DON CURET, Richland

Consider these musings:

-- Federally funded and mandated abortions (50 million +) and contraception.

-- Federal disregard for the Domestic Marriage Act law.

-- Welfare programs that promote children out of wedlock by denying benefits if the couple is married.

-- Absentee fathers who indirectly get welfare benefits by staying out of their "children's" lives.

-- Public schools that cannot properly discipline, teach right from wrong, recognize religious principles.

-- Parenting that allows children to be rude, loud, disrespectful, and unruly in schools and in public.

-- Sex and violence graphically displayed in video games, on television and in movies and provided in books. (Note: Allowed to be viewed and read by children by many parents.)

-- Dramatic decline in religious values and nuclear families.

-- Assisted suicide.

-- Pets are people too.

-- Private ownership of firearms.

-- Mental health care.

Of the above, which of them have come to be or have changed significantly in the last 50 years? Gun ownership is not the most significant one.

Our society (not all) has lost the appreciation of and respect for human life. Humans have become mere creatures that are expendable. We have societal problems that will not be solved solely by stricter gun control.

We need to become more civilized.