Letter to the editor: Here’s my thoughts on what led up to the Florida school shooting

February 18, 2018 Cueball

The following is a letter to the editor written by John Munro.

To the editor:

Here it is, the day after the latest school shooting. The news networks are a constant buzz about everything we really don’t care to know about, but their pushing it anyway. Almost immediately after the shots starting ringing out, the ultra far left harpies started in on the need for more gun control.

I’ve always wondered, if these people were really sincere, why haven’t they called for banning cars because some drunk ran into a load of school kids and killed them. I guess it’s OK to call for banning something you don’t like, regardless that it’s an inanimate object that can’t act on it’s own, if it serves your purpose and goals. At least that’s what they think. It’s all about control, you see, not about the guns.

Even since the Columbine school massacre in 1999, it seems that there is no shortage of copy cat shoot-em-ups. Whether it be another school, movie theater, church, mall or anywhere else that people congregate in large numbers, there is someone in the shadows waiting for the right time to make a big name for their selves.

As of lately, some of these shootings have been linked to radical Muslim terrorism, which is somewhat in a league of it’s own as it tends to be non discriminate in who the targets are, anybody will do. Another area which pretty much stands alone is the acts perpetrated by outfits such as Black Lives Matter, or the New Black Panthers which seems to target law enforcement in general, white law enforcement in particular.

But the main ones I wish to consider are those acts brought about by young students, or former students against other students. While all acts of terrorism are particularly gruesome and horrifying, this last area seems to be the worse.

I’m sure everyone has a belief as to what the reasons are for these kind of things. It can run an entire football field of different opinions, some of which are legitimate and actually make sense, to the otherwise crazy off the wall ideas dreamed up by those who I would consider 2 cans short of a six pack. I would like to briefly explore some of the ideas that I consider to be paramount. Obviously, one could probably write a book about any of these I’m going to present, but I’m going to try to limit the amount account of space and time.

1. A breakdown of religious beliefs and practices. Over the last 50 or so years, less and less people seem to belief in the Christian religion. Or if they do belief in it, they tend to not actively participate any more, by not attending church services. This, of course, can vary from region to region, but when one looks at the large population centers, it’s pretty obvious. Also, the media, which is controlled by the far left socialists, tends to discourage Christianity altogether, while pretty much ignoring other religious groups such as Jews and Muslims.

2. A breakdown of the family nucleus. When I was a kid growing up in the 50’s and 60’s single parent families did exist, but at least around here, there didn’t seem to be very many of them. Now it seems that complete two adult families are getting harder and harder to find. Oh sure, there are a lot of couples that raise children from either one or both sides of failed marriages or other relationships, but it doesn’t seem like they want to actually get married anymore.

And, of course, there is an abundance of single mothers out there trying to raise children on their own, some with support of their families, but some are totally on their own. I could go on and on with this topic, but I’m sure it’s time to move along.

3. A lack of proper punishment for children who break the rules. I can remember when I was growing up that if you threw a fit when in public, mom or dad would likely swat me a time or two to get me to shut up. It usually worked. I wasn’t the most perfect child growing up, back in that time I guess I could have been called rather rowdy. In today’s world, probably more along the lines of felonious. I guess I was probably more than a handful back then, but I lived through it, as did my parents.

You see, in that time if you got out of line in school bad enough, you got a spanking, at the very least with a yardstick but more than likely with a paddle, I received this “corporal punishment” more than once, but if always seemed to work pretty well, as I would shut up and do what was expected. If memory serves me correctly, the last time I got a good whipping was in junior high. Interesting enough, according to one of my former teachers, that was about the time this sort of punishment was discontinued.

4. Political Correctness. At one time Texas A&M university used to have a yearly contest to define the latest contemporary term. I don’t know if they still do this or not. Anyway, the contemporary term for 2007 was Political Correctness, and the winning definition was as follows: “Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.”

I couldn’t agree more. What this means in school settings is it is absolutely forbidden to talk about just about anything that might cause someone to be uncomfortable, which would mean that they might have to think about something. Also, don’t even think about showing affection to that cute little girl that you met last week, or refusing to congregate with other children that may be somewhat different than you.

Where we seem to be at now, if little Johnny doesn’t want to pay attention and act by the new normal standards, they schedule a visit to the local head doctor who loads him up with Ritalin and turns him into a zombie, then later loads him up with some psychotropic drug that turns him into a murderous monster. What a bonus.

Anyway, I’m just an over-the-hill old geezer that clings to living in the past. What do I know. I’ve left you all a pretty good stack of rocks for you to throw, and I welcome the feedback. However, being a cranky old fart, I have a few rules of my own. If you want a response from me, you must sign your name to the comment. I don’t believe in hiding behind some handle or alias, however I do enjoy reading all the responses.