LAMAR, Mo. —
As both a human being and an American, I am grieved by the tragedy inflicted on so many by the young murderer in Newtown, Conn. My heart goes out to them all.
There are many factors that led to this tragedy, some preventable and some not. First and foremost, the young man who pulled the trigger must bear responsibility, both here and eternally for his actions. But there are many others who have had a hand in molding his character and must also be held accountable for creating an environment that fosters such senseless violence. Let me explain.
It has always baffled me how anyone can claim to find a genuine sense of value or purpose when he accepts the indoctrination that his first ancestor evolved out of a rock. What sense of a healthy self-esteem can exist if we believe that everything in creation is merely the result of a random process of atoms coming together? What sense of eternal destiny or accountability is there if this life is all there is?
How can life have real value when the abortion of more than a million unborn babies each year has both legal and social sanction? And without a moral compass that is greater than the collective and self-centered opinions of mankind, who can honestly assert that there is such a thing as absolute right or wrong?
Granted, even people who are taught Godly principles can and do, all too often, go wrong. But with the morally bankrupt foundation that now serves as the civics for our civilization, is it any wonder such barbarity seems now all too common? Can banning guns really change the heart, or offer true protection? Yes, one man made an evil choice and murdered 26 innocent people. But to a degree, their blood is also on the hands of all who advocate our modern ethics.
Dave Spiering
Lamar
Opinion
Your View: Accountability
- Opinion
-
-
Other Views: Still inspiring
Cutbacks in the military budget and the still-recovering economy mean this Memorial Day weekend will go down as a relatively subdued affair — relative, that is, to our usual end-of-school, official-start-of-summer blowout.
-
Our View: Setting standard
The sight of hundreds of young student volunteers walking across Moore’s Fourth Street interstate overpass had to be uplifting to the city’s tornado victims.
-
Our View: Safer schools
Being able to see for ourselves what would have happened to our children had they been standing in the main hall of their schools during the May 22, 2011, tornado had a profound effect on our understanding of safe schools.
-
Marilyn Beasley, guest columnist: Claiming responsibility for abuse of power
Over the past few months we’ve witnessed the abuse of power by President Barack Obama and his administration.
-
Our View: ‘Why?’ has no answer
Just hours before, there was breakfast and laughter. There were pictures on the walls and memories in every room.
-
Our View: Absent from House
We can’t figure out why two Missouri legislators think they should be elected to the U.S. House when it appears they can’t seem to show up to take care of business in the Missouri House.
-
Your View: Terrible injustice
I see this Jasper County nuisance law as a terrible injustice on the rights of the residents of Jasper County.
-
Your View: Should we be outraged?
Were there effusive apologies following the lockdown of Boston as most of the continent indulged vicariously in the ongoing manhunt?
-
Your View: Terrorism is terrorism
In the May 13 issue of The Joplin Globe there was an Associated Press article concerning the New Orleans shooting.
-
Phill Brooks, columnist: Missouri Senate did what Founding Fathers had in mind
George Washington once described the Senate as being like a saucer in which you pour coffee or tea.
- More Opinion Headlines
-
Other Views: Still inspiring



