The number of school shootings in our country is horrific. No other country in the world has the number of shootings as the U.S. There are so many that many people have become numbed – unless the shooting is in their city. There are more guns than people in this country, a staggering statistic. If the shooter in Nashville had not been stopped after killing three 9-year-old students and three adults, the rampage would have continued.

It makes no sense that many people in our nation are more concerned with banning children’s books that have been popular for decades, than banning assault weapons. Many of the banned books have received prestigious awards.

I love my country, state and city. However, Jim Nelson Black’s 1994 book “When Nations Die” contains important facts that relate to where we are, presently, as a nation. He states that civilizations rise but eventually die. Three components that cause the death are social decay, cultural decay and moral decay.

We, as a society, are witnessing some of these today. We have a crisis of lawlessness, decline of education, loss of respect for tradition, loss of economic discipline and a devaluing of human life. When the No. 1 threat to the lives of children in the U.S. in 2020 and 2021 was gun violence, that is a tragedy.

We must be better and do better if our nation is to endure.

Sally Connolly
South Portland

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