These days

[GoodOlBoy]

This afternoon at work I was talking to a young lady who works as a student assistant in our permits department. During the discussion she brought up her dad telling her about taking guns to school for show and tell and checking himself out of school to go hunting at lunch time. I nodded and agreed telling her that I had done the same thing not that many years ago. Another young lady in the area looked at me horrified that I had taken a gun to school as a child. She asked if I had ever thought of killing the other kids, surely I must have been angry with the teachers and thought of shooting them. I shook my head sadly at her and informed her that even 15 years ago when I graduated high school I was always taught you did what the teachers asked even if you didn't like it. And if I had that big a problem with another kid it was solved in the traditional manner in the school yard after school, or if it couldn't wait behind the ag building during lunch. You may not have been able to "whoop 'em" but they weren't going to enjoy winning if you couldn't.

She said "We thankfully we live in changing times! Where people are punished for fighting, and punished for picking on others, and punished for taking a gun or knife to school for any reason."

I told her "It ain't the times that are changing. Just the people." Sure we fought with our fists. I never heard of a school shooting back then. We took guns to school and ducked out at lunch to hunt. I never heard of a school shooting. We prayed in school and many of us carried Bibles. I never heard of a school shooting. We were picked on, and we picked on others in return. Some of it was good natured, but there were always jerks who weren't good natured with their picking. I never heard of a school shooting. These days we punish people for everything under the sun at schools, only now we have school shootings. What improved? What got better? Teen suicide is up. Teen pregnancy is up. Crime is up. Murder is up. School shootings are up. How is that better?

It's not just schools. Now people are persecuted who don't go to college. Maybe thats why you can't get a decent plumber or roofer. People don't respect anybody who doesn't have a masters and three phds. But you can't get a good carpenter or a good auto mechanic! And even if they find one they treat them like dirt!

What does it come down to? It comes down to respect. When I was in high school you respected teachers, and you respected everybody else. Either out of common courtesy or because you could wind up going to the movies friday night with a shiner and a busted lip. People carried guns, and knives, and common sense, and Bibles. They were all just as much tools as they were weapons.

These days we are living in changing times. No. These days people are changing. And they are changing for the worse. And whats worse is we are letting it happen.

GoodOlBoy