Cal Thomas - Action and reaction

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, June 2nd. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Here’s commentator Cal Thomas.

CAL THOMAS, COMMENTATOR: The heightened debate over “gun violence” following the massacre of 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, leaves out one critical element. The debate starts at the wrong end.

Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Thermodynamics states: “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

Newton’s laws applied to physics. But the concept of action and reaction, of cause and effect, could be applied in other areas, including violent people who use guns to kill others.

Instead of starting with guns, we should begin at the beginning. If voters elect district attorneys and judges who release dangerous criminals, sometimes with low or no bail, that is an action. The opposite reaction is that many of them will commit new crimes.

Take the case of Darrell Brooks, the Wisconsin man charged with driving his car into a Milwaukee parade in November. Six people died and dozens of others suffered injuries. Brooks got out of jail less than a week before the parade after paying just $1,000 dollars in bail money. At the time, he faced charges of felony bail jumping, second-degree recklessly endangering safety, obstructing an officer, disorderly conduct, and battery. All from an incident in which he ran over the mother of his child! And that wasn’t even his first brush with the law.

Once again, an action (low bail for a dangerous criminal) produced a reaction (the deaths of innocent people).

In our schools and culture, we refuse to teach right from wrong. What’s the reaction? A generation of people who do whatever they want.

During the mid to late 19th century and early 20th century, many American public schools used the McGuffey readers. They contained sayings and lessons designed to conform young people to a standard of behavior that was good for them, their families, and the wider culture. These values included patriotism, respect for parents, honesty, and hard work as a path to success.

They also promoted the necessity of religious faith as the foundation for a better life. Here’s one excerpt from the 1879 edition: “Religion: the only basis of society. How powerless conscience would become without the belief of a God. Erase all thought and fear of God from a community and selfishness and sensuality would absorb the whole Man…Man would become what the theory of atheism declares him to be.”

Again, action and reaction. Teaching moral absolutes and faith produced one kind of person. Failure to teach these values has predictably created a different type of human in modern times. Can anyone credibly assert that the concepts contained in those old books failed to create adults who respected the law, life, and property of others? Compare that to what is being taught—and not taught—in schools and by culture today.

Attempts to ban certain guns will not solve the problem. But recalling and teaching the truths we once universally accepted could get us the reaction we all want.

I’m Cal Thomas.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.