Listen to Well-Reasoned Arguments

Good morning and welcome to Thursday Thoughts. All month, we’re focusing on teens and the trials they face as they move toward being adults. Today, it’s all about school violence and exactly what everyone can do to curtail school violence.
Well-reasoned arguments for and against on the chosen methods to stop school violence have been shoved into the background due to social activism. It’s become the norm to see students protesting and screaming out their invectives rather than sitting down and talking to those who can affect change in a reasonable tone.
This is nothing new. The protests, the screaming, even the profanity. You’re not being original. What you are doing is repeating what occurred during the sixties and early seventies by college students protesting the Vietnam War. While many from that time believe they stopped the war, it was actually done through traditional discussions on neutral ground.
Now that you’re steaming mad at how I’ve seemingly shown you disrespect, let me clarify my position. I have done this before and will continue to do it in the future.
I am not against protesting what you see as wrong, as long as it’s a peaceful protest. When you block people from entering a store because the parent company donated money to the campaign of a candidate you believe doesn’t follow your beliefs, you are not protesting peacefully. You are obstructing people from entering the store or if you’re inside and blocking the aisles, you are trespassing and creating a public nuisance. These are crimes; misdemeanors to be sure, but still a criminal offense that won’t look good on your college application.
But, you scream, nobody listens until I’m yelling and cussing them…
Really? Have you bothered trying that approach or did you just decide that you had to do this in order to be heard?
We are listening—to reporters saying the same thing over and over outside another school caught in the madness of violence. We are listening—to your foul mouthed invectives as you make speeches but offer no solutions except to add more laws to the books already brimming with the exact same laws pushed through after a previous incident. We are listening—when you refuse to answer reasonable questions and instead attack the interviewer and curse them.
Do you know what we’re thinking?
That you have no plans to listen to anyone but yourself. Gets kind of lonely when you can’t have a reasoned discussion with people wanting change but desiring the other side to stop screaming and cursing long enough to hear that. No one wants to see or hear of a school caught up in the grip of a terrifying situation. Our hearts skip many beats once we hear those breaking news chimes. Our first thought are going out to those caught in the situation, until you decide that doing interviews where you degrade anyone against your ideas and refuse to listen.
Adults have long known what it takes to make laws. We were taught that in classes in school. We didn’t have social studies. We had history, geography, current events, government, and civics. We didn’t graduate high school until we passed those courses, in addition to other mandatory courses.
It’s time to stop screaming and cursing. It’s time to learn this is a problem that won’t go away by passing a few new gun control laws and confiscating weapons from legal owners. It’s time for everyone in this country to put aside their prejudices about one side or the other and look for a solution that will lessen this type of activity by examining all elements behind the act and changing what can be done to stop the violence.


About K.C. Sprayberry

Living a dream she’s had since she first discovered the magic of books. K.C. Sprayberry traveled the U.S. and Europe before finally settling in the mountains of Northwest Georgia. She’s been married to her soulmate for nearly a quarter of a century and they enjoy spoiling their grandchildren along with many other activities.
A multi-genre author, K.C. Sprayberry is always on the hunt for new stories. Inspiration strikes at the weirdest times and drives her to grab notebook and pen to jot down her ideas. Those close to her swear nothing or no one is safe if she’s smiling gently in a corner and watching those in the same room interact. Her observations have often given her ideas for her next story, set not only in the South but wherever the characters demand they settle.

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