Food for thought about change.

Understanding the times.

I sit here wondering. Wondering what is going on in the United States of America. I am not normally one to question this. I am not one who says that this country is past its glory days or going to the dogs. That’s not it, but I watch what is going on and I sit here wondering.


Another shooting. Another sad day that we do not know how to react to, what to say, or what to offer grieving loved ones. When I look at what happened in D.C. I wonder why we have so little to actually offer the loved ones and I think I know.


It happens too often and we know deep down that there is no actual reason for all of this. We look at the people who were able to obtain the firearms and we know that they shouldn’t have been able too.


If you continually apologize for a habitual behavior then it is not an apology, it is simply lazy. Apologies only hold meaning if you actually intend to change and considering the number of mass shootings, the amount of gun violence, this obviously is not the case.


We hide behind the second amendment. People in favor of less gun support hide behind it as a Holy Grail of freedom. Those fighting for gun control hide behind it as the insurmountable demon hindering their noble efforts. This is only cowardice. If we want our apologies, our word to mean anything then we have to step out from behind this veiled excuse.


People stand behind the second amendment as canon. And I wonder why? The constitution may be the cornerstone for our country, but it is only a few hundred years old and parts are becoming outdated. It has been changed for generations and now we find it too holy to change. We find it too sacrilegious to change our constitution, while at the same time Catholicism does not find it sacrosanct to make monumental strides for the church in the name of progress and understanding the world as it is today.


Our new Pope, Pope Francis, has reached out to the gay, atheist, and agnostic communities. He has reached out in phone calls to his practitioners and is even looking at changing the rules regarding clergy celibacy…


Pope Francis has done this because he understands that time changes what is and is not acceptable. He understands that these ideas were holding back the church and were in themselves sacrilegious to the tenets that they were meant to protect and uphold.


I understand that things take time and that gun control and Catholicism are different. I understand that the methods to change the infrastructure of a faith and our country are different. I understand this, but still have a question for all of my readers, for everyone out there.


If a two thousand year old institution can evolve with the times then why can't a three hundred year old document do the same?


Can we change a document to make it so a mass shooting (a shooting of four or more) does not occur daily in this country.