In the wake of the recent tragedies in Colorado and Wisconsin, the President said we need to do something to stem this trend of violence in America, that it can't be allowed to go on.
He's right.
It's a complicated issue, with no simple solution. But in the spirit of supporting President Obama, I can think of one grass-roots effort that would be easy to do and could be implemented almost immediately.
In every classroom in every school in the country, I can see us posting a sign that says, "Thou Shalt Not Kill."
To make it have an even greater impact, I'd put it on a sign that resembles a tombstone - you know, one of those rectangles where you round off the top. I realize a lot of people are used to seeing crosses in cemeteries, but I don't want to offend anyone with such an obvious Christian symbol, so I'm thinking the old-fashioned tombstone would suffice.
The great thing about this - the tombstone-looking sign with the words "Thou Shalt Not Kill"' emblazoned on it - is that you could leave more room for more, similar sayings.
Things like "Don't lie."
"Don't steal"
"Obey your mother and father."
And so on.
I'd bet you could easily come up with, oh, eight or nine such saying. Given the popularity of David Letterman's "Top Ten" list, maybe we should just decided to come up with a popular round number like 10.
Ten good sayings that we could agree are pretty good words to live by, that if taught early enough might help stem the tide of violence that the President - and all of us - are concerned about.
Now, I don't for a minute think this idea is original with me. There are very few truly original ideas. I wouldn't be surprised if someone, somewhere, hadn't thought of this a long time ago.
I know they have signs that say things like "Just say 'no' to drugs'' in schools.
Why not something similar for killing people, and lying, and stealing and not showing proper respect to authority?
It's just an idea.
After all, I really want to help President Obama in this instance.
I think we all do.
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