Letter to the Editor: A sermon
BY John Schwane, Broken Arrow
Saturday, February 02, 2013
2/02/13 at 7:26 AM
In 1862, "Awed children learned to revere the war and the warriors of Christ who prosecuted it. No lessons emerged on minimizing casualties or the virtuous protection of innocents. Only a romanticized glory endured ...
"It was far more patriotic than ethical ... Children were ... encouraged to wear uniforms and play war games, turning chairs into ambulances and imagining themselves without a limb... Parents would have photographs taken of their children with guns and swords." (Harry Stout, "Upon the Altar of the Nation, 101").
How ennobling when Americans blow up the Second Amendment. It contains only one verb subject: "a well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State," defined as "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms." There is no conjunction "and" joining 'Militia' and "people."
In the Constitution, "people" is always used for the collective society; individuals are referred to with the nouns "citizen," "person," "member" or "party." The Second Amendment does not even describe, much less guarantee to individual citizens, any license for wielding death-delivering firearms.
Indeed, indiscriminate firearms betray an increasingly insecure and fearful society. Is it (a) "guns and God," or (b) guns without God, or (c) God without guns?
After Fort Sumter, Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "It is the day of the populace; they are wiser than their teachers."
Whether in the people, the parents or the president, "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." (Samuel Johnson).
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