When young people have guns but no sense of hope, we should not be surprised when a few decide to use them to take out some innocents before ending their lives in a blaze of notoriety. Hey, "Stuff happens!" Again and again and again. Marshall, You present a nice psychological interpretation of The Times, along with just a bit of anger at living in the last of the 20th Century and the beginning of the 21st. If you who is on the way out can see the issue of those on the way in, then you are perceptive indeed. Isn’t the issue deeper than a psycho-analysis? We are living in Sociological End Times. This terminus is located between the worldview of Newton’s “Scientific Method,” and the worldview of Einstein’s “Theory of Relativity.” Social Scientists name 1985 as the year of separation: the parents of our young adult population (Generation X) and their children (Generation YZ) are wired differently than those of us born before this auspicious date. The issue is Global in scope and it is ontological (reality or The Way Life Is) in nature. It is these two items that makes important your emboldened statement printed above. Our young people are scared to death of the global society for which they are presently responsible. This is my explanation for what is going on today: the creation of Isis, the national migration as a response to the collapse of their society, and gunman living their confusion. This is to say nothing about the angst of those of us who find ourselves at the end of the trail. I keep telling the youth with whom I work that my generation is getting out of the way as soon as we can. Marshall, it is the response of our generation that worries me more than my concern for those who have inherited the world. While it lasts for us, it is going to be a bumpy ride. Alas, and alack—the Emerging Generation will pay us back for the love we gave, or for the lack there of. Inner Peace, Bill Salmon ________ + + + ________ From my perspective the Good News is that the world did not come to an apocalyptic end last week as predicted by a few false prophets leading a mass of marginalized people who, in a famous turn of phrase, "cling to their guns and religion." Putting two and two together, I've begun to realize that I'm living in a 19th century religious subculture that is focusing getting out of this world by praying The End will soon come and deliver them and their fellow Born Again True Believers from this Evil human catastrophe that they're making unbelievably worse by supporting the Tea Party agenda. In other words, their judgmental belief system leads to a NEGATIVE self-destructive world view that undercuts any and all efforts to combat our worst human propensities. This produces rabid individualism, survivalism, and the loaded gun culture. When young people have guns but no sense of hope, we should not be surprised when a few decide to use them to take out some innocents before ending their lives in a blaze of notoriety. Hey, "Stuff happens!" Again and again and again. When the notorious Kim Davis embraces a divisive and judgmental belief system/religious cult to feel relieved of her own judgmental view of her sexual sins, she uses her public office to take out her judgmental moralism on folks she's decided don't meet her personal criteria of Holiness. And then there's The Donald, who's using his money, his mouth, and his hair style to pander to this large audience of frustrated voters who don't exactly know what they want, but are unhappy with what they've got and blaming it all on the Democrats. All this substitutes bullets and verbal confrontation for real, life-changing human communication. I wonder how all this will turn out in the next election. And I tend to avoid vulnerable public spaces that our next mass murderer may find attractive. --Marshall Jones