Why Society Declines: One View

Guest columnist LT. Col. Don Zapsic (ret.), an Ohio resident, served as a Chaplain in the U.S. Army.

The Dayton, Ohio mass shooting on Sunday August 4, 2019 was a despicable act perpetrated by a cowardly, hate-filled human being. The violent act itself is indisputably heinous and disgusting. Enter in Ohio Representative Candace Keller who authored a Facebook post providing a laundry list of factors that allegedly played into the mass shooter’s dastardly deed.

I will not repeat many of the particulars which were collectively categorized as a break from “traditional family values.” This article is not aimed at gauging cultural toxicity or assigning blame to the various population groups cited by Representative Keller. More to the point, it is an effort to flesh out a disturbing trend among public officials that is paramount to tossing verbal grenades and then failing to stand-and-deliver.

I, like Ohio State Representative Keller, am an outspoken conservative and make no apology for it. That being said, I contacted Keller’s office on two separate occasions seeking to understand more about the basis and rationale behind her reported statements regarding the mass-casualty incident. It should come as no surprise that no one from her office called back after five business days had passed, leaving two perfunctory messages. Not to be deterred, and no stranger to being totally ignored by political leaders, I decided to write about what I would have asked if given the opportunity to do so.

The opening question would have focused on why Rep. Keller hastily removed the Facebook post to begin with. If she was compelled by a strong conviction to voice her opinion in the first place, then why rescind the stinging litany in such a rash manner? True conservatives, unlike liberals, are supposed to stand by time-honored values, traditions and truths because of their tried-and-proven track record for promoting the greater public good. Conservatives want to “conserve” the Bill of Rights while liberals want to “change” things often from a deeply-held conviction that America is fundamentally flawed and needs to change while journeying towards that mythical land called “utopia.”

If Candace Keller felt so strongly about her opinion, then why abandon it at the first sign of public outrage? Or if it was simply a mistake, then why not render an apology and keep moving forward? There is by the way, nothing in the conservative handbook (which to the best of my knowledge does not exist) that forbids making amends for being human and committing a mistake. The second, and final question (because in the real world that would be about all the time allotted) would center on why she did not take full advantage of the opportunity to make a case for a return to traditional family values before a national audience in light of what had just transpired in Dayton?

Some of the sources that can be referenced when citing cause-and-effect that drives cultural, moral, and family decline are:

FBI annual crime statistics regarding criminal behavior and fatherlessness;
Bureau of Labor Statistics that highlight the adverse effects of unemployment on America’s poorest, or even
the Center for Disease Control (CDC) that provides data linking certain lifestyles to incidents of sexually-transmitted diseases that all-too-often lead to treatment-resistant conditions up to and including death.
Then there is the Bible to consult which has a proven track-record linking certain behaviors with very predictable outcomes. I have a hard time believing that man is smarter than God when it comes to figuring out how to find true purpose and meaning in life. (I would be happy if someone simply figured out how to prevent credit cards from getting hacked into oblivion!)

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There is also history to consult as in the case of well-documented conditions leading up to the fall of the Roman Empire including: Excess love of entertainment (games at the coliseum), rampant laziness (free food to Roman citizenry), sexual deviancy (I would be Captain Obvious endeavoring to further explain that concept), and apathy towards military service (the Romans employed large numbers of mercenaries to protect its domain). If I would have had the opportunity in my ideal scenario of presenting a third question regarding the Facebook post, it would surely be how drag-queen and drug-using advocates contribute to murderous rampages. The terrorist according to the autopsy report had cocaine in his system, not marijuana.

If it appears that I mean to disrespect or belittle the Ohio Representative, it is not my intent. In fact, as a former member of the military serving in a combat zone alongside liberals and conservatives, most of those I had the privilege of serving with fundamentally understand the true cost of freedom. We want our public leaders to make the best of the opportunities entrusted to them to promote life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If they fail to do so, we all have a duty to better inform those that aspire to lead us in a respectful, knowledgeable manner. The stakes are simply too high to do otherwise.

