Signs of the Times

When I lived in Philadelphia 20-years ago there was a car on fire along I-95 everyday. This was just a daily part of life in the big city.

Back in Central Pennsylvania, if a car caught on fire it made the evening news.

But more and more our news here in sleepy Central PA looks like the news from the big city.

Every morning now I start my day watching the news and hearing about the latest shooting. Now shootings are a daily occurence here in not-so-sleepy Central PA. Most of the shootings seem to involve young males. Some have been completely random, making no sense whatsoever.

Has killing become a part of our culture?

I was looking for a good movie the other day, something I could record that we could watch at our convenience. Recently Barb and I watched the movie "Swing Vote" and we really enjoyed it. It was a fun movie, insightful yet comedic, and inspirational with a nice ending. I wanted to find something like that, along those same lines.

All I could find was violence - excessive violence, everywhere. I gave up.

Some time ago I looked for little fun game for the Playstation that Barb and I could play to goof off. I was just looking for something stupid yet fun...you know like bumper cars or something.

But everything is some kind of shooter, all involving smashing and burning and killing. I gave up.

When I was growing up I never knew of anyone who carried a weapon. The attitude was that you weren't a "real" man if you needed to carry a knife or a gun. If anyone would do such a thing there would be a major stigma attached to that. It was just completely unheard of. Fighting in general was frowned upon. Disagreements were handled with sharp words and vocal exchanges. Status was obtained by how well one handled themself through their posture and their social skills.

Where are all these guns coming from?

It wasn't long ago when I saw a "60 Minutes" that highlighted how easy it was to obtain firearms in this country. At a big gun show in Virginia you could literally buy guns from people selling them out of their trunks. No identification needed, no background checks, just present cash and go. These were serious automatic assault weapons too.

The show went on to demonstrate how we were responsible for arming many of the Mexican gangs. The ease of obtaining weapons in this country sends the gangs here to purchase weapons so they can return to Mexico to use them.

No wonder so many Mexicans are trying to leave - among many other reasons.

I can't imagine where all of this is going to go.

I keep thinking of the ancient Roman Empire which many believe collapsed under its own evolution into excess, violence, and a general life void of reasonable values.