I put this together in response to the horrible shooting at the Connecticut elementary school. I tried to sit down and really try to understand what it is about our country that leads to so many of these senseless tragedies.

I don't want to just blame guns because I know a lot of people who own guns and are very responsible with them. I grew up in a house with guns and my Dad made sure to point out that they were deadly weapons that could kill people, so I had to be very careful with anything gun-related. Plus, I truly enjoyed the food my Dad would put on the table each year because he owned guns and hunted responsibly. Surely, semi-automatic weapons that resemble military issue guns serve no real purpose out here in the real world. But I believe that if someone can prove that they are responsible enough, beyond any doubt, to own and store one they should be allowed to own them.

I think most of the blame lies in our American culture and what we are repeatedly, almost subliminally, told to value. We hold our soldiers up as heroes every day. And I agree that our members of military deserve the moniker because they are willing to die for you and me. However, our culture tends to glorify the uniform and power a soldier has, rather than the actual person behind all that armor and weaponry. Our soldiers are asked to do horrible things that no one should have to do and that is typically glossed over, or worse, glorified.

Meanwhile, our culture would never consider a college-educated professional a hero. Or, at least, until they did something where death was involved. The general sense you get is that people who are brighter than you, go to college or strive for more education on a particular topic are elitist snobs, worthy of derision, who think they know better than the rest of us. In other words, there's a lot of animosity towards people who press the limits of their education and are brazen enough to be proud of it.

And I wonder, given recent events, if this constant canonizing of gun-toting, hardened warriors could lead a troubled mind to pick up guns as a means of getting that power our culture so respects and adores. Maybe it would lead them to kill because the lines between a military hero that kills a perceived evil and a citizen that kills a perceived evil are blurry. Perhaps we need to step back and say that war and the associated killing is a solemn, horrible act that should be humbly spoken of. I know my grandfathers (who fought and killed people in WW2) and father (who served in Vietnam) never, ever talked about the wars they fought. It's not that they weren't proud of their service, it's that they saw the horrors of war with their own eyes and didn't want to relive it. They did their duty and served proudly and humbly. Then they moved on with their lives as best they could.

Maybe we need to start focusing on humans and our lives and celebrating knowledge, wisdom, creativity and accomplishments of the mind. (All of which can be found in our students in elementary schools, high schools and higher learning institutes.) We need to hold up bright students as high as the heroes and respect people who get their PhD just as much as those who choose to serve our country in the military. We need to celebrate human accomplishments just as much as we celebrate the defenders of our country.

I realize I'll probably be disappointed in our culture down the road but these are just my thoughts today. I hope I can pass an appreciation for learning onto my kids. And I hope they feel proud of how smart they are and continually strive to learn more. They'd be my hero.