Home, Sweet Home

Home, Sweet Home - Good morning! - Quite interestingly, I just read in an Austrian newspaper that after the tragedy in Sandy Hook a physician came up with a bullet- proof protective blanket which kids can strap on their backs whenever exposed to imminent danger. Supposedly it also provides protection in Tornado scenarios. Great, I thought at first but then became skeptical. Wouldn't such a remarkable and rather costly invention just be another means of deterrent rather than an ultimately sense- making solution to the problem itself? Just in the past several months the news have been filling up with violent incidents in schools and on college campuses in this country. There must have been around 10 such occurrences alone this year! Unfortunately not solely on educational grounds is this kind of armed violence becoming ever the more a major threat and a high- stake gamble considering that on average we all spend quite a few years of our lives in those buildings. In fact, any public place all over the country, as it seems, is getting fit enough to act as an open playground for all kinds of mental cases, political radicals, and generally life- contemptuous low lives these days. As a matter of fact, each and every one os us is now running around with a huge invisible target on our heads, chests and backs. Therefore, one could say, the big game hunting season is declared open. The very latest incident in Las Vegas has shockingly shown that all too clearly. In an absolutely senseless act of cruelty two law enforcement officers got literally executed while enjoying their lunch at a food court in bright daylight. What the hell is wrong with our society is a more than fair question. - A good while ago my husband had a terrific idea, and not only do I like it, but I also feel it stands a great chance of becoming standard sooner than later. Why not introduce home- schooling for everyone? Wait, wait! I can already hear the first furious comments directed at somebody who -since childless- has no clue what she's talking about here. School massacres will NOT decrease in number or even stop entirely if we continue like that. I have a bad feeling that such incidents will be the norm soon rather. We can't just keep reinforcing structural elements like doubling window glass, encasing entrance areas, replacing old doors and gates with bulletproof steel ones, etc. It also doesn't do any good putting more security personal into schools and college buildings. Apparently, nothing of that is working as to stop those sickos from attempting their malice over and over again. They may well be temporarily denied access but will try and find other ways of executing their blood baths somewhere else like outside the buildings or in the parking lots or somewhere entirely different altogether. Sadly, all those security measures are no solutions but at best attempts to wait things out in lock- down mode just like seeking shelter in times of bad weather - nothing else. Hands down, our society is in bad shape and in dire need of total reform! It needs to be taken apart like a car engine, so to speak, cleaned, tuned up and then put together again along with obsolete regulations and hindering contradictory laws that need to be thrown out after all. This will not happen any time soon, though as we are, collectively speaking, still caught up too much in worshipping monetary wealth in the first place instead of finally tending towards our mental, emotional, physical and spiritual well- being. Until then the only truly effective life- saving method appears to be home- schooling. Let the teachers give tele classes to their students from their homes. Obviously every kid needs supervision even in their own homes during those internet school hours. There are millions of educational folks that are either unemployed, retired or part- timers that could easily be assigned to babysit whoever can not be watched by a grown- up family member. This way all the mums and dads still in the workforce need not worry about having to work around their time schedules. If all schools in this country were closed, there would quite immediately be billions if not trillions of US$ released, part of which could conveniently be used to pay those human watchdogs while students are taught online. As another positive side effect, the violence rate would dramatically drop more or less over night. Just an idea!