Editor’s note: This commentary is by Neil Johnson of Waitsfield, who is state chair of the Green Mountain Party and the owner of the Johnson Real Estate Group. He was an independent candidate for the Washington-7 district in the Vermont House of Representatives in 2018.
[I]t wasn’t too long ago that Bible summer camps were a retreat for children and parents. Parents, perhaps needing a break from child-rearing and looking for some time to reconnect would send their children off to summer camp, where they would learn about archery, swimming and loving their neighbor. They would learn how to cope with life’s struggles, that suffering is part of life, challenges are there to make you a better person. Contributing your special gifts to the greater cause is a wonderful experience and everyone is to benefit. My how summer camp and school has changed.
Today we see on VTDigger, young students and summer campers stopping traffic via protest. We have instructed our children that the world is going to end if we don’t do something immediately. They, being of single digits or teens, perhaps don’t know this has been perpetrated every 20 years for about a century. That’s not to deny we can be better stewards, but to suggest that fear is perhaps not the best emotion to instill in our youth, there will be enough struggles. We needn’t invite more.
In the protesting, we justify breaking of laws, committing of crimes for the “higher moral cause.” This is a very, very slippery slope that instructs our youth that their thoughts and desires justify the actions they take. It puts in place a mind-set that “I know all and those who disagree are only in the way.” Can you see how this could be detrimental?
We at the same time teach our youth the problem in society is the white male and white privilege. These white male children entered this world having yet done nothing but play games, read books and watch TV, yet we burden them with the ills of society. We tell them, YOU are the problem. Yet they haven’t even lived a life. They are responsible for nothing but making their beds and brushing their teeth, frequently failing at that. Are we perplexed when young white men turn inward and commit suicide or rage against the world because people are not following their cause, their protest?
Unremarkably for some of us, we have yet two more shootings in the same week, many see the problem and the solution, neither of which deal with guns. This week and the months to come, just like a couple of years ago in Vermont, there will be much demand for solutions. We must stop the gun violence.
As usual, they will focus on the gun rather than the violence. Not all, but most, of these people were on drugs, either prescription or recreational, which mask pain, and dysfunction in families and schooling. As in most every case across our nation, everybody in school knew who was troubled. Seeing our fellow man in turmoil and trouble, what did we do? The papers and news programs will not cover this nor ask this question; the focus will be elsewhere. They will focus on one word, the wrong word in this sentence: “We need to stop gun violence.”
There will be massive propaganda. We must stop gun violence! This will be across the nation all to justify taking of firearms, but if we take away the guns, we still have the violence. We haven’t taken away the violence, so like in every other defunct society, there will continue to be violence, except now it will be knives, machetes, rape, torture and suicide bombings. Man has no shortage of ways to inflict pain and death. Perhaps rather than looking at laws that haven’t changed for centuries, we should instead look toward what has changed.
We have not loved our neighbors; we have not heard the cry of the needy.
When our children are taught to hate, taught their thoughts are supreme and justify any actions, we teach pride, fueled by envy and greed. And we get the results we see in this week’s paper: protesting, law-breaking and killing. Guns are not and never have been the problem.
When we are filled with love rather than hate we get better results. When we are filled with a new spirit, we get the true fruits, love, joy and peace. When we teach our children the foundational truths of Western civilization, we get good fruit, we get love, joy and peace, the latter being a prerequisite for prosperity. Peace, then prosperity.
The choice is ours to make, we only need to change hearts and direction of focus.
