For the life of me, I can't understand what could
have gone wrong in Littleton, Colorado. If only the
parents had kept their children away from the guns,
we wouldn't have had such a tragedy.

Yeah, it must have been the guns.

It couldn't have been because half of our children are
being raised in broken homes. It couldn't have been
because our children get to spend an average of 30
seconds in meaningful conversation with their parents
each day. After all, we give our children quality time.

It couldn't have been because we treat our children
as pets and our pets as children. It couldn't have
been because we place our children in day care centers
where they learn their socialization skills among
their peers under the law of the jungle while
employees who have no vested interest in the children
look on and make sure that no blood is spilled.

It couldn't have been because we allow our children
to watch, on average, seven hours of television a day
filled with the glorification of sex and violence that
isn't fit for adult consumption.

It couldn't have been because we allow our children to
enter into virtual worlds in which, to win the game,
one must kill as many opponents as possible in the
most sadistic way possible.

It couldn't have been because we have sterilized and
contracepted our families down to sizes so small that
the children we do have are so spoiled with material
things that they come to equate the receiving of the
material with love.

It couldn't have been because our children, who
historically have been seen as a blessing from God,
are now being viewed as either a mistake created
when contraception fails or inconveniences that
parents try to raise in their spare time.

It couldn't have been because we give two-year prison
sentences to teen-agers who kill their newborns.

It couldn't have been because we teach our children
that there is no God, there are no laws of morality
that transcend us, that everything is relative and
that actions don't have consequences. Take the
president - even he gets away with it.

Nah, it must have been the guns !

-Paul Harvey