's shooting up the schools, theaters, and malls; and that's true, but it is coming from the generation that we raised. So who's to blame? Are guns the problem? Considering the fact that when I was a child most families had at least one gun in their home, the answer must be "no." I've also heard the argument that most of these crimes today are being committed by people who are mentally unstable. That may be correct, but is mental instability a new thing? I don't think so. My point is if we try to pin the blame on factors that haven't changed that much from generation to generation, we may be barking up the wrong tree. Let's talk about the things that HAVE changed. In 1959, the year I turned eight years old, the divorce rate was 22%. Just 26 years later (one generation), in 1985, it reached the 50% mark. What about the TV shows we watch? When I was a kid, most of the sitcoms were about families. I don't watch that much TV any more, but the last sitcom I can remember that was about a normal, functional family was "The Cosby Show," and that show was discontinued years ago. And while we're on that subject, the old shows never had any four letter words, and now they can't make one without them. We did have the "shoot 'em up" westerns back then, but the scenes weren't nearly as graphic as today. As a whole, we've lowered our standards in regards to the subject matter we allow in our homes in front of our children. We even have to be careful with the cartoons. When I was a kid, we didn't have X-Box or Playstation. We had a cardboard box, which became our play station. I wonder how many people our kids have "killed" through their video games by the time they turn twenty-one. In my day, we could even publicly display "The Ten Commandments." Would someone please explain to me just which of those commandments are bad for society...and why? In many areas of our country, we can't even place a manger scene on any public property. I don't think our parents' generation would have stood for that. You should look up church attendance trends in the last generation and see which direction it's going, and it's generally believed that many people are not truthful when polled on that question. In other words, they may say they attend regularly, when they actually only attend a few times a year. Today when someone commits a mass shooting, we have the twenty-four hour news channels who bring the fame to the deranged shooter that he was craving. Yes, we had crime back in those days, such as the assassination of the President, but it was nothing like we are witnessing today. The way I see it, fixing the problems we're now facing cannot be accomplished through legislation or legalism; we have to somehow fix the hearts of people. Those are a few examples of how things are different today than they were in the previous generation, and one may look at any of them and argue that that just couldn't be the root of the problem, but putting all of them together just may be a major factor in the decline of our society. If we want to find the solution to this issue, we must be willing to take an honest look at the root of the problem, and to find this "root," taking a look at how society has changed over the years should be our first step. I know a solution that would work. If we could somehow convince everyone to pattern their lives after Christ, all crime would disappear. The locksmiths would all go out of business, because there would be no need for them. Now to just figure out how to accomplish that task. It would entail making a 180 degree turn from the direction we're headed now. Everyone wants to put an end to these senseless shootings, but are they willing to face facts and do what it takes to make it happen? We shall see. Preston