Have you ever thought how it all really went down? Those colonists from England and other parts, they were leaving there and coming here in part because of the State established Church of England and the suppression it had on other religions and churches. That eventually lead to inclusion in the first admendment two revelant points: "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise there of; ...."

     Fast forward through 172 years of evolution, perhaps de-evolution, of iota legalism and judicial theory to 1963 and the Supreme Court decision. Recitation of Christainity's Lord's Prayer in schools is equated, in total, to be the Church of the United States of America. Ha, what a concept, it probably would have been a Deism church since some of the more influential founders were Deist. Anyway, the court looked at the admendment, saw the "establishment of religion" part and made the infamous decision. I'll just casually mention the hypocrisy of Congress still allowing prayers in their chambers; and that I've yet to know that a Shintoist, Hinduist, Buddhist, Paganist and several others pray there. But I dont suppose it makes much difference, none of them are suppose to be there, according to the decision.

     What if the two points had been reversed? They would have seen "... make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion, or establishment there of; ...." Oh wow! A nation where anyone could practice there faith on government property and most anywhere else, all within some common sense guidelines of course. A school system where the students of the past 36 years could learn that the different faiths and religions teach some of the same things.

     And then there's comparitive religion studies and religion history books. One contains this: ".... To study different religions need not imply infidelity to one's own faith, but rather in may be enlarged by seeing how other people have sought for reality and have been enriched by their search." --- Geoffrey Parrinder, Editor, WORLD RELIGIONS, Hamlyn Publishing, 1971, "Conclusion Chapter".

     But alas, like the real life school days I remember, two kids got in a fight over some iota difference and the teacher punished the whole class not teaching them anything. They've missed out on learning something like, as one student whispers to another, behind the teacher's back, "Hey, your beliefs include that rule? Wow, so does mine. That's cool."

     Leave it up to twentith century legalism and judicial theory to screw up the eigthteenth century rational thinking.

     Guns are out there, they're everywhere, always going be there, always going to be accessible, there's nothing I or anyone else can do about it. So deal with it.

     If not guns it would be knives and switchblades, fists and clubs, bombs and grenades. More blah, blah, blah. Everyone's heard all the arguements.

     So with respect to school violence I have to look elsewhere for something that has a better chance of changing and being more effective.

     It's always been motivation factors, what makes someone want to kill another. Teenage love triangle, yeah I've seen those. Spurned lover, yeah I've seen those too. Student feels like the teacher's giving him an extra hard time, yep. Student gets beat on, put down, insulted, degraded day after day, you bet there's going be a reaction.

     Attitude adjustment can be accomplished by the things already being talked about. "I Will", "Safe Spirits", anti-violence concerts, t-shirt slogans, "Be Safe" monuments, and whatever else has been suggested.

     School uniforms or more aptly a specified choice of clothes. That's another method of attitude adjustment. But I see pros and cons here as well. It is during the teen years that an adolescent is developing their own particular style of being their own self.

     Schools are already impersonal, I've seen them compared to factories "student are statistics, widgets rolling down an assembly line." Uniforms can suppress the teens desire to stand out and be recognized as an individual. I dont see that as being good. And I really dont see the connection with moviations to kill someone.

     To quote an 18 year old's opinion and add what I suspect the rest of the teenagers are probably thinking. "Video games, Give me a break" and "You think we're still babies and dont know a stupid game from real life. Duh."

     Yeah, I know the entertainment industry, and it is an industry, they want whatever money they can get from teenagers, has influence. That movie which had *car surfing* in it a few years ago, they're always a few wild teens that do stupid, dangerous things because they saw it in a movie. THUNDER ROAD, that's was a 50s movie for all you kids out there, probably cause a few to get killed racing down a mountain highway too.

     But to go on a killing frenzy just because they saw it in a movie? See motivations in number 3 above.

     Television news, that's real life and the kids know it. I'm really not sure if many teens watch the news, but they probably evently hear about the reports. They've learned about adults in acts of road rage, jealous husbands and wifes killing each other, drive-by shootings, traffic fatalities, fired employees, death by every means imaginable.

     The news media is a propagation medium. Witness the incident in Canada, the increase bomb threats. If one would, or could find, the data for the pass thirty years and plot events versus time I think it would show that there's first one event followed closely by several others. Just like an earthquake has aftershocks.

     James Burke, author of the book CONNECTIONS, columinst in Scientific American (CONNECTIONS column), he traces the interconnecting events, discoveries, inventions that are behind each step of science development. I really like reading his work, learned a lot too.

     I see connections too, sometimes they seem really stretched out though, in lots of things besides science.

     The Greed Factor. It's anything that has to do with gaining power, wealth, influence. It saps up this country's resources faster than a camel laps up water after week in the desert.

     There's a 3-4 billion dollar hole in the ground in the southwest, Texas I think. That super-conducting super-collider thing. Congress voted funding to dig it, made several contractors rich no doubt. Then they voted funding to close it back up.

     Three to four billion dollars buried in the ground, might as well have buried school building improvements, security equipment.

     The space-station program. I've lost count of the billions spent on it. Started out as a 2 or 3 billion decades ago. Congress kept asking for scale-downs and re-designs. More has been spent on re-designs than the original cost of the first planned program.

     More money wasted by politics in science, might as well been re-designs of school systems, studies of school violence.

     Tort system. Some lawyer, doctor, crash dummy do insurance scams, preminums go up... some low income family has to cut their kid's clothing budget. Some patient sues a hospital over their own careless fall, get big bucks, premiums go up... some poor family has to drop their health insurance. Some school safety programs are looked at... some get drop because of a small libility risk.

     Some penthouse resident in New York City does welfare fraud... a bunch of kids in Los Angles go to school hungry.

     Some politicians manipulate legislation for an impratical military base in their district... some school district looses funding for educational improvements.

     Some special interest groups bicker over get their particular adgenda promoted... some common sense, effective legislation gets bogged down in politics.

     Some form of greed happens... some poor common folk kid looses out.

     When ever you see the Greed Factor in any of it's forms... remember Littleton, remember Pudkah, remember Springfield, remember Jonesboro, remember them all.