Of course only law enforcement and military should be allowed the possession of assault rifles. And, of course, alcohol should never be served to drivers. Never. And, illegal drugs should be kept away from everyone. Period. Anything that kills should be hidden from the mentally ill, the angry, the bullies, the too-young-to-know-any-better.
It’s common sense. But, where is love?
This month, it’s right in front of us. We fail in our introspection if we ignore the reminders in each Christmas season. Everything Christ represents holds solutions as we grieve the slaughter in Connecticut. Not a believer? It’s not about religion. The tenets of Christ’s message hold steady in the face of suffering and violence, never mind church. Yet, we are ignorant. We think it’s harder than that.
We’d be really wise to use basic love and Christ-like wisdom to administer love-based common sense. The truth is starkly hideous: We have failed to tend to the root causes of mass killings, including war.
In our political intoxication of expecting government to save us, we fail the sick and the weak. It’s been well documented what happened during the Ronald Reagan years, decades ago, when mental institutions were closed. Those closures placed the sick on the streets and crammed our prisons and some are left at home where they can kill mother before heading to the local grade school to play out real life video games.
By the way, when a culture sells killing entertainment to its children, and then is surprised at the outcome, who’s at fault? Guns? Really?
So, again we ask where is love?
The Connecticut horror has generated profound discussions. These two articles offer some of the best:
Dr. Keith Ablow speaks about: Why Can’t America Care for the Mentally Ill? Find it on foxnews.com/opinion/2012/12/17.
Then check out a post by Boise-based writer and mother who tells her story: Thinking the Unthinkable at anarchistsoccermom.blogspot.com/. It’s gripping and eye-opening.
What does love have to do with it?
Love is doing the right thing for the weakest among us: the sick, the youngest (yes, even the unborn) and the broken. In doing for them, we do for ourselves.
It should begin in the hallowed halls of government, but it won’t, it can’t. Government is blind, stupid and selfish. So it begins with you and me who fight to keep personal and community priorities at the forefront.
Check our hearts. If assault guns are the problem, ban them, (good luck), but beware of the kitchen knife, the gasoline and matches in the garage, chemicals in the back shed. Then there’s the massacre within a person, his spirit, his hope, his clarity. Those violation come through other kinds of weapons, what about those? Truth is it’s about human brokenness. We must focus on what makes us tick and what makes us sick. Then we act with purpose. That’s love.
Start by asking the right questions: What are we allowing into our kid’s heads and homes? What do we buy them, what do they see and what do they see us do and say? Remember, “No,” can be love, within consistent guidance. Again, we’re ignorant. We make it harder than it should be. But our society doesn’t want restrictions; it wants feel-good freedoms. It’s selfish and blind.
Need more information on this? We’re celebrating the birthday of the best role model. Start there. Love was Christ’s compass; He saw the bigger picture, always; He didn’t collect “things,” He served people, especially the weak; especially children. He wouldn’t be trapped by trends or gimmicks or political correctness. He was willing to do what He had to do.
Something to think about: What we care about the most, we serve. Christ served people. And, now it’s our turn.
Linda Turley-Hansen is an Arizona syndicated columnist, former Phoenix TV newscaster, and fourth-generation Arizona native. She can be reached at turleyhansen@gmail.com.
wdgnas posted at 7:21 am on Tue, Dec 25, 2012.
vofreason: wonder if the bush camp (cheney, rice and rumsfeld) will self evaluate their frittering of 100s of Billions of dollars into iraq and afghanistan as oppose to putting money into Mental health programs. i don't pretend to know what is in the hearts or mind of others. that being said, i doubt one tear has or will be shed by the bush camp for the transgressions.
linda turley hansen: your rambling on about god and religion after a tragedy like sandy hook makes me doubt the presents of a supreme being.
onerebel posted at 3:47 pm on Mon, Dec 24, 2012.
JMJ, that was well said, Merry Christmas to all![smile]
JMJ posted at 10:39 am on Mon, Dec 24, 2012.
Nope, I don't have to agree with anyone else's opinion, and free speech means just that. Except, of course, when we are censored. I'm surprised they didn't pull the second one, personally, because that's why the EVT filters are there--to censor--they only seem to work hit and miss. But, censorship it remains, even when they pull random comments as "profanity" when they are not profane.
And on that note, God bless us every one. Merry Christmas, even to Glinda.
onerebel posted at 9:53 pm on Sun, Dec 23, 2012.
JMJ, If you think my post is as mean and bitter as the first two then maybe you three need to get together and exchange gag gifts! [wink]
JMJ posted at 5:51 pm on Sun, Dec 23, 2012.
LOL. Look no further THAN the first two posts.
So, hopefully, she never got as far as yours.
onerebel posted at 4:17 pm on Sun, Dec 23, 2012.
Very Well said Linda, unfortunately there are many people that the only pleasure they appear to get in life is by trying to make others as miserable as they are. Look no farther then the first two posts.
JMJ posted at 3:34 pm on Sat, Dec 22, 2012.
Yes, love is doing the right thing for the weakest among us. The mother of the shooter loved him too much. Too much to know what was right for him. I'm not saying it was not a difficult row to hoe, to have a child who was developmentally challenged. But, it literally backfired to keep him cloistered in an environment which was basically a padded cell so nothing would happen. When it was revealed to him that things would change, she didn't apparently know her son well enough to know that it would trigger this act.
The guns were only a problem because they fell into the wrong hands--hands that never should have held them in the first place.
