America was again visited with a murderous outburst in yet another mass shooting at a Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin this past Sunday, August 5th.
Innocent American citizens of the Sikh faith, honest people of faith, whose essential beliefs and ethical principles are based on hard work, generosity in sharing the fruits of their labors with others, and daily meditation on the One God most people of faith believe in.
The mass shooting murders in our country have become so common and frequent that the most shocking thing about them is that may may no longer be shocking to us!
As a Catholic Christian American, I choose to believe that deep down, the overwhelming majority of humankind is not violent. We may possibly be indirectly culpable in allowing violence to continue in our country. One view is that many of us have totally replaced our ancestral customs and ways to be free and free thinking Americans and along with that have allowed our moral values to give way to another set of values which has crowded out teaching our youngest the core meaning of how we live our lives productively and usefully, loving others as most religions teach. .
Perhaps our pursuit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness has allowed us to fall down from the teaching our children from the earliest age with love and human tenderness, compassion and respect for others.
Why that statement? Just look around you. We've gradually opened the doors to becoming a selfish race thinking often of our own self-focused needs and wants without regard or apathetic to the kind of life others less fortunate are living. There are clear signs of consumerism, self-interest amongst us.
It maybe one of the major factors that renders us unable to find reasonable compromise in the Quest for Common Ground. Think about that and the polarized, controversial social issues that divide us.
Each time an event such as this mass shooting occurs we begin to talk about and taking sides, rather vociferously on tighter gun controls in America, some taking the position that the second amendment of the U.S. Constitution supports the rights of individuals to bear arms. Others say, we must not have any guns at all as though that alone will resolve all our problems.
This is one of many issues calling for serious fact-finding and reasonable compromise in our Quest for Common Ground.
Is it so unreasonable to approach the gun-law factor with an understanding that it is too easy for evil minded people or extremists to acquire dangerous automatic weapons that we still find falling into the hands of murders?
AK-47s and AK-15s are military weapons. Someone needs to prove to me why we need guns of this type under the second amendment either to protect our homes or to hunt or to be in the possession of hobbyists and collectors. Do we need to have access to a weapon that can automatically rapid fire a hundred rounds to kill a deer or other wild game?
I believe we need to have a serious but civil dialogue at the highest levels by a blue ribbon non-partisan panel of people of wisdom and character. We can no longer afford to leave it in the perennial limbo of postponement of action by those too busy politicking in pursuit of their own interests. 24/7/365.
The opposing argument of those resisting weapons control is that :guns don't kill people, people kill people". While this is true, there are enough evil, deranged or extremist minds that somehow get access to such weapons.
It brings to mind our inability to wipe out illegal drugs. With all our efforts to control the flow of cocaine, heroine and other brain damaging drugs, there remains an abundance of supply of illegal substances that reach our citizens through underground markets including in our school areas. And that is especially dangerous to the health of young minds.
We really need to have a national conversation on all of the factors involved in violence and not just tackle the question of guns. Consider, as another example, our fast pace of life in America which steals time from the healthy growth of our youngest citizens. We need to re-focus on our cultural and family values starting from the early childhood of our youngest generation and work our way to the eldest.
We have put men into space and on the moon; we have developed incredible technology. Why is there a problem solving questions of peace, love of mankind and harmon? Is a global re-focus possible starting at the grass roots of our own communities?
Related local story, Southington Patch
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