Adults used to look out for all children

Where are the grown-ups? Why can’t we all get along? Why must we read about yet another school shooting? Whatever happened to the premise of not saying anything if we can’t say something nice? Whatever happened to the notion that it takes a village to raise a child? Whatever happened to common courtesy?

While I firmly believe that nobody except police and military should carry guns, I also realize that the weapons themselves are not the problem. I grew up with guns in the home. My uncles and local hunters provided us with many a rabbit or quail dinner courtesy of guns. I have a photograph of my grandfather holding the tail of the first squirrel he shot. After my grandfather died my mother had one of my uncles remove the guns from the house, just in case my grandmother tried to shoot her.

My daughter and her family are hunters. They like venison and the results of their hunting feeds the family for most of the year. My daughter tells me that there is nothing better than an automatic rifle to bring down a feral hog. The ham, pork and bacon from the hog provide a change from all that venison.

I live in a rural community where not owning some kind of weapon is rare. I am surrounded by gun owners. Yet, I still believe that nobody should have a gun. I also believe in limits on how much ammunition can be bought at one time.

Since we, as a nation, have no intention of limiting gun ownership or limiting ammunition, perhaps we need to find another way of avoiding one more story about our thoughts and prayers for the latest victims of a tortured mind.

I repeat my earlier question, where are the adults? So many of the shooters seem to be the misfits. They are picked on, teased, and bullied every school day. I cannot believe that no adult in these schools noticed. We require so much of our teachers these days but since the parents don’t bother with teaching their children to be nice, would it be so difficult to tell the bullies to stop being nasty and provide some kind of punishment?

When I was little, a family of children on my school bus began teasing me about my coat. I thought I was holding my own but after a couple of minutes the bus driver stepped in and told the kids in no uncertain terms to stop it. That was the last of the teasing.

Why don’t people do that today? I grew up in a time where every adult was responsible for every child they encountered. Disciplining other people’s children was expected. I don’t mean spanking, a verbal reprimand was enough. These days people seem to be afraid of getting sued or whatever if they dare suggest that the little darlings are not perfect.

I have had preschoolers washing down the walls after they used the swivel rocker as a merry-go-round resulting in marks on the wall. I swatted a kid who stole my poppies after being told several times to leave them alone. None of the parents were upset with me. The children in question behaved much better from then on.

Times have changed. Now it seems that anybody with a gun can choose to end someone’s life in order to put an end to verbal abuse. Sadly, that does no good for the hundreds, or thousands of misfits who face constant bullying. Thoughts and prayers are not enough to keep weapons out of the hands of mentally ill people. Common courtesy that demands us to be quiet when we can’t say something nice has become not so common after all.

Sadly, it is not only children who need to behave better. If one reads the comments below most stories floating around the internet, one is exposed to the nasty underside of anonymity. The comments range from ugly to name calling to pure vitriol. If this is what is acceptable at home, is it any surprise that the kids think it is proper to do that themselves.

I don’t have any answers. It is impossible to go back in time. We can only go forward and wait for the next school shooting.