Illustration: Pixabay

Quick Analysis

Putin’s Saber Rattling

Earlier this week, President Biden reversed his 2022 decision, authorizing the provision of antipersonnel land mines to the Ukrainian government. It follows an earlier Administration authorization to allow the use of an advanced American missile system capable of striking as deep as 100 miles inside Russian territory. The US election season may be ending, but both Russia and the West show no indication of stepping down the conflict. Russian propaganda continues to swell as the Kremlin increases its threats to use nuclear weapons against the West. Last week Andrey Sushentsov, program director of the pro-Kremlin think tank Valdai Discussion Club (VDC), published an article on growing nuclear tensions in the region. Official Russian language in the last few years has been threatening. Since the US election, rhetoric like that in the Sushentsov article, has approached the level of nuclear blackmail. The VDC article’s main theme centers on Russia’s intent to directly confront the West militarily if the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) becomes involved in Russia’s conflict with Ukraine. “On the one hand, these threats are intended to frighten the West, but on the other, Russian propagandists themselves are starting to believe in the inevitability of escalation,” according to Ksenia Kirillova of the Jamestown Foundation. On November 11, Sushentsov wrote that “The conflict will reach a completely new level, with unpredictable consequences for Europe and the entire world.” Kirillova points out that Putin’s distorted image of the world is divorced from reality and is causing the Kremlin to issue demands that are impossible to fulfill. Financial and other Russian resources needed to support Putin’s war are growing scarcer at the same time. This week the Kremlin announced a reduction of payments to its soldiers. Recently North Korea acknowledged it was sending soldiers to fight in Ukraine as Putin is running out of bodies to use as cannon fire. The war is not going well for Russia. One question floating around the Washington intelligence community is whether Putin will act out of desperation before President-elect Trump assumes office. In recent months the Russian propaganda machine is spewing out materials from fairly reputable analytical platforms inside the country. Kirillova says that “Kremlin ‘experts’ do not conceal that such threats are only intended to break the West psychologically, as they themselves are not prepared for full-scale nuclear war.” Despite Russia’s lack of preparation for an all-out war with the West, the expanding nuclear rhetoric carries with it an increase in the threat of a full-scale war in multiple theaters of operation. In June 2023 a founder of the Russian Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, Sergey Karaganov, called for “delivering a pre-emptive strike of retaliation” on Poland to force the West to surrender. In the previous month, Dmitry Suslov, a direct of research programs at the policy center proposed organizing “a demonstration nuclear explosion” aimed at intimidating the West. In September, President Putin announced a reappraisal of Russian nuclear doctrine after speaking earlier in the year at the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum and jokingly calling Suslov a “scary person.” Pavel Baev, writing in the European Daily Monitor, says “Putin intends his announcement to mark an escalation of nuclear brinkmanship and influence the proceedings of future Ukrainian peace efforts.” Putin is expanding the list of environmental conditions that are acceptable for using a nuclear weapon and incorporating it into Russian military doctrine. Baev adds that “The ups and downs of Russian brinkmanship are disconnected from the kinetic battles of the war, correlating instead with Ukrainian peace offensives, such as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s first peace summit in Bürgenstock, Switzerland.” Despite the increase in vitriolic language, in a You Tube video published a week before the US presidential election, Karaganov openly assured the West the primary goal of the escalation is to break the American spirit and that of the West, not outright nuclear war. By Election Day in the US, with political prognosticators predicting a win for former president Trump, Karaganov changed his tune and called for an increased role in nuclear deterrence. Kirillova points out that Western concessions to Russia are unlikely to reduce the risk of nuclear escalation. The distorted reality inside the Kremlin continues to push that President-elect Trump is an adherent of “world government,” that Ukraine will create a nuclear weapon, and Russia must prepare for a nuclear conflagration to achieve its ambitions for a new world order. President-elect Trump has indicated he will not agree to concessions that destabilize Europe, the Middle East or other regions. Going forward a strong US foreign policy may be the most stabilizing course the West can count on to restrain Putin and his intent to rebuild the Russian empire. Daria Novak served in the U.S. State Dept. Illustration: Pixabay

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