As our nation ponders how we respond to what happened in Newtown, Connecticut, there are several areas that I expect will be explored.
First, because we have had so many incidents of gun violence in the last several years, we will probably be forced as a nation to examine why we are one of the leading countries in the world in terms of the number of citizens that are killed by guns. We will have the usual debate about the Second Amendment, but hopefully we can also listen to each other and craft some reasonable ways to control the misuse of guns in our society.
Second, as we proceed towards the “fiscal clift” and other economic realities, it would be wise for us as a nation to be careful about assuming that an easy way to reign in our spending is to make cuts that will reduce our ability to make mental health services available to the larger part of our community. We have had too much evidence that the stresses of contemporary life are resulting in mental aberrations that need attended to.
Along with that reality is a recognition that a lot of that violence has erupted among those who are economically comfortable and educationally advantaged. While as a nation we have a responsibility for the most needy among us, we also have to recognize that education and prosperity do not shield us from mental and social aberrations. In fact, some of the stress of being successful can exacerbate mental instability.
A major factor that I haven’t heard mentioned in the initial conversations is the problem of the lack of trust in our society. There are actions that our government and other institutions could take that would make the society safer but it would mean that we would have to trust those institutions to act for our best interests. Unfortunately, people don’t trust many of our institutions, from government to churches, to educational institutions to act in our best interest. We are a society that doesn’t trust institutions very much at all. Yet these institutions were created to help us function as a society.
How do we rebuild trust in our society? That is one of our major challenges.
