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It Didn't Use to Be This Way
Townhall.com ^ | May 22, 2018 | Bill Murchison

Posted on 05/22/2018 3:43:28 PM PDT by Kaslin

One telling detail keeps escaping the men and women of words who would end school shootings by one expedient or another: gun control, better security, the arming of teachers, more careful vetting of potential gunmen and so forth.

The detail of which I speak: We didn't use to endure this horror. It didn't happen.

The urgent question that flows from this detail: Why not?

Well, to start with, because things were different, prior to the shooting fests, which break so many hearts and generate so much despair.

Right, yes -- but different in what way?

I will take a crack at this: Our culture (as we have come to call the circumstances of daily life) was cooler, calmer, less emotional, more orderly than it has become since then -- which is not the same as saying pre-massacre culture (what a term) was cool, calm and unemotional. It was not. Those personally familiar with that culture know better, I hope, than to indulge in nose-honkings over the joys of the past.

Still, massacres, explosions of personal rage, were rare and generally connected with mental disorder, such as the case of Howard Unruh, the World War II vet who went wild in New Jersey in 1949, gunning down people on and off the street, including a barber and his 6-year-old customer. There were guns enough out there, no doubt; nevertheless, few thought of using them in today's ghastly, almost customary, way.

We didn't use to endure this horror. It didn't happen (or, save for Howard Unruh, hardly ever).

One telling detail keeps escaping the men and women of words who would end school shootings by one expedient or another: gun control, better security, the arming of teachers, more careful vetting of potential gunmen and so forth.

The detail of which I speak: We didn't use to endure this horror. It didn't happen.

The urgent question that flows from this detail: Why not?

Well, to start with, because things were different, prior to the shooting fests, which break so many hearts and generate so much despair.

Right, yes -- but different in what way?

I will take a crack at this: Our culture (as we have come to call the circumstances of daily life) was cooler, calmer, less emotional, more orderly than it has become since then -- which is not the same as saying pre-massacre culture (what a term) was cool, calm and unemotional. It was not. Those personally familiar with that culture know better, I hope, than to indulge in nose-honkings over the joys of the past.

Still, massacres, explosions of personal rage, were rare and generally connected with mental disorder, such as the case of Howard Unruh, the World War II vet who went wild in New Jersey in 1949, gunning down people on and off the street, including a barber and his 6-year-old customer. There were guns enough out there, no doubt; nevertheless, few thought of using them in today's ghastly, almost customary, way.

We didn't use to endure this horror. It didn't happen (or, save for Howard Unruh, hardly ever).


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: banglist; murchison; schoolshootings; trends
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To: Jamestown1630

Well if, like me, you’re from Brooklyn, it’s “useta”, as in “It didn’t useta be this way” :0)


41 posted on 05/22/2018 5:33:31 PM PDT by COBOL2Java (Marxism: Wonderful theory, wrong species)
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To: Celerity

‘Young Humans’ are created by their parents and their societies. I work with many of them who are wonderful, idealistic young people who are going to make a positive difference in the world.

Those who are/will not, have not failed US; but - WE - their parents and societies - have failed THEM.


42 posted on 05/22/2018 5:38:35 PM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: COBOL2Java

LOL! That’s part of the conundrum - they sound the same, ‘speechwise’ ;-)


43 posted on 05/22/2018 5:40:10 PM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: Mears

Yep. And now It’s either a gang against one or someone grabs a gun.


44 posted on 05/22/2018 5:42:17 PM PDT by sheana
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To: bankwalker

Before the end of the 1960s all groups here identified as Americans and wanted this great country to succeed.

NOT true after that.
“I’m not American I’m an African American” “I place Sharia Law above any other law.” “LaRaza will not obey local gringo customs” “I insist the Ten Commandments be taken down or I will sue” “The ACLU is backing my group” “Our race will make CA,AZ and NM Mexico again”

Dems,Muslims,BLM,Black Panthers, and many more want to disrupt and break up our American Way of Life. They will then install a glorious people’s socialism-feminism and destroy the white man’s hegemony. Until these losers become enslaved by the Soros picked leaders like the people of China, Venezuela, North Korea types found out. Too late to vote again.
They send the mentally ill, the violent gang members, and fast breeding Muslims (average of 6 children each American Muslim woman!!!!) to change America.


45 posted on 05/22/2018 5:51:31 PM PDT by frank ballenger (End non-citizen voting & leftist media news censorhip or we're finishid.)
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To: sheana
Remember when people used to have actual fistfights? One on one. Not til the death or anything, just til you won or the other person gave up. I remember when there used to be fights. Not guns. Just a good old fashioned azz kicking fight.

Yep. That's how it worked. Probably at least half the homes around where I grew up had guns. And some boys even had rifles in gun racks in their trucks that were parked at school. I don't recall anyone even threatening to use a gun. Squabbles were settled with fistfights.

