Practice having patience
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In My Humble Opinion
Jodi McDade
The past couple of weeks have been consumed by tragedies that just seem to keep coming. First, I want to express my sympathy to Robin Brooks and her family, and the family of Marc Gann, for the loss of their sons. These outstanding young men served with honor and dedication, putting the lives of others ahead of their own. They will be greatly missed by all who knew them.
Around the country we have seen some horrendous events of violence committed by people who have extreme mental issues. I do not care what their gender was, what color their skin was, how young or old they were, but these people had no soul or respect for human life.
I do not care if they were confused over something, felt anger towards someone, wanted to show how tough they were, or if they were just too cowardly to kill themselves without taking someone with them.
But what I DO care about is the narrative that surrounds all of it. Yes, it’s violence. But it is HUMAN violence. It doesn’t matter if that human used a knife, a gun, a car, or anything else! That knife, gun, or car did not commit the crime. I’m tired of hearing about GUN violence! Yes, a gun was used, but that gun was incapable of committing a crime. Guns are incapable of killing deer, squirrels, snakes, or hogs.
It takes a PERSON to pick up the gun and use it. It is time to look at the real source of all these events, and that is the mental or emotional state of the person involved.
I’m afraid we may be too far down the road to turn around. Our culture has become indoctrinated in violence from all sides. Video games, movies, music, television shows, and even cartoons are brainwashing our children when they are left to entertain themselves. I don’t understand, but, when I was growing up, we watched a coyote dropping rocks on a bird, Elmer Fudd with his shotgun chasing a duck, cowboys chasing Indians and outlaws with guns, but I can’t remember ever thinking any of that was real or something I should do. We understood “make believe.”
If we took all violence, sex and foul language off television we’d have very few choices to watch. Even the news and live programs would not make the cut. We have done this to ourselves, and we are now paying the price. And, speaking of price, follow the money and you will see the people and groups who profit from promoting these ideas.
Unfortunately, I have no answers. All I can do is make a long list of things that have contributed to how we got here. Most of these have been cultural changes that were long in the planning and are now so ingrained in our everyday life they will be very difficult to change.
I will say, IN MY HUMBLE OPINION, our change from being a country of individuals taking care of themselves and their neighbors to a country of people dependent on the government control is the main contributor to the problems we face. We have allowed our government to become our nanny who we look to for guidance in our everyday lives because we can no longer do anything without their rules and permissions. But until we all decide we don’t want to live this way and join hands in church and at the ballot boxes there will be no change.
I will say we have had one bright thing happen in Coosa County. We have a new garbage service that is doing its best to get to all of us who have had garbage backing up. They haven’t gotten to mine yet, but I’ve seen the trucks and heard from people who have had theirs picked up. Have a little patience!
For those of you who did not attend this week’s County Commission meeting you really missed a very informative one! A group from the Peckerwood Creek/Ida Station area came with a video presentation on the damage made by the timber companies clear cutting large tracts of land in their area. The roads that were already in bad shape are now much worse than they have ever been.
This is an area where I used to live, and I couldn’t believe the pictures! They also brought up the damages to Peckerwood Creek itself because of the silt and dirt that have run into it through the years. The commissioners were very moved by their situation, but explained their hands are tied because of the laws from the state and the controls of the timber lobbyists. The commissioners did suggest they take their presentation to our state legislators. Read more about this in Christa’s article next week!
Until next week – I hope it’s a better week all around!
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