Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Cynthia Davis: Forget guns and mental health, you can blame school shootings on the schools

(From former Rep. Cynthia Davis, R-O'Fallon)

There's been plenty of analysis of the school shooting in Florida last week. Some of it is helpful, but much of the mainstream commentary is slanted. Big government proponents seek to use this tragedy to advance a political agenda to grow governmental bureaucracies, justify more National intrusion, reduce personal responsibility and erode our second amendment.

The worst ideas focus on treating the symptoms, not the real problems. To find the right answers, we must look at the root cause. Some people blame guns, psychotropic drugs, adoption issues, Asperger's Syndrome, and lack of school-provided law enforcement.

However, I have not heard anyone talk about what schools teach students. My daughter was required to read "The Most Dangerous Game" about someone who hunted other human beings. The year before she was required to read, "The Hunter and the Hunted", which was just as bad.

To promote evil in the classroom is, at a minimum, a dereliction of duty, if not educational abuse. Our schools are hired by the public for the public good. When they no longer teach goodness or when they undermine goodness, the only recourse we have is to remove our public support.

These children, in their formative years, are forced to read stories of evil, horror, and violence, which is especially inappropriate at a time when their tender consciences are developing. The blatant disrespect of human life or the glamorization of heinous or shameful behavior plants seeds of pathological behavior and creates emotional scars that may never heal.

On top of that, much of the required reading for English classes contains foul language. This should never be acceptable in the classroom. If teachers don't allow their students to use expletives, why are these children forced to put these words into their minds?

Every experience forms a conscience for either good or evil. We must recognize what we're doing when we teach any curriculum that indelibly damages the conscience. So many schools are trying to not talk about anything religious, yet moral standards are religious because they all originate from one's worldview. When will the schools take responsibility for their part in debasing the character of the students by mainstreaming evil?

We should never accept this as normal! There is only a finite amount of time in each class. Every time a teacher assigns an immoral book, it removes time that could be spent on true classics.

Schools used to teach virtues like courage, honesty, brotherly love and the dignity of our humanity. This is what we get when we teach children we evolved from pond scum. What happened to all the good literature that used to teach children useful lessons that would make them a success in life instead of this mental pollution forced upon them as a requirement for graduation? Many of these books actually teach racism and enlarge the cultural divide.

Some examples of what used to be taught are Robinson Caruso, Little Women, Moby Dick, Frankenstein, Ben Hur, McGuffey's Readers, Horatio Alger's novels, C. S. Lewis, John Milton and stores that nurture the soul, spur hope, inspire greatness, unity, compassion, love for our fellow-man and an acute awareness of right vs. wrong.

These books inspired generations of young people to understand what good character looks like and encouraged them to aspire to make their lives count and to make the world a better place. We must use every opportunity to promote a more free and virtuous society.

The same day as the school shooting in Florida, my daughter's high school experienced a power outage. My daughter's first thought was wondering if it might be a mass shooter. How sad that our kids have to concern themselves with this!

Here are a few comments from some of my smarter friends:

"The issues we’re dealing with are not ailments of mental health, but of spiritual health. It isn’t the presence of a gun in the hand, but the absence of God in the heart that we see such carnage." ~ Tamara

"A friend pointed this out to me, but to all my friends on the political right who are jumping on the "mentally ill people shouldn't own guns"bandwagon, ask yourself how you're going to work with the political left on this when they don't really know what mental illness is? Remember they believe there are 63 genders of the human race." ~ P.W.

"We protect stores, banks, courthouses, sporting events, POLITICIANS, (including former Presidents) with, guess what? guns. The list goes on and on and on... But somehow we can’t seem to protect our future's greatest asset, our children, the next generation, with guns? It’s truly maddening. It’s time to start protecting ALL of our schools with guns. Allow ALL teachers and staff who want to carry, to carry." ~ Eric

"The shooting in Florida is NOT a national problem. It is NOT a federal government issue. It happened in Florida. It is a community issue first...a local issue first. Washington needs to stay out of these issues. Local, county and state solutions should be preferred every time.
Why do we want Washington mandating solutions to the local citizens and government? The founders gave the power to the people, not the federal government." ~ Scott

What would Billy Sunday think of school shootings?
Perhaps more important than a national conversation on guns, he would call for a national inquiry into what killer kids are being taught in public schools. '"Rivers of America will run with blood filled to their banks before we will submit to them taking the Bible out of our schools.'" ~ Bill


(Cynthia Davis' latest podcast can be found at this link. Enter at your own risk.)

