We need to be protecting life
For me, all life is sacred. Life is a gift to be nurtured and not abused or destroyed for convenience or from frustration and/or anger. Life in all of its forms and stages must be protected and respected. The question that now dominates much of public discussion is how do we, the adult citizens in our current modern culture, protect the most vulnerable within our society. This is not a politically grounded issue. It reaches far beyond that. The answer to this issue must be addressed at a much deeper fundamental level. It rests upon what our society truly values and the degree to which we as a society believe and actually live by those values.
Our current problem has its roots in a current society that has lost the basic values that once served as the stable foundation for a diverse people to gather around and agree to live by.
The most recent episode in Florida has once again brought the question of guns and their place in our society to the forefront. In addition, the issue of the importance of mental health, and the part it plays in the handling/owning of a weapon. Who is mentally fit to own or use a weapon, a gun, a knife, a car or anything else that can be used to destroy life?
I believe that we have a fundamental question to answer before we start legislating guns/ weapons in the political arena. What do we as a nation agree upon as being values that we agree to live by and to be the foundation upon which our society/culture is built? The values held by the first US citizens were based largely upon Jude’s/Christian beliefs and values. Terms like God, freedom, charity, law, justice, religion, etc. appear in early writings. These ideas were the bedrock upon which this nation was built. Are they still a part of that bedrock? Not so much!
I believe that the issues of gun ownership and mental health are linked. The first part (guns) cannot be fully approached without a deep look into the values of today’s society. What are those values? Once they included belief in a power greater than human kind that provided us with some rules to live by: the Ten Commandments and the directive to Love God with all that we are and have and our neighbors as ourselves. Sadly, I have a feeling that most of the younger people in today’s world know little if anything about these ideas. Much of who a person is is based upon the ideas and values that they have learned and practiced (usually with the family and schools) in their early years. Perhaps if these ideas/values are restored and become a part of our everyday conversation in a positive mode and not a negative way, our young people will develop a strong foundation and a set of values to build their life affirming lives upon.
Religion/God and the worth and value of life as well as assuring our young that each life matters would be a good start.
Life has value and sometimes that value appears only through living the life we’ve been given and the positive results of the choices made during the journey through that life. Our young people need a solid grounding in the things that can contribute to a positive attitude toward life, theirs and also the lives of Others. The guns, knives, cars etc. are just things! The way to change the future course of our culture/society is to change our view of life and the way we approach it. We need a positive approach while understanding that life is not always happy or easy. But life is a valuable gift, and we are largely in charge of choosing the direction we take. Once these issues are addressed, then we may not need to pass more laws or set up more obstacles to stem the life negative view currently driving our society. guns, knives, cars etc. are things.
They can do nothing by themselves. Humans are the problem and the answer to the problem; they are the users/ operators of the things. If we can change our course of action and use societal values/the foundation blocks that we inherited from those who preceded us but which we have chosen to discard, perhaps we could end the “Gun” problem and a lot of others too — without more regulation and legislation.
Evelyn Hovanec, PhD, is a resident of Hopwood.