Children Learn What They Live
October 5, 2015
You’d almost think mass murder is a new reality show on
TV. Here we go again, another one in Oregon. And, of course, the usual
calls for gun control. Excuse me, but we’re asking the wrong questions
and having the wrong conversations. The REAL one we need to have, we
never will.
Has anyone at all noticed that a couple days after this shooting, it was announced the U.S. military had “accidently” bombed a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan? And killed double the number of people murdered in Oregon? Where will the candlelight vigils be for these poor people? We have politicians foaming at the mouth with the desire to bomb innocent people in Iran and Americans cheer that on, chanting, “USA! USA! USA!” in an obscene paean to bloodthirstiness and state-sponsored mass murder. America, you cannot teach things such as this to your children and expect these chickens not to come home to roost one day in your communities!
We have a generation, an entire generation, born after 2001, who has not taken a single breath when the United States was not at war. They have not seen a day of peace. Other generations, born since 1990, have not seen a time when there wasn’t a war the U.S. was involved in every few years. They grow up, seeing the death and destruction our government doles out to people “over there” and then we act shocked when they bring that death and destruction they saw as the “solution” right back into our communities. Have you noticed yet, America, that most of these murderers are young men? Children learn what they live.
Yes, so you have your candlelight vigils, prayers for peace that God doesn’t hear coming from you unless it’s “our own” that got killed, and the demands for answers. Answers?! The answer is right there in front of us! We are teaching our children that violence is a solution! We are teaching our children that killing people is the way to solve a problem! We didn’t like Bashar al-Assad, for example. Suppose we just learn to get along with him and keep the peace he was willing to keep with us? No. We decided killing him was the answer. We said hiring murderers was the answer. America, how say you unto yourselves that you don’t know why these mass murders happen? This is what we teach our children.
Each one of them studies the last episode of mass murder and sees it will get him on TV in the ultimate reality show. And don’t you, America, have a rather dark obsession with ultra-violent television shows? Violence is endlessly glorified in American society. Even the news will broadcast endless stories about these mass murders, 24/7, and thus inspire the next one who sees all the press the last guy got. Because everyone wants to see, they want to see the cop SWAT team pouring in, hopefully hear the rattle of automatic weapons fire. Just like the live-feeds from U.S. warplanes dropping bombs on other human beings as we cheered and chanted, “USA! USA! USA!” And yet you are shocked when your children grow up and demonstrate to you just what you have taught them?
Yes, you have your candlelight vigils and, in the end, it just keeps the candlemakers in business. Because no one wants to hear that it is US. No, it’s not the guns. Sorry, but that’s another excuse to avoid looking at the real problem. That’s like saying booze causes alcoholism all by itself and don’t address the actual problem of addiction. And let’s talk about addiction, shall we? We have an addiction to violence and it plays itself out in our foreign policy in war after war after war, each one killing people for nothing, and they, too, died in vain just like all the victims in these mass murders. You think the “motives” of these murderers” is somehow more insane than these foreign policy objectives we have? Like who runs Syria, for example?
When will you look into the mirror, America? When will you see that our very government teaches this violence to our children? Children learn what they live. You raise children in a nation of constant warfare, those children will bring that violence home to your community one day. You want peace? Then you have to TEACH that. You have to LIVE that, you have to make that your walk. But you glorify violence and then you expect something otherwise to manifest?! How say you unto yourselves that you don’t know why this keeps happening?!
Has anyone at all noticed that a couple days after this shooting, it was announced the U.S. military had “accidently” bombed a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan? And killed double the number of people murdered in Oregon? Where will the candlelight vigils be for these poor people? We have politicians foaming at the mouth with the desire to bomb innocent people in Iran and Americans cheer that on, chanting, “USA! USA! USA!” in an obscene paean to bloodthirstiness and state-sponsored mass murder. America, you cannot teach things such as this to your children and expect these chickens not to come home to roost one day in your communities!
We have a generation, an entire generation, born after 2001, who has not taken a single breath when the United States was not at war. They have not seen a day of peace. Other generations, born since 1990, have not seen a time when there wasn’t a war the U.S. was involved in every few years. They grow up, seeing the death and destruction our government doles out to people “over there” and then we act shocked when they bring that death and destruction they saw as the “solution” right back into our communities. Have you noticed yet, America, that most of these murderers are young men? Children learn what they live.
Yes, so you have your candlelight vigils, prayers for peace that God doesn’t hear coming from you unless it’s “our own” that got killed, and the demands for answers. Answers?! The answer is right there in front of us! We are teaching our children that violence is a solution! We are teaching our children that killing people is the way to solve a problem! We didn’t like Bashar al-Assad, for example. Suppose we just learn to get along with him and keep the peace he was willing to keep with us? No. We decided killing him was the answer. We said hiring murderers was the answer. America, how say you unto yourselves that you don’t know why these mass murders happen? This is what we teach our children.
Each one of them studies the last episode of mass murder and sees it will get him on TV in the ultimate reality show. And don’t you, America, have a rather dark obsession with ultra-violent television shows? Violence is endlessly glorified in American society. Even the news will broadcast endless stories about these mass murders, 24/7, and thus inspire the next one who sees all the press the last guy got. Because everyone wants to see, they want to see the cop SWAT team pouring in, hopefully hear the rattle of automatic weapons fire. Just like the live-feeds from U.S. warplanes dropping bombs on other human beings as we cheered and chanted, “USA! USA! USA!” And yet you are shocked when your children grow up and demonstrate to you just what you have taught them?
Yes, you have your candlelight vigils and, in the end, it just keeps the candlemakers in business. Because no one wants to hear that it is US. No, it’s not the guns. Sorry, but that’s another excuse to avoid looking at the real problem. That’s like saying booze causes alcoholism all by itself and don’t address the actual problem of addiction. And let’s talk about addiction, shall we? We have an addiction to violence and it plays itself out in our foreign policy in war after war after war, each one killing people for nothing, and they, too, died in vain just like all the victims in these mass murders. You think the “motives” of these murderers” is somehow more insane than these foreign policy objectives we have? Like who runs Syria, for example?
When will you look into the mirror, America? When will you see that our very government teaches this violence to our children? Children learn what they live. You raise children in a nation of constant warfare, those children will bring that violence home to your community one day. You want peace? Then you have to TEACH that. You have to LIVE that, you have to make that your walk. But you glorify violence and then you expect something otherwise to manifest?! How say you unto yourselves that you don’t know why this keeps happening?!
Jack Perry [send him mail]
is an arrowmaker and writer who lives in the Four Corners area of the
Southwestern United States. He has been a truck driver, a purchasing
agent at a now-defunct renewable energy company (don't even ask him
about the "Green energy" scam), and served in the 101st Airborne
Division. He spends his time practicing traditional archery, making
arrows in the wilds of the Arizona high desert, and finding himself only
mildly amused by the antics of the Great Father in Washington.
Previous article by Jack Perry: Why Is Our Politicians Not Learning?
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