I wrote the following the day after the carnage at Sandyhook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. It is an honest appeal for a discussion and a solution. All responsible comments are welcome. If your intent is accusation or hysterical name-calling, I implore you to find another place to advance your rhetoric. It will be ignored here.
Thanks for understanding - Dick Keaton
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Yesterday, December 14, 2012, an incomprehensible tragedy fell upon all Americans: 26 human beings, 20 of whom were children - some as young as six years old - were slaughtered in an unspeakable and shameful act of carnage, by a purportedly ‘mentally disturbed’ young man, with two semi-automatic pistols and an assault rifle. Many public figures, pundits, and members of the media, with expensive educations and impressive credentials, will articulate well-crafted comments, and pen syntactically perfect and emotionally compelling articles and blogs detailing their horrors and sadness, as well as the frightening implications of this horrific act. All of this, while ineffective in defusing the effects of this tragedy, is nonetheless necessary, and in some respects will provide a collective national catharsis which, over time, will allow most of us to return to our mundane, daily necessities, with a partially and pragmatically mitigated grief and some nebulous, half-hearted sense of purpose.
After time, this tragedy, like many others before it, while never exactly forgotten, will be placed in a compartment of our collective consciousness which we will not visit often (it interferes with our trips to the mall and the viewing of our favorite sporting events and reality TV shows). And, in time, another tragedy, just as horrific and unbelievable (or perhaps even worse) will be perpetrated, and the same impotent cycle of disbelief, anger, fear, sadness, attempted analysis, therapeutic dissertations, proposed solutions, and obtuse affirmations that corrective action is underway (all of which have failed to date) will repeat itself.
So, America, what can we, as humble citizens, do? Or, is there, in the final analysis, nothing to be done? Are we relegated to a societal disintegration that is inexorable and irreparable?
I am one simple, undistinguished, and moderately educated American citizen who believes there is something that can be done. I believe our actions must begin by acknowledging the existence of one critical and overarching problem: There exists in this country a rapidly expanding moral and ethical vacuum; and from this vacuum emanates a succession of baseless, unconscionable human actions which engender and guarantee the perpetuation of the kind of evil to which we all bore witness yesterday. Until the existence of this problem is accepted, understood, addressed, and resolved, I’m convinced we have nothing to anticipate except more occurrences of the same kinds of senseless tragedies.
History has taught us that symptomatic classification and treatment of these atrocities is marginally effective, at best; and a wasted and pointless effort, at worst. A litany of these types of approaches has included: enhanced technology, improved security, personnel screening, better education, applied psychology and psychotherapy, and - my personal favorite - more restrictive gun control legislation. If we just open our eyes (and our minds), and review the facts, we are forced to conclude that these piecemeal attempts at solving the real problem have been ineffectual. The proof of this conclusion is patently obvious; we have tried all of these approaches (many times, and in many flavors) and yet, these heinous actions continue, and indeed, seem to accelerate at alarming rates.
There is no denying the perpetrators of these acts are the products of this vacuous moral generation. The solution to the problem is simple in theory, but massive in scope: re-sanctify the traditional, nearly forgotten Christian values of the American culture and the American family.
Parents, go to church with your children.
Husbands, remain faithful to your wives.
Wives and mothers, stay at home and raise your children with the love and nurture that God intended.
Children, honor and respect your parents and the rest of your family.
Sound ridiculous? Impossible? Unrealistic? Not really. We’ve managed to erode all these values over time simply by apathy, self-absorption, and neglect; I believe we can re-implement them with an understood, concentrated effort. But it must start now; we must re-establish hope for the future, and there can be no more delays and contrived obstacles.
What steps are necessary to begin this process? Here are some preliminary thoughts.
1. Re-tool American entertainment media. Stop teaching children and young people, via TV programming, that their aspirations and goals should be determined by the selfish and baseless activities of a plethora of self-absorbed, under-educated ‘beautiful people’ driven by nothing more meaningful than instant self gratification at all costs, and who can’t spell, much less understand, words like responsibility, accomplishment, commitment, morality, or, most importantly, God.
2. Rekindle the notion that sex is a God given joy designed for the procreation of the species, with the added bonus of a unique and wonderful intimacy to be shared as a demonstration of love between two committed adults - not a Saturday night, recreational activity, with as much meaning as a game of billiards.
3. Re-establish the sanctity of American religious and cultural institutions like the traditional definition of marriage. I apologize in advance to any member of the gay community who reads this, because I know how my position will be interpreted, and that is regrettable. I pray for and love gay people just like I pray for and love all people. I believe God also loves gay people, unconditionally, and without qualification. However, I also believe gay people have the same rights - no more and no less - as all other people, and that precludes the assignment of any transcendent right which allows the re-definition of the institution of marriage simply to suit their specific needs.
4. Understand, and ratify the fundamental truth that life begins at the moment of conception, and that the conceived human being, be him or her no more than one second old, has all the age-appropriate rights afforded any other American.
There has already been at least one media appeal to implore those ‘whacked-out’ guns rights advocates to stop hiding behind the 2nd amendment and admit that improved (more restrictive) gun-control legislation will solve the problem. I submit that gun control legislation, liberal or restrictive, has nothing to do with this problem. There are a myriad of statistical analyses that support my position. They are easy to find; just set aside your personal agenda and look around with an open mind. If you can’t find them, email me and I’ll point you in the right direction. The facts are these: guns don’t kill people; disturbed and evil people kill people, with guns or anything else available. Any concerned American who truly wants to confront scum who hides behind the Constitution, should consider directing his or her energies toward the thousands of purveyors of Internet pornography and other similar filth (readily available to young, impressionable minds). This mass of sub-human maggotry has been hiding behind the 1st amendment for decades, and I have yet to hear any outrage from the ‘stop hiding behind he Constitution’ contingent. What kind of effects do you think their products have on developing young minds and their resultant sets of life values? Any chance this unfortunate reality might be contributing to the increase in ‘disturbed’ young people? Guns aren’t the problem my friends, the problem is disturbed people with guns. If you want to solve the problem, it’s simple; reverse the erosion in values and morality that has caused the proliferation of disturbed people.
Go ahead, progressive, enlightened thinkers; brand me as a homophobic, backwards cretin of times gone by who is out of touch with contemporary intellectual and cultural reality.
Go ahead, laugh at me, because I propose replacing trash like The Real Wives of bla bla bla with value-centered entertainment like Little House on the Prairie and Highway to Heaven.
Go ahead and do nothing. Continue down today’s enlightened, sophisticated path and watch American society disintegrate before your eyes.
Look at the fruit of your methods to date. If you’re pleased, I guess you need take no action. However, I am not pleased, and I propose we take immediate action - one of which will be to pray that your children and grandchildren, and mine, will not be the next targets of another sad and disturbed product of moral nothingness.
This is not an attack or an attempt to ridicule other points of view. For any real progress, we must all work past those kinds of motives. This is an honest and humble plea to all of us, and for all of us, to come together for a social and cultural reconciliation, to begin an all important discussion and a united, concerted effort to protect ourselves and our children, and help establish a genuine future of peace and hope in this great country of ours. I believe, from the bottom of my heart, and the center of my soul, that a resurrection of Christian values is the only hope for America. This is, after all, what made our country great in the first place.
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