46 posted on 05/22/2018 5:55:38 PM PDT by Kipp
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To: Kaslin
Once upon a time a politician promised a program to create a “Great Society.” Turns out, society was already pretty good, and government was not a suitable instrument for a good society better - let alone, “great."

The “Great Society” was simply a ginormous government program.

“Liberals” are cynical about society, and naive about government.


47 posted on 05/22/2018 6:04:10 PM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion (Presses can be 'associated,' or presses can be independent. Demand independent presses.)
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To: Kaslin

Removed God from schools and fatherless children.... a lot to overcome.


48 posted on 05/22/2018 6:07:32 PM PDT by PigRigger (Satire is near impossible now. Liberals donÂ’t understand it and for conservatives it is reality.)
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To: sheana

That’s pretty much how it was when I went to school.


49 posted on 05/22/2018 6:08:16 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks ( The US Constitution ....... Invented by geniuses and God .... Administered by morons ......)
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To: Yaelle
Bleeding hell...just how old are you?

Back when I was in high school, drinking an alcoholic beverage was the HUGE no-no/sometimes "hidden acting 'BAD' thing" and taking dope was not even thought of!

The most one could get at a nurse's office was an aspirin and/or a bandage.

As Freshmen, the shocked and "titterable" sexual topic was "FRENCH KISSING".

Was this nation better for that? YOU BET IT WAS!

We were ALL "AMERICANS" and nobody treated those of a different race or religion any differently than anyone else was treated.

There were NO "safe spaces", nor was anything even remotely considered to be micro nor macro aggression/"triggered"!

Cell phones? LOL...there were still rotary phones, with a very few kids even having their own phone in their rooms and in boarding school, the phone was in a phone booth down the hall!

T.V.?

We had too much homework to be able to watch much of the few channels that were available !

Were we, as a people and a nation better off?

BY LIGHT YEARS !

50 posted on 05/22/2018 6:10:00 PM PDT by nopardons
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To: nopardons

Some of us ain’t old fossils yet.


51 posted on 05/22/2018 6:11:50 PM PDT by Rebelbase
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To: Kipp

Even among girls!

I remember being in the locker-room in Jr. High with a girl who resented that I had been seen with a boy she liked; and she offered to ‘beat me up’.

I told her that Tom and I were just great friends, and went to the same Sunday School. Her anger fizzled.

But there were boy bullies back then, some of whom actually hit girls! One - whose family had had some serious disagreements with mine - chased me down one day and caused me to fall. As soon as he saw me fall, he ran away.

I’m sure that his daddy had guns; but he and his equally obnoxious brothers would never have thought about using one on a schoolmate.

(Years later, the same boy who ran me down begged me to invite him to the Sadie Hawkins dance ;-)


52 posted on 05/22/2018 6:12:31 PM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: Kaslin

Use to?! Who edits this garbage?


53 posted on 05/22/2018 6:15:14 PM PDT by LanaTurnerOverdrive ("I've done things in my life I'm not proud of. And the things I am proud of are disgusting.")
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To: Rebelbase

Some of may be older than others here; however, we aren’t “fossils” and actually know what this nation was once like and should/can be once again!


54 posted on 05/22/2018 6:18:12 PM PDT by nopardons
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To: bankwalker
took God outta school ...

And families left Him out of home.

55 posted on 05/22/2018 6:18:21 PM PDT by Fightin Whitey
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To: Fightin Whitey
And families left Him out of home.

Exactly. People are always railing against what schools/society/government are doing to kids. But we still have HOME and a lot of influence over our kids.

If you decide to leave it all to the schools and media, you get what you bargained for and what you deserve. It may be difficult and time-consuming to conduct your own counter-training of your kids; but if you don't, you can't complain about how they turn out.
56 posted on 05/22/2018 6:27:06 PM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: captain_dave

ADHD was created by pediatricians. As always, the drugs followed the doctors’ demands.


57 posted on 05/22/2018 6:29:04 PM PDT by <1/1,000,000th%
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To: maxwellsmart_agent

I know more than a few teachers. I don’t trust most of them with a gun.


58 posted on 05/22/2018 6:34:40 PM PDT by JerryBlackwell (some animals are more equal than others)
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To: nopardons

So many things were better then. But kids who were sexually abused by adults were ALONE. No one believed them.


59 posted on 05/22/2018 6:41:30 PM PDT by Yaelle
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To: Yaelle
That's just NOT true!

Oh sure, some never reported it/weren't believed, but the abuse wasn't as rampant...except re religious and orphanage criminals. You weren't there, I was, and so, you are going by hearsay.

I know that this subject is your own "hobby-horse", but you are obviously younger than I am and have a different understanding of the times I am referring to; on two or three different levels.

60 posted on 05/22/2018 6:56:57 PM PDT by nopardons
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