Las Vegas Nightmare
Remember when you and your best friend opened your first lemonade stand, or mowed the neighbor’s yard? Your first business venture and you both readily agreed to split the profits 50-50. Expenses weren’t part of the equation because Mom made the lemonade and you used Dad’s mower and gas.
Then you and your dad struck a deal on buying your first car, $150 Dodge … $75 each … 50-50. You didn’t realize you got screwed into paying for the insurance which was $160. More than the car was worth!
The question is … What happened to 50-50? The good old right down the middle, nobody wins … nobody loses. Fair to everybody. Those days seemed to have disappeared along with Leave it to Beaver and Ozzie and Harriet.
Fast forward to the twenty-first century. Webster’s dictionary is constantly adding new words, such as air-ball, binge-watch, conlang, new words that reflect our changing society and culture. Ask a 16th century Puritan what a conlang is and you’ll end up burning at the stake. Change is inevitable and I’ll go way out on a limb and say for the most part good. But… when we change we run the risk of leaving behind good things.
If Webster adds words to reflect our changing society, it should also seriously consider deleting words which no longer apply. A word like Sanity.
The recent Las Vegas massacre is a prime example of the absence of sanity. I could pound the issue home by listing other shooting incidents, but the victims and their families have suffered enough without a constant reminder. But all were void of one word … sanity.
The confusion and pure terror the victims and survivors experienced is inconceivable! A soldier in combat experiences terror, but they know who is trying to kill them and why, and God willing they’ll use their weapon to eradicate the threat. These people had no clue who, what or where. Just people falling disgustingly deformed by the impact of a bullet, blood spewing and pooling on the ground. No. No sanity there.
So when am I going to begin my tirade on the insanity of the shooter and the fact he’s probably Muslim? Better yet, hell let’s start a gun control debate. Those are always fun. You get pruned looking, gut protruding politicians carrying a replica toy musket, it’s not an authentic weapon because it’d be too heavy for the old fart to carry and lift over his head, strutting across a stage saying that without him your guns are gone. See. I’m already getting worked up. This is great!
No. Today I’d like to strike a somber & serious note. Let’s really attempt to leave the emotion out of it and have a quiet logical discussion. And I’ll begin by saying I don’t agree with you, but that’s okay, I’ll seriously listen.
I can not figure out how to discuss the state of our society without eluding to politics, because unfortunately it is the bell weather of our state of mind. However, notice I said Politics, not Democrat, Republican, Independent or whatever. We’re not talking party … we’re talking sanity.
There’s an old saying, (seems I know a lot of old sayings, hmm) “that the pendulum swings both ways,” referring to the pendulum of a grandfather clock swinging far left … then far right .. and back again. This metaphor illustrates our country’s swing from far liberal to far conservative. I’ll get the fight started right now by saying both are void of sanity.
My question is … What happened to the middle? The 50-50 lemonade stand split. Why does everything have to be 100% for me and nothing for you?
The current lack of sanity did not end with the Las Vegas shootings. It continued straight through the night and continues today. Fox news blaming CNN for the massacre. Does anyone in their right mind really give that accusation any serious thought. If you do…please seek professional help. Ratings mean more than sanity. Insanity sells better than sanity.
Please ponder a few of these questions. If you link the question to a specific incident(s) good for you, but keep the emotions in check.
Why would we run the risk of destroying an already fragile legal system by making a huge political issue out of removing the 10 Commandments from a court room? I truly believe these are God’s laws, but these laws are to be carried in a man’s heart and mind. They are not intended to be displayed like a golden calf and worshiped. Are they?
Why would a business and a union abandon a long term, excellent employee, firing him for saying “nigar rig” … yet say nothing about the black calling the white employee “Cracker.” Briefly, a white railroad conductor was asked by a black railroad engineer to see if he could fix the engine’s radio, which was the engineer’s job incidentally. The conductor replied “I’m sure I can nigar rig something for you.” The black employee took offense and the white employee, a ten year veteran with two children was promptly fired. Is this how we sow racial accord? The white guy meant no disrespect, fellow black employees chastised the black engineer, but the firing stood and the union refused to try and do anything about it. Now try and convince that guy that Black Lives Matter.
A political leader, I use the term loosely, when discussing the Las Vegas incident said there was no need to discuss gun control, that possibly the mental health industry is responsible for all the nuts running around loose. Well, he may have a good point. However, if I could, I’d ask him why he championed closing mental health institutions and throwing medically classified “Troubled Persons” out into the streets onto the unsuspecting public… claiming financial responsibility. See we don’t all have short memories.
What I’m pleading for here is a return to a little bit of sanity. I know it took awhile to go crazy .. so it’ll take awhile to regain our sanity. But we must begin to change back and now. Let’s be civil to one another. Let’s try to use logic over emotion. Let’s do what we know is right instead of what’s popular or less provocative.
I’m white and I don’t fear shaking the hand of a black man … it’s not gonna rub off on me. Same for a gay man … I’m not going to suddenly have the urge to jump into bed with him. A Latino … not gonna become a gang member.
Come on people. Maybe we need to introduce Leave it to Beaver, Ozzie and Harriet, Lucy and Andy Griffin reruns into our schools. Teach our kids that we can disagree, yet compromise and agree on something that benefits the majority instead of the 1%. Replace the love of money with the love of fellow man. Jesus said “The poor will always be among us.” and I don’t question His words. But He didn’t say the poor could number only one or two.
“God grant me sanity.”
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