In June of 2022, this blog post is one of the ones I always say to myself: “Why do we are a nation, keep repeating the same poor decisions repeatedly? Why does the “in-fighting” continue? Where are the answers we seek so desperately?”
I know I am not the only one. There are conversations and arguments in homes, at work, on Zoom calls, texts, and media which consume us. I sometimes wish those “pointing fingers” would close and give a good slap across the face of the person pointing.
As I researched this latest tragedy in our nation yet again with unspeakable violence to innocents, I wonder where the root of this issue is. I do not believe it is with laws. I believe it is in the erosion of values. I believe it is in the erosion of parents being role models of what being responsible and being accountable is all about. I believe it is about knowing right from wrong and the respect that every person is valuable.
The COVID pandemic has created and altered the human mind and human behavior. Who might have imagined this change in behavior and mindset was possible in 2018? Now that you know your life, your thought process, and your perspective on life, work, and the fear these last three years have created, what is your solution for you in your life, your work, in your family?
We were so concerned about our children continuing to get an education while school was closed and the dining room table became the classroom that we forgot about the more significant issues. We fretted and worried about our children falling behind in their skills, reading, math, and science. We became concerned when partial school openings started, to be masked, not masked, vaccinated, not vaccinated, 6 feet apart, no socialization, and still not only were the parents divided, skeptical and afraid, but this transferred right over to the children. In 2022 we have added yet another large boulder to our already aching shoulders and back with mass school shootings.
We may never know “WHY” these shootings occurred or what was going on in the mind of the shooter. We again point fingers, justify everything about the entire situation, and still, we have no solution. Children, teachers, parents, towns, and schools are in a place of extreme post-traumatic stress in ways that will never resolve, and these will all be scared for life. Futures have been altered in ways that will never self-correct, and a lifetime of therapy will not ease any of the pain.
Here are some short snippets of news stories around this issue:
Copyright: neirfy
From the LATIMES ONLINE May 25, 2022
There have been 26 school shootings reported in the United State so far in 2021, according to Education Week, which has tracked school shootings since 2018. Last year, a total of 34 school shootings were reported, the highest figure Education Week has tracked so far. A gun and loaded the desk of a second-grade student at a Sacramento elementary school, district officials said in a letter to parents hours after a shooting at a Texas elementary school killed 19 students and two teachers.
From Every Town for Gun Safety June 2021
Between March and December 2020, there was a 31 percent increase in unintentional shooting deaths by children of themselves or others compared to the same time period in 2019. Throughout 2021, children have continued to gain access to guns. In May, a 2-year-old boy found an unsecured firearm on a nightstand and unintentionally shot both his parents in West Bath, Maine. In Lakeland, Fla., a 2-year-old girl was unintentionally shot by her 3-year-old brother using a gun he found unsecured in a couch. Two weekends ago in Memphis, a one-year-old boy was unintentionally shot and killed by another child in a car at a grocery store parking lot.
From Fortune Online October 2019
Kids Brought Guns to School at Least 392 Times Last Year in 2018.
From the Washington Post December 2021
It’s time to revisit metal detectors in schools. Yes, metal detectors confiscate weapons, but one review of 15 years of school metal detectors concluded that “there is insufficient data in the literature” that school violence was reduced as a result of the confiscation of those weapons.
Kids can still find ways to bring weapons into schools, and policing practices do nothing to heal the social and psychological hurts of children desperate enough to harm other children. While many advocates express feeling safer with metal detectors, this study also found that a large proportion of students feel less safe in policed schools.
Is there an end in sight?
What is at the root cause of a nation so divided?
Talking heads, headlines, tweets, posts, news stories online, and sound bites will not solve this issue. Pointing fingers, blaming political parties, lobbyists, laws, and religious faiths are not where the issue is rooted. The systematic dismantling of values is the root.
