If I were writing a headline

If I were writing a headline about current events, it would look like this.

*Shots fired

*Trump unharmed

*School children dead

*Congress unconcerned

America has better things to do than bury dead school children and try 14-year-old kids as adults. As I write this, an 11-year-old girl in my community has been detained for making school shooting threats on social media, and a loaded firearm was discovered in the backpack of a Virginia 6-year-old elementary school child.  Psychologists indicate that full human maturity occurs around age 26.  It is difficult to imagine that an 11-year-old child has any realistic comprehension of what a shooting incident in a school really means, unless the child has experienced a school shooting event.  Children—and adults—pick up an avalanche of unreliable information on social media, and children process it with immature judgment.     

Wikipedia lists 210 school shooting events in the U.S. during the past five years (through Sep. 10, 2024).  The U.S. Congress needs to act.  We need background checks and mandatory safety training for everyone who owns or purchases or uses a firearm.  We need serious legal penalties for anyone who sells, gives, or loans a firearm to a person who does not have the requisite background check and safety training. 

We also need thorough investigations and age-appropriate legal penalties for people who issue threats that cause evacuation of schools or other public facilities.  We cannot ignore the threats, and we cannot afford the chaos caused by the disruption. 

We need to incorporate mandatory instruction in our K-12 schools to ensure that children understand the need to verify information and avoid false, derogatory and violent language — language that is now rampant in our political sphere. 

Some of us are apparently discouraged by the performance of our national government. Those of us who have served in the federal government, civil service for example, know that our government isn’t perfect. But it could be worse.  At an earlier time in our history, government jobs were filled by the “patronage system.” The U.S. president awarded jobs to people who supported him without regard for the appointee’s qualification to do the job. It was a disaster. The patronage system was gradually replaced by a civil service system that hires people who have appropriate education and experience. Our federal government performs an enormous array of functions that benefit all of us, and it performs most of those functions reasonably well. Government agencies must deal with members of Congress and lobbyists who exert influence, and with lawsuits, a process that slows and delays functions.  

Our national governmental institutions provide stability, and stability is a necessary aspect of American democracy, flawed though that democracy may be. As Winston Churchill expressed it, “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all others which have been tried.”

We can exercise our civility. We can protect our school children. And we can leave the world a better place for all who follow us.    

Jack Stevenson is a retired infantry officer, civil service and private corporation employee who now reads history, follows issues important to Americans, and writes commentary from his home in Pensacola, Florida.