Guns In Bars

The only answer is to strive to instill better ideas, better morals, and positive thinking in our future generations.

Courtesy: telovation.com

(CLEVELAND) - Our writers have addressed this subject many times and I know they always will. America's bad behaviors and negative thinking patterns are encouraged by media and politicians and alcohol and tobacco lobbies; and it goes far beyond that.

I've always found it curious when I pass a bar late at night and the parking lot is absolutely packed. We live in this world of illusions and it doesn't help to have guns and war and violence be such central themes of American society. As Luke reasons, why not just go back to the days of the Old West and shoot it out whenever we have personal conflict with others.

Arizona, the state where both residents and politicians are most hungry for free and open gun ownership, is the same place where politicians and judges and little school girls are shot in rapid succession at sidewalk gatherings, and a Marine Veteran who served two tours in Iraq, with no criminal record, was recently shot dead in his home by police who believed he was a drug dealer, but failed to find any evidence of this after firing 71 bullets at the man, striking him 60 times. Thank God he had time to tell his wife and four-year old boy to hide in the closet before the police opened fire.

But this is just part of what we see when we look around this beautiful country that offers so much, but has become far less it seems, than it once was.

The only answer is to strive to instill better ideas, better morals, and positive thinking in our future generations.

Luke Easter is a poet who writes about things that are very close to the heart of Salem-News.com. Another former U.S. Marine, Luke heals the world with an approach that reaches people on a different level, one known for centuries, yet too often forgotten in the one we live in.

We live in a world of social & economic injustice. The main reason for founding America in the first place was to relieve the oppression of the King of England. Patrick Henry said it best, “give me liberty or give me death.” And yet, all too often death seems to be the only way out. Why is there such a high suicide rate especially among teens, in the land of the free & the home of the brave? What makes headlines? Good news? Ha! More depressing stories than anything else. I feel poetry takes an edge off the hurt of bad news while still delivering it but in a, “glitzy” sort of way. Giving a different perspective. Kind of like slap in the face as opposed to a knife in the back. At least with the slap you’ll live to see another day and you will know whom it’s from. I wasn’t here for the beginning of the world but at 59, I just might be here for the end.

Even though it’s still a knife, rhyme poetry helps to dull the blade. And that’s my job. You can write to Luke Easter at: lyricsfromlucas@aol.com