My Christmas Wish 2012

Prior to last Friday, most Americans with children were scrambling around trying to find the "perfect" must-have item for Santa to give to their kids on Christmas.  The most important things on our minds were something like this: Must get presents, must wrap presents, must buy fixings for dinner, must go to party X, must do, must do, must do..."never enough time to get it all done" and "time flies faster every year" were likely staples of our conversations.

Last Friday should have been nothing more than 11 days before Christmas.  Evil on Earth changed that and changed the majority of Americans in the process.  A nameless soul-less entity walking the Earth charged into an elementary school and murdered 26 innocent children and instructors.  There are now 26 families that will not see their children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, daughters, mothers, aunts, sisters and brothers until they are themselves raised up to Heaven's gates with God's grace. 

We have had over 70 mass killings worlwide in schools since 1996, according to Infoplease.com.  All but 18 of those have been here in the United States.  In case you are keeping note, that's one roughly every 4 years.  In other words, once during every typical high school career there will be a shooting in a school in the U.S. 

In my 34 years on this Earth, I have gone from having an idyllic childhood, where I could roam and never worry about more than being home by dinnertime, to witnessing some of the most horrific acts known to mankind. I've witnessed the attack on the Federal building in Oklahoma, the Columbine high school massacre, the DC sniping case, the Westwood Mall shooting, the Colorado movie theater massacre, the attack on AZ governor and others, the attacks of 9/11 and now the murder of innocent young children en masse. These have all occurred since 1995.  This equals one travesty of morality just over every 2 years. Each one seems to want to top the last.  

Some will say it's the guns.  Some will say it's the lack of religion in schools.  Some will say it's the lack of support for mental illness.  Some unimaginably will say it's the first victim's fault.  I will say it's the lack of a moral compass in this country. 

We, as a society, have our morals backwards. We look to strangers and celebrities on TV to guide us in determining what is right or wrong. We should be looking at the best of the best in our society to guide our morals as a Nation. The teachers who died protecting our children, the police, fire, ems and pastoral care workers that have come to the rescue and do so every day. The soldiers who risked their lives so that I could sit here on my arse and write prose about the possibilities in life. They are our moral guides.

Morals are not religion.  Morals are the difference between humans and animals.  We have lost our way in this country.  REGARDLESS OF YOUR THOUGHTS ON GUNS, RELIGION, MENTAL ILLNESS, PARENTING OR ANY OF THE OTHER CANS BEING KICKED DOWN THE ROAD, WE ARE FAILING AS A SOCIETY.  Morals must be the basis of any society that is to be humane, just and worth existing. 

By definition:
morals plural of mor·al (Noun)

Noun A lesson, esp. one concerning what is right or prudent, that can be derived from a story, a piece of information, or an experience. A person's standards of behavior or beliefs concerning what is and is not acceptable for them to do.   Morals do not come from religion.  Morals are grown from the cultivation of all that is good in the human heart.  We as a society seem to be more interested in who is winning the latest reality TV show or who is breaking up with their celebrity boyfriend/girlfriend.  We protect our cars, homes, businesses, entertainment complexes, airports, museums and shopping centers with alarms, buzzers, security guards and pat-downs.  WHY MUST WE DEBATE PROTECTING OUR CHILDREN???   We need to dial into the world in which we live.  Become engaged in the lives we have been gifted! Identify our most precious resources - life, liberty, pursuit of happiness and of course our children.  Then stand guard and be willing to die to protect them.  Only when we are willing to do this, will we begin to solve this morality problem in our society and begin to restore our security.    As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.  We will also protect our most precious of gifts at all costs.  My Christmas wish is that it will be enough.