Acts of Violence

    Last Saturday December 1, 2012 Kansas City Chief’s linebacker Jovan Belcher shot and killed his girl friend, Kasandra Perkins. He then drove to the Chiefs facilities where after talking with coach Romeo Crennel, general manager Scott Pioli, and linebacker’s coach Gary Gibbs Belcher walked away from them, turned the gun on himself and took his own life.

    On December 2, 2012 Bob Costas, during the halftime of the Sunday night football game paraphrased sports columnist Jason Whitlock and said’ “that Belcher and his wife would not have died had he not possessed a gun.”

  Really, Bob? You know that for a fact, do you? You know for a fact that had he not had a gun he would have walked away from that argument without striking out in rage? You know for a fact Bob that he would not have grabbed something and bashed her head in, or maybe beat her to death with his fists? Wow Bob, could you give me the Powerball numbers for next week’s drawing too?

    It was not the fact that Jovan Belcher own a gun that caused him to responded with violence. Just like it wasn’t the ability to own a hand gun that made Charles Whitman climb the bell tower at the University of Texas on August 1, 1966 and kill 21 people. And it wasn’t lax gun control laws that made James Huberty walk in to a McDonalds in San Ysidro, Califonia on July 18, 1984 and open fire and kill 21 people. Nor is that what prompted Eric Harr and Dylan Klebold murdered to open fire at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999 and kill 12 of their classmates.

    These acts of violence and destruction, and many others, were committed by people with deep psychological problems. These people were broken, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. How these people got broke we will never know. Were they neglected by their parents, making them feel invisible, ignored or bullied by classmates? Was undue pressure put on them, by their parents, society, themselves, to be successful? Did they feel like failures for not living up to their own expectations causing them to act out in violence? But one thing I am pretty sure of is this; it wasn’t the ability to own fire arms.

    Man has been killing man since the dawn of time. Long before we had guns, long before we had knives, swords or spears. As a matter of fact the first murder weapon in history was a rock. If people feel the need to act out in violence they will find a means.

    And yet every time one of these acts of violence occurs there is a politician somewhere willing to step up to a microphone and point a finger at gun laws. Or video games, movies, TV, or music. Why? Why do we feel the need to find something to blame? Something concrete, something we can see, and maybe think we have a solution? Humans like to feel in control. It makes us feel safe to think we can identify the cause and solve it. So politicians give us these things to blame and tell us they can fix it, with more laws. Actually I think they do it mostly to get their names in the paper and their face on TV, because I think they know what we already know but are afraid to admit to ourselves. We just cannot control these things.

    There are a lot of people in the world with deep psychological problems, and these problems, Bob, cannot be fixed with gun control.

I recently had the opportunity to visit the Gettysburg Battlefield. It was pretty awesome and very sobering. To stand there and look out over these fields where on July 1 – 3 in 1863, more than 165,000 men took part in battle.  46,268 lost their lives, 27,224 were wounded in battle, many of those eventually dying from their wounds. This was bloodiest battle in American history. More American lost their lives in Gettysburg than in any other single battle in our history, more than D-Day, more than Iwo Jima.

This is often called the turning point of the American Civil War. The war was going in the favor of the Confederate States. After General R. E. Lee had defeated the Army of the Potomac at Chancellorsville, General Lee decided to push the advantage and invade the norht. After the defeat at Gettysburg Gen. Lee retreated back into Virginia, the momentum swung in the North’s favor, and the rest as that say is history. As I rode through the battlefield looking at the markers showing the positions of the different armies, regiments and division a thought occurred to me.

This wasn’t just a turning point in American History, but a very pivotal point in world history.

Imagine if the Confederate Army had been successful at Gettysburg. They would have been in position to threaten other major northern cities such as Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and they would have basically had Washington, D.C. surrounded. With momentum already in the Confederacy’s favor, such a major victory in northern territory, and the Confederate army close enough to threaten other major cities, including the Union capitol, maybe the Union would have been willing to call a truce, sign a  treaty, and recognize the Confederate States right to exist as a separate country.

Would we have continued as two separate countries or could a peaceful solution be reached to reunite us? If not, with a divided America, of the states that joined the Union after 1865 how many would have joined the USA and how many would have joined the CSA? Could either of these countries become a world power?  Now, think about WWI. Without the U.S. joining in would Germany have prevailed? And if Germany had won, would there have been a World War II, or would Germany, after conquering Europe been strong enough to also conquer Russia and eventually invade and conquer North America, The U.S.A, the C.S.A and Canada, Mexico, and on to South America? Eventually China?

A lot was changed on those hills in southern Pennsylvania on those 3 days in July, 1863 at a little town called Gettysburg.