How Do We Stop This Madness?

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Countless people in the US today are asking two questions in light of the terrible ambush and murder of five Dallas police officer and the wounding of seven others (and two civilians). One is "why?" That was answered by the police chief in a news conference early this morning (7/8), stating that the sniper, during negotiations, said he hated whites and cops and wanted to kill both. The other pressing question is, "How do we stop this madness?" I have suggestions, but they will most likely fall on deaf ears. Let's give religion a try. Back in the days when there wasn't such open hostility on religion (we had people protesting the opening of a freaking amusement park, for crying out loud, because it's based on Noah's ark!) we didn't have these things. I'm not saying "you need to go to this synagogue" or "convert to this Christian denomination," but let's look at some of the things that religions teach. "Love your neighbor as yourself" is a major teaching of two religions (Judaism -- Leviticus 19:18 -- and Christianity -- Matthew 22:39). Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism teach the principle of Ahimsa -- generally translated as, "Do no harm." Teaching that would go a long way to put the brakes on this evil. And, honestly, the first thing we do when we have these mass shootings is have prayer services, so why don't we try turning to God or "a higher power" before the shooting starts? It might stop the shooting from happening! Let's STOP showing gun violence in our "entertainment. A study at California State University, Northridge says that the average child has seen over 8,000 factionalized murders on TV shows by the time he/she gets out of elementary school. The study goes on to say that, by the time the child gets out of high school, he/she has witnessed over 200,000 acts of violence. This says nothing of movies, songs, video games, art, books, or any other form of entertainment (and, needless to say, nothing of the real murders such as the total insensitivity to the police and the victim's family that CNN exercised last night by showing a cop shot dead by the sniper from behind a pillar). How about we put a stop to this? About 30 years ago Tipper Gore, wife of then-senator (and later Vice President) Al Gore, founded the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center), a group that sought to ban songs that had graphic violence and/or profanity in the lyrics. While the attempt failed, it did result in "parental warning" labels on popular albums. While TV shows have ratings, they aren't doing any good, especially given that parents either don't use the filtering system on their TV to block violence or they just don't care. But the reality is that this constant barrage of violence has taught two generations that (a) violence is acceptable and (b) violence is the way to solve your issues. We must stop that. How about these people saying "black lives matter" acting like it? We have about 50 unsolved murders from last year. Most of them were blacks murdered, and 91% (statistically) of blacks murdered are killed by other blacks. Yet people won't come forth with information. I told the story in another discussion where I saw a young black man wearing a T-shirt with the Warner Brothers logo and the words above it, "If you see a cop....", meaning "If you see a cop, warn your brothers." I'm sure there is fear of these gangs (we had a gang member who had one witness to his murder charge killed to silence her), but the simple fact is that we will not ever slow or stop the carnage unless we stand up and say, "ENOUGH." If "black lives matter," then we need to make sure that blacks who are murdered by other blacks get justice and not just worry about things when a black gets gunned down by a cop (95% of the time while in the commission of a crime and therefore justified). Mental illness is real, so let's treat it that way! I say this repeatedly, but a number of mass shooters are described in news reports as "having a long history of mental illness." Someone mentally ill with a gun or a pipe bomb or a car (such as what happened in Las Vegas) is going to kill as swiftly and surely as cancer or a heart attack, so let's start taking mental illness seriously in this country, and diagnosing and treating it as aggressively as we would heart disease or cancer. No, this won't stop all of the murders, but I'll bet it would help some. One life saved is worth celebrating. Sadly, most of these suggestions will be poo-pooed and dismissed (especially the first one), and the carnage will continue.