Left our doors unlocked, too

We could count the number of mass murderers between 1950 and 1975 on one hand. Charles Whitman, Richard Speck, Charles Starkweather, Charles Manson (hmm, maybe Moms should stop naming their kids 'Charles'), episodic monster so rare we knew their names. They became boogeymen.

Since then, we've lost count. Harris and Klebold, Tim McVeigh, Cho, Defeo, Hasan, Colin Ferguson, many we don't even remember...and now this clown, Holmes. They're not even boogeymen anymore, just dangers we've come to accept.

What happened to us?

Oh, the influence of video games and movies, drugs, paint chips, global warming, whatever. But, really, it's just one thing: we no longer value the individual.  

Back when Schlub was a bald-faced boy, guns were like shirts—everybody had at least one, maybe even a dozen. There were so many guns lying around my house I had to move them to get to the silverware. At twelve years old, I thought nothing of grabbing a rifle and going outside to hunt snakes. My parents thought nothing of it, either. Neither did the neighbors. It never occurred to me to take those guns to school and settle scores. It didn't occur to anyone. You took care of bullies yourself, either fight them off or run away. You let your ex-girlfriend go. You quit a job when the boss mistreated you.

You didn't kill them all, and any unfortunate bystanders.

We did not shoot up our schools and neighborhoods because we believed that everyone, even the bully, was entitled to live. Sure, they made us mad and afraid, but that was a test of character, not an excuse for wholesale slaughter. We didn't worry about someone kicking in the classroom door and spraying lead indiscriminately. No one would do that; it was just completely out of our character. The boogeyman were rare, like clear air lightening, and the State made sure they got an appointment with Ol' Sparky. We didn't worry about those guys.

Now...

Everyone is the center of the universe, everyone is a winner, movies are all about you, and killing lots of people is an afterthought. There is no God, no truth, no soul, and society and Republicans are the reason you don't have anything. Madison Avenue hypnotizes, parents nag, the principal is a jerk, and the neighborhood kids are mean.

Everything is somebody else's fault. Everything.

You're owed, that's what your teachers said so, poor, benighted and abused victim of corporate greed, load up your rifles and kill kill kill all the oppressors and their babies as they watch a movie that's really all about you.

Brought to you by public education, victim mentality, and the Democrat party.