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who cares what Billy Sunday (died 1935) would think of school shootings. You'd have to explain the concept of an assault rifle to him first. (Portable inexpensive lightweight machine gun to defend youself and family, or to hunt with, or to lay down a base of fire when you need one.)

Anonymous said...

9:33 AM
An AR-15 is NOT A MACHINE GUN.
That is a liberal media lie.
Which stupid people believe without checking the facts. I would hope you don't fit into that category.

Anonymous said...

How about we quit trying to place blame anywhere and start taking steps to STOP it. Stricter background checks and if the person has any mental illness they can't purchase weapons.
Democrats & Republicans need to quit with the "Blame Game" and start doing what is necessary to keep pur citizens safe, free, well fed, housed, clothed and prosperous.
The American people deserve so much better than the current officials who are controlling our lives and future.
I for one am SICK of it.

Anonymous said...

What kids are being taught or not taught at HOME is the key. Divided families with no morals and video games desenitizing children to violence. No supervision, no role models. Many children are expected to raise themselves while their parents go and live their own life. They are succeptible to many influences because there is no one supervising them.
They see trash on television and YouTube watching gangsters banging in videos talking about killing and raping. Hollywood provides them with unrealistic scenarios about life. Make
Porn movies and become famous (Kardashians) spend half a million a year on hair and makeup and jet all over the world. So many things. . .
They need to be taught good work ethics, education, respect, the value of a dollar, how to perform chores and contribute to society and family and the value of a human life.
We as parents are the ones who fail our children by not providing them the basics on how to live and function in society.

It's the responsibility of our government to provide safety and security to the citizens.

DO YOUR JOB and quit blaming others.

It's not the schools job to teach your child moral values.


Anonymous said...

I certainly am glad you are a "former" Representative Cynthia.

Anonymous said...

We already have to worry about the teachers who are sexual predators. So now we should arm them with guns????

Anonymous said...

@ 6:31 -


STOP MAKING SENSE!

Anonymous said...

Just stop it Mrs Davis. The Bible is a pretty violent read in itself. You want kids to learn? How about we start with our economy. When I grew up in the 60s, my Dad had a decent paying union wage job, Mom stayed home. We don't have that anymore. How about we take marriage a little more serious among heterosexuals before we judge others? How about we stop making extra curricular activities for the well to do only? Kids from poor, single parent homes are the #1 problem for teachers in my opinion. I am sure if you looked at the drop out students and lower performing kids, you could make a clear distinction based on economics. I left the Republican party because through religion, they have a superiority complex that I cannot relate to. You all disgust me.

Harvey Hutchinson said...

3:14(Randy)
Have you ever purchased a gun? Or are you just talking about something you know nothing about?
I purchased a handgun a couple of months ago at a retailer in Joplin. My background check was 1-1/4 hours, and it was a slow day for the store.

Including the FBI( if they mean anything other than harassing Trump and releasing classified materials to the the Fake News NY Times) check.
The store associate told me he had never done one in less than an hour.

Harvey Hutchinson 303-522-6622 voice&text

Randy said...

I do not own a gun and I have never owned a gun, Harvey. I have no problem with anyone who does own a gun. I believe in the Second Amendment, but I do not believe the Second Amendment provides that a person can own any type of gun he or she wants. I also fail to understand your logic, since you seem to be indicating that a person who has never bought or owned a gun should not be taken seriously when commenting on guns.

I have never owned a nuclear device, yet there is no reason why I should not write about nuclear proliferation. I do not sexually harass people, but that does not mean I should stop writing about sexual harassment.

I have never held an elected office, nor have many others who write about officeholders, but that does not mean should leave the writing about government to those hold office.

Anonymous said...

4:19 (Harvey) I own 3 guns and none of them are AR-15s. You continually spew and prove you know nothing but what your leaders have brainwashed you with. The same lame rhetoric that you can read from the National Enquirer or FAUX News. I had a background check done and it took about an hour and a half. The store associate informed me that it can take up to 3 hours depending on the day and time. This does go to a FEDERAL database. (HINT - that means nation wide.) so it isn't something that they store on their local server. To simplify that for you, sometimes a lot of people are processing background checks nationwide and sometimes the data is a little slow being processed. So in your limited knowledge of anything you haven't already read from the national enquirer, do you need an AR-15 for hunting? Is the wildlife shooting back? Is there any reason a civilian should have an AR? Have you been probed by aliens so you think you need a rapid rate of fire to repel them next time? Just buy an RPG. That'll learn em!