In the June 2 BCH, I note the numerous letters and op-eds seeking gun control – actually another one of our society’s stolen language euphemisms; for what government policy might actually be required to control a man-made inanimate object?
We don’t have automobile control; we place law on operators. What we really mean is gun confiscation, ignoring that those who wrote the Second Amendment had in fact returned from their own armed overthrow of a repressive government, as we ignore so much.
But I know what we seek, and that is the common desire for a cessation to the killing and mayhem, for a more normal and safe existence in America, and some may remember those days – I do. Kids out all day until dinner and then back out until the street lights came on – can you imagine?
What we really seek is good behavior. Gun control is a straw man position and masks the actual issues, which are the radical societal changes that were propelled forward in the 1960s and which have resulted in brutal behavioral and cultural decay, and our culture is base. (Look up a translation of rap lyrics - today’s predominant American art - into English. It’s a truly stunning exercise.)
And we now live in the maturation of those 60-year-old policies and mal acts. Feminism, divorce and broken homes, immigration, egalitarianism, federalizing education, the education major, welfare, refutation of patriarchy, affirmative action – ya gotta admit, it is euphemistically great branding – and I could very well go on. (And yeah, there are two other big reasons for gun violence and mass shootings in addition to jettisoning our prior norms, but this is but a brief letter.)
Being a young person working through the natural process of figuring out the world is not an easy business, and in the environment that we have created and/or allowed today, it’s a long shot and almost abusive. You don’t need the sharpest pencil to connect the dots between our dramatic societal decay and parallel reduction in social trust, and the fact that otherwise normal young people do not seek traditional marriage and family; a disinclination to procreate indicates despair.
And you gotta have a sense of humor – the same BCH issue with the gun control letters has a front page story about an attorney who made a joke regarding the differences between the sexes – literally front page news. It is Orwellian – I know, the term is as ubiquitous as saying “so” or “I don’t know” these days – but can you imagine any newspaper of 20 years ago printing this and expecting readers to understand it as news?
But today, we’ve clearly progressed in our ability to get along and understand each other, and certain and important news it is, as our warped culture attacks and suppresses any notion of any difference between any human beings, except those differences that are the exclusive result of malicious: racism, sexism, and the multitude of other isms – and in 2022 it’s all aka as excusism.
Without a recognition of the true nature of a problem, there is no solution to be found – only friction. Neighbors, the only good news is that the emperor is so clearly freezing naked at present that the pendulum can only swing back.
In our lovely Delaware Valley, we are insulated from a very great deal, and don’t be hypocritical please. Let’s admit that that is why we live here, where some of us make political assertions that contrast clearly with our life decisions – but the perimeter is closing.
Have heart men of good will and be of good cheer, recognize and face reality, and simply stand up, as there is much to repair.
Dan Gilligan, Milford, NJ
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