I've Got A Flash For You!

Bacchus and I were ambling home this morning as I watched the sky blacken. Suddenly lightning flashed and instantaneous thunder made us both jump. Uh oh. Too close.

Rather than try to dash for home which was a ways, I looked for signs of life nearby where we might seek shelter. Just then a neighbor came by in his pick up and stopped. "That was right on top of us!" he exclaimed while helping me wrestle large dog into small rear seat.

My neighbor. My friend. I've written about his family before. They have the Alpacas and goats. The family includes the nicest, most polite and some of the brightest youngsters I've had the pleasure of knowing. They are home schooled.

The issue about the gun slinging Doty brothers that has been raging locally, and rightfully so, has nothing to do with the fact they are home schooled. It has to do with parenting. What values have the parents instilled in these boys? I have to agree with local blogger Nic that no good is likely to come from this exercise. No good is to be served by passively admitting they are breaking no law and shrugging it off. I hope all you shruggers have your fingers crossed behind your collective backs and that they work for the entire community.

The local press has made it all about the boys but neither of them could set one foot off their property openly carrying guns without their parents knowing or having their parents permission, tacit or otherwise. We know they have it since their mother wrote a "permission" slip for the younger boy.

Whew! Is it not time to put the responsibility with the parents? Perhaps not. They're not likely to accept it. But I should hope our local city councils, commissioners and community boards who have the power to legislate or set parameters are at work searching for a way to prohibit weapons in heavily populated areas where every member of the community is at risk. Including the home schooled. Including the Doty brothers.