May 26, 2022 2 min read

Once again, a gun massacre horror in which innocent young children were targeted and slain has afflicted our country, shattering countless lives and inflicting terror on those who wanted to believe that schools and other public places are safe.

There are many causes for such atrocities and no easy answers. The proliferation of guns in the hands of demented and homicidal individuals, untreated mental illness, a rotted entertainment culture, hatred that is engendered and absorbed by what is delivered through certain media outlets, prominently including social media, and a lack of guidance at home in families with no role models are some of the culprits.

What steps will we take to address such incidents? Little or nothing, you can bet. We are not going to curb the zeal for firearms ownership or the ease with which one can amass an arsenal of weapons designed to slaughter human beings in rapid succession. Societal changes that are necessary will not be undertaken and even if they were, action to make us safer would by no means occur overnight.

The only action that I see forthcoming is that we will have to engage armed security personnel in many public places and those who wish to enter a school or most any public building will have to endure metal detector screening.

The world watches with unease as our country is in many ways disintegrating into widespread hatred and violence, rage toward “the other.”

In his 2017 inauguration speech, Donald Trump decried the phenomenon of “American carnage” and it has certainly been on display. The former president said that “it stops right here and it stops right now.” He did nothing to stop it. It has, in fact, accelerated.

It is an ugly time in which we live in our country, one in which innocent people going about their daily routines may be senselessly slaughtered.

Oren Spiegler

Peters Township