I have seen, over my career, parents who do not let their children face the consequences of their behavior, or their condition, and who protect them rather than become proactive to find solutions for their child's well-being and long-term best interests. Whatever the shooter was capable of becoming was never fulfilled. A change? Too little, too late. And, sadly, too late for all the little souls who perished because a mental illness was not addressed. Made even sadder because, regardless of how crummy the mental health care in our country remains, these people had the means to have this kid treated. They just didn't have the smarts to do that. Love, unfortunately, enabled this son to carry out the most reprehensible manifestation of his environment, not necessarily just his illness.
mlimberg posted at 4:02 pm on Fri, Dec 21, 2012.
I want what you're smoking lady....
sdjtaz posted at 2:38 pm on Fri, Dec 21, 2012.
Linda, in your commentary you state"beware the kitchen knife". However,on the same day as Sandy Hook, a mentally I'll man entered a schoolroom in China with a knife and stabbed 22 children. The difference between the two is that no children died in China. Like it or not, easy access to guns make these situations worse.
Lack of reason, your comparison regarding funding is nonsense, it has never been one or the other. BTW, Solyndra was one of many small business loans to green businesses. The success rate for these loans is over 95%. Most banks would love that rate of successful.
RubidouxFalcon posted at 2:05 pm on Fri, Dec 21, 2012.
Here, here, VofReason. I can't figure out what would make a person write such nastiness based on a difference of opinion. She's paid to write an article of her opinions. She says nothing racist, homophobic, or genuinely offensive for the sake of being offensive and yet, she can't get the basic respect that one human being ought to give another in a dialogue over her opinion.
The first two posters should remember the author is most likely someone's mom, wife, sister, friend, etc. She gets paid a pittance for this article and is looking forward to a warm Christmas meal and opening a few gifts next week just like the rest of us.
For pete's sake, relax. No, for your own sake, Skeletor Dad and You are a Joke, relax. It's Christmas!
VofReason posted at 1:12 pm on Fri, Dec 21, 2012.
Sculptor Dad and You must be a Joke- you are angry people. You live in a free country that allows you to disagree with people- just be adults. You made need to seek out role models.
VofReason posted at 1:09 pm on Fri, Dec 21, 2012.
Interesting, wonder if the Obama camp will self evaluate their frittering of 100s of millions of dollars into Solyndra and electric cars as oppose to putting money into Mental health programs. You know, they are very interested in our health- ie Obamacare. I may not disagree with some here that mental healthcare is important, but how is it that the bulk of mental healthcare must be the responsibility of the State, Federal etc etc? In no one responsible for the treatment of themselves or their kids anymore? If you believe it is the responsibility of the State or Fed, what goes away to free up money? The Fed is a trillion underwater yearly as is. The State doesn't have a bunch of money sitting around? So what goes?
downtownresident posted at 9:56 am on Fri, Dec 21, 2012.
Mike,
Well put.
I notice that the author is not advocating any restrictions on guns, except for erroniously blaming "assault" rifles as the problem.
Linda, aside from the looks, assault rifles are no different than semi-automatic hunting rifles. It's the high capactiy magazines/clips that make "assault" rifles more macho and desireable to wanna-be Rambos.
Mike McClellan posted at 9:09 am on Fri, Dec 21, 2012.
Much of Ms. Hansen's column makes sense -- for once. However, she's off on one of her anti-government diatribes when she writes this:
"In our political intoxication of expecting government to save us, we fail the sick and the weak."
Here, Hansen is inadvertently right on the mark.
Because here in AZ -- thanks to Hansen's Republican politico buddies that she regularly extols in her columns -- treatment for Arizona's mentally ill has been cut to the bone. In fact, our most seriously mentally ill who can't afford out of pocket treatment were completely cut off from services when last year the legislature and Governor cut $50 million from our mental health care programs.
So the alternative has been -- when those mentally ill folks actually seek help -- is emergency rooms. At St. Joes, for example, psychiatric emergency room visits have gone up 40% in the last year.
Included in the services cut by the Governor and legislature were those for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
So, yeah, we need to look out for each other, like Hansen says. But when we don't have the tools to do so, where do those who can't afford the crazy-high costs of that care go here in AZ?
I notice Ms. Hansen doesn't want to address that tough issue.
Stevo357 posted at 9:01 am on Fri, Dec 21, 2012.
EASY! It is a story that is supposed to get people to think. We Americans have not been honest with ourselves and are now paying for our new age culture. You may not be a Christian, but the founding of this nation was based on those principles and that of the enlightenment. We want to blame something instead of the choices we have made that are the root cause of these actions. Christian beliefs and family values are quickly disappearing and being replaced with the idea that government is the answer. Getting rid of assault rifles is not going to fix the violence and lack of respect for human life.
Accuracy posted at 8:50 am on Fri, Dec 21, 2012.
Linda Turley-Hansen: “We’d be really wise to use basic love and Christ-like wisdom to administer love-based common sense.”
After the terrible events at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012, where twenty children and six adults were brutally massacred, the governor of Connecticut said, "Evil visited us today."
“Administer love-based common sense” . . . It was there in teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy, who made the ultimate sacrifice to save the lives of the children entrusted to them. It was in a janitor who ran down the halls giving warning and saving lives that day.
The shooter, Adam Lanza, had hundreds of rounds of ammunition left and obviously planned to do much more than he did.
You Must Be Joking posted at 7:37 am on Fri, Dec 21, 2012.
Where is the love? It is for the children shot! Not your simpleton views!
You Must Be Joking posted at 7:36 am on Fri, Dec 21, 2012.
Where is the love? How the 'F' can you even be so insensitive and selfish? You are a tragedy by yourself!
SculptorDad posted at 7:16 am on Fri, Dec 21, 2012.
Wow...Your entire first paragraph is a purely religious point of view, has nothing to do with common sense, and certainly shows no knowledge of history or even the U.S Constitution. Go to your church and babble with your like minded simpletons, but please don't presume to have a worthwhile "opinion".