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To the editor:
Again today, Tuesday, May 24, 2022, we are facing another tragedy. Nineteen children and two adults shot to death. Why? An adult conversation about these continuing tragedies is way overdue!
When a tragedy occurs, what does a civilized nation do? Using the well-known and always proven proven appropriate "scientific method" of examination, the experts look into the history of the event to try and determine the cause. A good example is an airline strategy. Piece by piece all events leading up to the cause are evaluated and when experts finally complete their evaluations, a suspected cause is identified and recommendations for future similar situations are made, hopefully, to minimize a recurrence.
Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, with a population of 16,000 or so, is the latest tragedy in our civilized society. This tragedy joins a shooting death in New York's subway, a grocery shooting in Buffalo, New York, constant deadly shootings in Chicago and crime increasing dramatically throughout our country.
These tragedies reveal to even the most callous bystander, that we, as a country, are "soft on crime". Have we always experienced these egregious situations? Not according to statistics provided by the FBI. Let's face facts! Crime is up! Way up!
And I, and millions of other law-abiding Americans, ask why? Why, in a civilized country like ours, are we being faced with these continuing tragedies? I'm sure the social scientists and other experts will evaluate Robb Elementary, like they did Sandy Hook, Parkland, Florida, and other tragedies, and give us their best suggestions on how to handle future challenges. However, as an interested layman, let me share with you what I believe millions of Americans, along with myself, already know.
As I mentioned before, our civilized country, the USA, is "soft on crime".
We blame guns when it's the criminal who causes the tragedy.
We seem to ignore the mentally challenged.
We are a society with no respect and feel we can get away with anything.
We, the USA, have already taken God out of our schools.
We have also chosen that prayer and pledging allegiance to the United States of America in our schools is not necessary.
We have taken the father out of our families, with federal and state subsidies replacing fatherly leadership for the children.
We have permitted, and even made socially acceptable, unwed mothers, resulting in many children without visible fathers or father figures.
We, the USA, have lost our spirituality, our loss of meaning. We are no longer the Christian nation that we have historically been. We now bow to the Altar of Secularism.
Do you think that the experts will report the previous facts as a possible reason, a cause, for the carnage today in Texas? I have my doubts.
What I do hear is beef up school security. Harden soft targets. Take the money we haven't spent on the pandemic and use it for security. Locked doors at all schools, K through 12, with SRO's (School Resource Officers) at entrances, metal detectors, arming teachers, etc. And, of course, more gun laws, as if the mentally challenged and criminals will be law-abiding citizens. President Biden, as he espoused in his TV address, stated these carnages are a gun problem. As if more gun laws will solve these problems. This may the USA of today, but it isn't the USA we desire nor the USA we have known over the years.
Let's have an adult conversation about this cancer that has invaded the Unites States of America. Let's determine the true cause or causes. It will take much more than the tried and tired excuses for more gun laws. Let's look at all the facts! And then, take appropriate action!
Ronald J. Price,
Sebring