Quote from: Bald Hobbit on December 17, 2012, 10:16:34 PMYou, me, this man too. I don't know, I feel like posting this is appropriate. I just hope posting it doesn't violate any rules.http://rickardsreview.com/2012/12/15/america-is-to-blame-for-the-massacre-in-connecticut/I read the piece and it is pertinent and in many ways exactly how I feel. I'll let it stand in the thread.I found these two paragraphs very interesting and in my opinion spot on: But then we rejected everything that was right about America. We rejected the God-fearing, hard working, family-oriented social mores of the older generation as being at best hopelessly anachronistic, and at worst outright oppressive. We traded God for secularism. We traded love for sex. We traded sobriety for drugs. We traded order for chaos. We traded discipline for indulgence. We traded modesty for promiscuity. We traded parents for absentee fathers and baby mommas. We traded children for abortions. We traded moderation for excess. We traded home life for careers. We traded role models for celebrities. We traded solidarity for grievances. We traded music for death rock and gangsta rap. We traded wholesome entertainment for violent and pornographic movies, television, and videogames. We traded a culture which had made us great for a self-indulgent counterculture designed to destroy. We traded everything that was right and good and holy for everything that is wrong and evil and depraved. See, the problem in America is not the occasional mass shooting. That’s just a symptom, the most salient manifestation of a culture that has become entirely debauched. We don’t treat each other humanely because we don’t see each other as humans, our selfish, sex and violence-obsessed culture having conditioned us to see others as nothing more than targets of, and obstacles to our own gratification.
You, me, this man too. I don't know, I feel like posting this is appropriate. I just hope posting it doesn't violate any rules.http://rickardsreview.com/2012/12/15/america-is-to-blame-for-the-massacre-in-connecticut/
You, me, this man too. I don't know, I feel like posting this is appropriate. I just hope posting it doesn't violate any rules.http://rickardsreview.com/2012/12/15/america-is-to-blame-for-the-massacre-in-connecticut/Something is different here. This is so messed up. And this has happened seemingly so many times this year. Maybe, now we're realizing that there's something chronic about this... somehting's up, societal, spiritual, something. Maybe after Aurora, these guys feel less impeded emotionally. This year has been messed up. I'm tired of looking at the news and finding some new tragedy every week. This is the worst in a long time though. I hurt just looking at the title of a news article about it online. I wish this would end, but for all our advancements, human nature just won't change. Maybe we need to stop trying to change it, or pretending that it's changed, and start facing it.I'm sorry, this just poured out.
The Dunblaine incident in the UK was similar. The fact that some random person just walked into a school and destroyed so many lives was unfathamobile.I work in schools with the age range of the children that were killed and like others have said, they are babies really, all bright and eager to learn. They have no concept of death and evil.For me, it is a combination of the age and the fact that it is near to Christmas. loosing someone no matter what time of year is hard enough, but Christmas, which is essentially for children, seems particularly cruel. Those families will dread it forever
This evening's CBS news had a report about this massacre that essentially led to very strict gun laws in the UK. http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50137395nfor more information:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunblane_school_massacre
Quote from: saintc on December 18, 2012, 07:00:25 PMThis evening's CBS news had a report about this massacre that essentially led to very strict gun laws in the UK. http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50137395nfor more information:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunblane_school_massacreYes, here in the UK, there has been an almost complete ban on the private ownership of guns since 1997. In 2008, the US had 9,000 murders by gun. In 2008, for the UK, there were 39 murders by gun.Over in the US, you are 36 times more likely to be killed with a gun than we are here in the UK.
I am only too familiar with that statistic Jules. It makes me sick.
Quote from: tomgallagher on December 19, 2012, 08:52:39 AMI am only too familiar with that statistic Jules. It makes me sick.I know. Here in the UK, you can walk down the street in safety.In the US, one is left with the impression that people are taking pot shots at one another.
In the US, one is left with the impression that people are taking pot shots at one another.
I have found that for many issues it helps me to comprehend the problems when I have the opportunity to learn what a person outside the issue observes and says. One of my regular sources lately has been the International Edition of Spiegel, a very strong German news organization. This article presents just such a view by a person outside our country sees. While you may disagree with some particulars it strikes me that he describes the US, this particular horrific event and our reactions well. It's worth considering.http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/commentary-newton-and-the-fatal-national-identity-of-america-a-873350.html