The frequency of school shootings has become almost commonplace since the one that happened at Columbine High School in 1999. The number of guns being made and sold should be cause for alarm, but instead of banning them, more people are buying them. I have heard that there are more guns than people in this country! The violence in our world has become the most infectious disease – not COVID. Our children (and in my case, grandchildren and great-grandchildren) are being manipulated and influenced through the media and we are doing nothing to stop it. The deaths inflicted by guns are worse than any plague or insect invasion. Guns are the worst idea to ever originate in the mind of man. If we are ever to achieve world peace, it will not be until the day that every last gun is disassembled and no longer recognizable.
The brawl behind the school building to settle a dispute, has escalated into cyber bullying and death threats. Our children are not learning how to be contributing members of society, but how to protect themselves in an increasingly dangerous world. Instead of looking for peaceful ways to resolve conflict, they mistakenly believe that they can confront violence with more violence. Today’s adults are not showing them a better way. Racism may have slightly subsided, but it appears to be rearing its ugly head yet again.
Yesterday’s Uvalde, Texas elementary school (elementary school!) shooting that resulted in the deaths of 14 children and one teacher, is one more horrific tragedy that could have, should have been avoided. School for most children is due to let out for the summer in just a few days. Now 14 children won’t have a summer to enjoy and their surviving classmates will be forever scarred. Are we becoming numbed by the frequency with which these rampages are happening?
Children imitate what they see adults doing. It is the things we do and not the things we say that leave them with lasting impressions. It is up to us, the adults in the world, to put away the implements of hatred and show our children that kindness is the greatest weapon we can use against our enemies.
