Random Thoughts on the news

Some random thoughts on the news.

I have always been fascinated by the Amish and I do respect them a great deal. I don't agree with them on a great deal and I certainly don't want to be Amish, but I do respect them a lot.

As I watched the stories on the school shootings in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, an area I am very familiar with, I grieved for these people. Our children watch TV and are familiar with violence. I'm guessing that by the time a child reaches adolescence they have seen hundred of people killed on TV and in the movies. The violence of society seems almost commonplace.

For these Amish children, this was like lambs being led to slaughter. They did not know what was going on. They do not watch TV or go to the movies and most of these children have never seen anyone murdered. They are a gentle, complient people. These poor little girls probably didn't even know enough to run away. It is such a sad story, filled with shattered innocence and destructive to a peaceful people.

Which brings me further stories on shattered innocence.

Mark Foley, from Florida, a member of the family values crowd.

In the closet gay man. He can't come out of the closet because he's a member of the family values crowd.

He reaches out to young pages on Capitol Hill. Young people, American youth who have a rare opportunity to work for the members of Congress. Parents let their sons and daughters go to Washington DC. Certainly their sons and daughters would be safe from such nonsense working in Congress, wouldn't they? Most especially from a family values Congressman from Florida. Makes my blood boil.

Many of the people who elected these family values folks are upset. They wanted good family values, not a Congressman hitting on their children. They expected Congressional leadership to live what they were preaching; to walk the walk that they were talking...

It is a day of shattered innocence.