To the Editor:
So we had yet another school shooting in this country, the 18th or 19th in this year alone. Seventeen young lives are snuffed out and a great many others scarred forever. When and where will the next such catastrophe be? The signs are that we won’t have to wait long, since the shoot-em-dead tradition is deeply rooted in this country’s history.
And what does this say about our future? Matthew 26:52 of the Book we say we base our beliefs on says: “Put your sword back in its place – for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” Son of a gun.
Everybody says America is a young nation, and so it may be, but the time is overdue for it to have to grow up. Yet it seems almost impossible, given the addiction of large parts of the population to the gun, which they equate with security.
But it takes more courage to give up the gun than to hang on to the illusion that it will save you.
The only thing that occurs to me as a realistic step we could attempt, would be to institute intensive courses in problem solving and crisis resolution in all our schools, so eventually our young people can learn not to feel that the only recourse they can take against perceived or real bullying and frustration is bloodshed and murder.
Brigitte Lent
Edgartown
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