That was a nice, thoughtful response.

I disagree that we are a violent species. I regret life on this planet has been aptly described as "killing for a living," so I go after the voiceless carrots and Reece's Peanut Butter Cups to feed my gut. Personally, I can't stand strife, so I disagree. It reminds me of the time a friend kept trying to push evolution theory on me. It doesn't matter to me either way; Genesis covers a lot of territory in two pages. It was the nagging insistence that was beyond debate that annoyed, so I told him he was right. He had descended from aquatic apes, but I had descended from the angels. (I was being sarcastic.)

We have a hyperactive kid at church that is beyond obedience. Last Sunday, he was banging on the piano and everybody thought it was me. When have I ever pounded on the piano during church? No matter, I would be the one caught holding the bag.

There are many arguments about guns. I take the opposite opinion because I don't think government should be the only body with guns; much evil can occur during a slow response time. I am of the opinion the Second Amendment was created to protect the common man from evil regimes; there have been enough of those in history to make me think it can't happen here.

Then again, the Constitution was written for a moral people. In another venue, I recently raised the question of whether a government can abuse liberties individuals have not first abused themselves. We do not teach responsibility. The EVO! and I walk through syringes just about every day. We've got kind people who run a needle exchange to facilitate safe drug use. I don't expect the users to have any more respect for the environment than they do for themselves.

It has been said communism and other funky forms of government work well in homogenous cultures where people share the same work ethic, the same spiritual values, the same concepts of balancing work and pleasure. In America, we have people who want to free-ride and have the other "half" work twice as hard to support their habits. As Dire Straits said in another context, "That ain't workin'."

People are complicated, and I fear misdiagnosis more than anything. How often do we hear neighbors of perps saying they never suspected anything? How many times is hindsight 20-20? How many times is history the propaganda of the victor?

You said violence sells, a former colleague of mine would have said stupidity sells. He wrote science fiction - this was about 20 years ago - and he was more than frustrated with the offerings on TV because it was all S&V. He said there was so much of it because screenwriters didn't want to take the time to develop a compelling plot, so they took the shortcut to get peoples' animal instincts aroused instead of doing something to stimulate the brain for noble purpose - like figuring out what we're going to do with all these wild children.

Said colleague was very flattered to have received a long, thoughtful response to an inquiry sent to Neil Peart, the drummer in Rush. This was back when people used pen and paper and postage stamps. Peart, at least then, was a very intelligent libertarian. He's since had much tragedy in his life, as I recall.

I remember being freaked out when I worked in an inner-city school that had telephones in each room. That was long before the days of SRO's.

I'm not even going to proofread all that. I'll read it tomorrow and embarrass myself. It's funner that way.

I was never much into this song, but I adore this rendition. It gives me chills on chills:

Going back on my word again, which is worth nothing, what I should have said is:

I don't think wallowing in evil serves anyone. Sure, the TV wants us to see darkness, think darkness, obsess over darkness. What has it gotten us? I know my ideas are not popular, but my personal way of trying to keep evil out of my life (and I fail all the time) is to try to keep my own brain in the light. How can we lift others to a higher place, if all we have to offer is the void of being reactionary? Nuff for now. I have much research to do today.

Life is short. What if memory is more than it appears, in the sense that you can take it with you? What if it isn't? Either way, should I fill my mind with fear and horror or make it a beautiful place where evil cannot disturb my serenity? My thoughts and actions are all I can control. If I think fear and horror, it becomes a part of me, and the perps win. There is no art in destruction. So, I share a happy thought:

By the way, I wonder what Justin's up to these days. If I were gutsier, I'd, "#JHQA: How are you?"

I admire your maturity. I hope I didn't imply I was looking for a control-freakery, codependent relationship with Justin. I hope I never put anybody in the position of feeling obligated to serve me. Yet, need is relative. I will continue breathing without Justin, but I cannot feel as good as I do at his concerts without him.

My band teacher from elementary school was engaged with helping problem children. He was a foster parent or something like that, too. One kid returned and killed him and his wife. I trust my band teacher died with a clear conscience, knowing he tried to reach so many kids and did help a lot of them.