When will we ever learn?

As the last year of the millennium draws near, we are witnessing an increase in violent behavior. Some wish to place the blame on the removal of religion from our classrooms. Other people point at the violence on television and in the movies and blame Hollywood for it. "Tighter restrictions on guns would have prevented the blood bath in our schools", is a popular stand. "The Internet makes information available to our kids and should have restrictions put in place", is a phrase I've heard quite often. But, my review of the tragedies that have unfolded leads me to think along different lines.

Children need LOVE, and if they endanger themselves or others, they require DISCIPLINE. No matter how many times you tell a child not to do something, at some point in time they will disobey. At that time, swift and certain discipline must be used. I'm not advocating hitting kids here, but the test of wills the child is placing on you at that time must be won by the parent. There must be rules for a child, so that they learn right from wrong. Right being defined as behavior that enables one to become a productive member of our society. Wrong is the opposite of right.

Teaching our children right from wrong, does belong in our schools. This should be a reinforcement of the right from wrong the parents have taught their child. Right and wrong are necessary parts of our social structure. Society's rules can and must be taught in school. Children must learn to read, write, perform math, and our laws. It is our laws that define the limits of our freedom. Our laws require us to be tolerant of others. Tolerance of others is one of the most important lessons our schools can and should teach!

Religion, has no place in our schools. I agree very strongly with this. The problem with religion in schools is one of choice, WHICH IS THE RELIGION EVERY CHILD MUST LEARN? Agnostic through Zen, each of us knows our own is the one true religion. See the problem yet? We would end up with no time to learn English, Mathematics, Science or History. On top of that, most religions need you to be ignorant of the other religions, after all, yours is the only true one and the others must convert or risk eternal damnation! Religion has little room for tolerance.

Portrayals of violence have been a part of most cultures for as far back as one wishes to look. Tales of Valhalla are quite gruesome. The Bible contains a fair number of violent deaths (some carried out in the name of God). The Roman's glorified death as entertainment. Ancient Greek theater is loaded with violence. Eastern cultures fare no better. Violent death is a part of our historic culture. Aside from having more realistic effects, Hollywood is providing us nothing different than our culture has asked it to do.

It seems odd to me that we condone having our children see huge numbers of people killed, but get upset if they imitate what they have seen. Is there anybody that wants to see their children grow up to beat their spouse? How many examples of love making do you let your children see? Is society being properly served by large incidences of spousal abuse? Yet violence is what we show our children.

Actually violence, within morality tales was used to enforce the notion of what was good from what was bad. When violence was portrayed in the older movies, you knew that good was going to triumph over evil by the end of the movie, and it did. Modern movies have discarded the good vs. evil, but kept the violence. Hollywood has a history of copying the formula of it's best sellers. We vote for our favorites by buying tickets. If you don't like what you see, don't by a ticket and let the producers know what you would pay to see. Television works the same way.

Gun laws which are currently on the books, may have prevented some of the deaths. But the laws, like seatbelts, only work if they are used. Political motives seem to be behind the lack of enforcement of the gun laws that we currently have. If the laws we do have aren't being enforced, what's the purpose of having them? Our justice department needs to start doing its job with the tools it has.

I found the recipe for making gunpowder when I was very young. It was in plain sight and anyone could easily get at it. In the same place I found that bit of information, I also found recipes for TNT, Nitroglycerin, and other explosive compounds. Do you want your children to be denied access to books that contain that kind of information? Like it or not, we can't isolate children from knowledge, for to do so would destroy their ability to become productive members of society.

I walked into the local library and was able to find most of the same information within the stacks as I could on the Internet the only exception was in the area of pornography. I see no reason to restrict information in either place. The Internet needs to be able to allow free exchange of ideas and information to all.

Making information readily available to all enables us to find our niche in the world. Knowledge is what gives us our freedom. Free exchange of knowledge enables us to change professions if we tire of our choice of occupation.

I was one of the kids that was "different". My empathy rests with most of the shooters. Kids are extremely brutal to their peers. They have little to no tolerance for those who don't fit into their clique. By the time you are in high school, the difference between the cool kids and the outcasts is well established. Anybody that hasn't been taught to be tolerant of others, is now very dangerous. It is now, when most children get a chance to apply their skills and learn some chemistry! It's also a time when one can learn to use weapons. Oh (word meaning excrement)!!! If not for my very strong moral code, I may have tried to do something stupid like actually trying to kill my tormentors. I guess I was brought up right.

The moral decay that leads to violence in our schools comes out of a society that makes firm discipline a crime. Parents seem to be too lazy to teach their children right from wrong. Manners are a thing of the past. Tolerance for others, one of the most important keys in American society, is not practiced by most of us anymore. Puritanical views, most of us have, glorify violence, and condemn acts of love. As a society, it is easier to hate those who are different than to see how much those we hate are like us.

We have to make our rules clear to our children. We have to be able to enforce those rules. We have to teach our children to be tolerant of others. We should make it clear to our children that LOVE is better for us than violence.