Poor Richard  

Recently, some commentators from the left of the political spectrum suggested that the support of the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms by some commentators were directly responsible for the violence in this country. I have never heard anymore obvious hypocrisy than to think that mere support of a basic right upon which this country was established could be responsible for the conditions in this country.

Meanwhile, we also have those on the right of the political spectrum that staunchly takes the stand that any attempts to regulate control of ownership of firearms will somehow bring this nation to collapse.

The truth is that the current climate towards to violence and laws in general is a very complex subject, however, there are certain trends that anyone should be able to see contributes more towards this attitude than others. The removal of the emphasis and teaching of the basic societal mores of integrity, morality, and respect for our laws is the underpinning for the decay in abhorrence toward the use of violence.

We have completely supplanted the teachings in the home by parents to the children of basic societal norms with a sterile flood of disregard for law and authority. Not only have we removed from our educational systems but that system has been legally estopped from doing so by the perversion of the concept of church and state. Furthermore, this disregard for sanctity of basic societal norms has been extensively been eroded by the tendency of our schools of higher education to forsake our system of government and to begin the propagandizing of the socialist and communistic forms of government.

Is it any wonder that the average citizen of this country has such little regard for law and life itself when our Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, makes the statement that enforcement of our laws is un-American. We sit idly by while millions of individuals flaunt our laws by coming into this country illegally and acerbates the problem by working when they are not legally entitled to do so.

The moral and ethical decay of this country is at the root of such disregard for the sanctity of life. We see it over and over again in the brainwashing fodder being produced by the movie industry in this country. A mere forty years ago the emphasis in this country by the movie industry was to reinforce and embrace the American ideals of fair play and justice.

Yes, the old cowboy westerns of that time in the light of today's society, were hokey. However, one needs to look beyond the hokiness and see the underlying message. The guy in the white hat would always do the right thing and stop the bad guys from taking advantage of the helpless and hapless. How many times was it that the good guy would out draw the bad guy shooting his gun form his hand allowing him to be arrested to face justice.

Yeah, the story line is lame but the message that underlies that lame story line was that the American way of life was the preferable way and that a respect for life and the rights of others was paramount. Today, the message is that law doesn't mean anything and as a matter of fact laws are made to be ignored. Life is disposable and has no real meaning.

How can we expect that our society would reflect anything but that which we teach!