Guns and Drugs

It is a time of rapid cultural change.  Most of us hate big changes.  It unsteadies us causing us to withdraw in pain or to just hold on or perhaps harden our hearts.  I think our country is sick.  So much attention, so many resources of money and people have been spent to stop the Islamic terrorists, but it is home grown white American men who are responsible for the gun massacres that occur with sickening frequency.  Gun lovers say it isn't the gun, it's the person that pulls the trigger that is the problem.  I agree they are a problem, but I know if our country was not awash with guns, there wouldn't be so much gun violence, so many gun-caused deaths.  And now the sickening epidemic of opioid caused deaths and opioid addiction afflicting many white middle class communities is revealed for us all to see.  We thought drug addiction was mostly a problem for poor minority communities.  The News Hour last week had an in-depth week-long series about this big problem.  Guns and drugs.  Our country is sick.  Institutions I love are crumbling. The national office of my church, the UCC, has just cut its staff once again, deeply threatening vital programs.  All churches are shrinking.  People are increasingly isolated from each other on their I-Phones, with superficial social media a poor substitute for face to face relationships.  I fear for a future I cannot yet see while what has been is becoming lost and gone forever.  More disruptions, bigger and worse ones are coming.  I fear what our very unstable lying President might do.  What has been is being destroyed, what will take its place is unclear.  How hard it is to hold on in these chaotic trying times.

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