Today we mourn the death of 32 innocent people, many young adults just about to go out in the world and make their mark. There are calls for gun control, stricter laws, rules and other measures to hopefully prevent another incident like this occurring. While all well and good, the fundamental problem is not being addressed which I believe is a society that no longer has any sense of responsibility.
The America my parent came to was one founded on a strong work ethic and sacrifice. Today’s America is one where many point fingers at others when they do something wrong. Pat Sullivan Jr. passed along an email he received called The Death of Common Sense. While I don’t agree with everything the post contains, I still think that common sense, and the lack of its use, is at the core of the tragedies that keep on occurring in our society. We live in a country where Don Imus gets fired for reprehensible behavior, yet we buy CDs of rappers who say far worse, with little outcry. We trumpet the arrival of new video games which glorify violence, murder, theft and the degradation of women. How do we then justify our outrage at the tragedy at West Virginia University?
A nation that stresses increased personal responsibility may not have prevented the horrors we are now finding out about, but then again, maybe it would have. Maybe that young man may have seen an America as a land of true opportunity, a country where people are held accountable for their actions, where the government doesn’t hide facts that show a possible cause for autism and thimerosal, and a country where our leadership takes responsibility for their actions.
Still, at this time, I think it is most important to wrap our hearts and thoughts around the families who have lost loved ones. They will need a lot of help healing themselves.
