More Questions than Answers

One must look both along and at everything.

~ C.S. Lewis


There is nothing to be gained by expounding upon the national horrors of this past weekend.  Too many people are doing far too much talking. There's plenty of blame, accusations, insults, hatred, and anger on the airwaves, eclipsed only by the amount of stupidity contained in the diatribes.

None of the rough words are going to accomplish anything useful to help the country find its way through to peace. Nothing I see indicates that any of the bloviators care much about the victims. The dead and wounded amount to mere, convenient fodder for various left-wing political agendas. It's a sickening situation. How did we get to this awful place?

It's very easy to blame the president--too easy. The deterioration of our culture has been in progress for quite some time, long before Donald Trump was in the White House. In all the frenzied news coverage, nobody mentions that there were twenty-four mass shootings under President Obama's watch. Why is that, I wonder? I don't mean to imply that the two dozen shootings were Obama's fault, any more than El Paso or Dayton are Trump's fault. That's too one-dimensional, too simplistic of an explanation. Something much deeper is going on in America at a fundamental level, an illness that is eroding our societal foundations.

What has brought us to this dark point in our history? Obama's 2008 election coincides roughly with the birth of the smart phone and the dramatic rise of social media. Could that be the reason? God and religion have been systematically eradicated from the public square in recent decades, and "Nones," people who don't identify with any religion, are increasing. Does that fact contribute to our cultural rot?

How about impact of the 24-hour news cycle, the fractured family structure that so many children grow up under, the lack of courtesy, respect, and community we feel for one another compared to a half century ago? What about the lack of consequences for wrongdoing in so many public schools today?

I'm fairly certain that numerous contributing factors have brought us to this sad and frightening time. I just wish I knew what they are.