The world we live in gets crazier and crazier every day.  Watching Toledo News Now on channel 11 last week we learned that a group of students belonging to the Young Republicans organization of the University of Toledo is planning to submit a resolution to the University’s student senate to convince the Ohio State Legislature to change state law to allow students at the school to carry concealed weapons on campus.

Students felt that if they were allowed to pack heat there would be no occurrence on UT grounds similar to the situation that happened in Newtown, Connecticut.  Of course, that happened at an elementary school and not at an institution of higher learning.  Even so, the students felt conditions at the University were unsafe. 

Said Patrick Richardson, “It’s a Second Amendment right, but more than that, it’s an inherent human right to self-preservation that we feel every individual has.  Whether you’re student or faculty, or on campus or not on campus, I feel those rights don’t change.”

A University Professor, Dr. Brian Patrick, suggests that evidence supports the fact that simply stating to a gunman like Adam Lanza (sporting a semi-automatic rifle), “I have a gun, leave me alone.”) would be enough to have him walk away in fright for his own life.  Yeah.  And Japan would have surrendered before the end of 1945 without our having to drop two atomic bombs on them.

Ignoring the inherent dangers of an armed student body, UT Police Chief Jeff Newton’s only concern seemed to be that student guns would be readily stolen.  ”Theft is the most pervasive crime on campus and the density of people in our residence halls and on our campus makes combating theft uniquely difficult.  A stolen laptop has a negative effect on one person; a stolen gun can have a negative effect on many.”

We at Table 54 believe that arming the student body at UT would lead to all sorts of calamities.  How easy would it be for almost every argument between students (individually or in groups) to be solved with their guns?  And what about the collateral damage that could happen every time one of those guns was fired?  How many dead students would it take for Ohio lawmakers to realize they made a terrible mistake by allowing guns to pervade on college campuses. College officials seemed to agree with us as the resolution didn’t even pass the student senate. 

Does no one remember what happened at Kent State University on May 4, 1970?  Thirteen students were killed, not by other students, but by men of the Ohio National Guard.  These were not people untrained in the use of deadly weapons, but soldiers who knew how to handle and use the guns they carried.  What can be expected every time a student carrying a gun gets scared and fires at somebody they think is a threat to them? 

The simple truth is that if Adam Lanza wouldn’t have had access to his mother’s Bushmaster .223 semi-automatic rifle there would have been no massacre in that Connecticut elementary school.  If James Eagan Holmes didn’t have access to a Smith and Wesson M&P 15 assault rifle with a 100 round drum and a 12 gauge Remington 870 Express Tactical shotgun, sophisticated weapons for a 25 year-old, perhaps 12 people wouldn’t have died and 58 others wouldn’t have been injured at an Aurora, Colorado move theater. 

Now imagine, in the case of Aurora, if some people in that theater audience would have been carrying guns of their own and they would have returned fire on Holmes, how many would have died and been injured in the heat of that exchange?  It is unlikely that Holmes would have ended up dead or wounded because hand guns are no match for semi-automatic rifles or shotguns.

Us guys at Table 54 went to school in the 1950s.  School doors weren’t locked at any time during the day.  Heck, the doors in our homes weren’t locked.  People didn’t own the kind of fire power used in these massacres (nor was that kind of rifle available to be purchased for the most part) and people didn’t fear their neighbors or their neighbor’s kids.  My father owned a Savage 30.06 he used for deer hunting, a .22 rifle and a .10 gauge pump shotgun he also used for hunting.

And don’t tell me about your Constitutional rights.  It’s fine by me if you want to own a rifle available to people at the time our Constitution was ratified.  Those old flintlocks would be sufficient to protect your household as the Constitution states.  But don’t tell me that the framers of the Constitution had in mind the kind of semi-automatic weapons available to crazies today with 100 round drums capable of taking out a whole infantry squad of well-armed warriors.  Some times people need to use a little bit of common sense when talking about the Constitution.

Agree, disagree, or whatever.  Your comments are welcome at Table 54.  Pull up that empty chair and say your piece.

-Y

We received the news today that one of our residents has gone to Hospice.  Since I’ve joined our community in July of 2011 there have been nine of our family who’ve passed on, including one former member of Table 54.  You expect this, living in a retirement community, but it usually comes as a surprise.  Not that a person has died, but that they’re gone today in a very final way.  There is nowhere else you’ll ever live where the specter of death pervades the unspoken thoughts of people on a daily basis like it does here.  We are all very aware of its existence whether we acknowledge it or not. 

In going to Hospice, H is now standing in the doorway, about to embark upon the path of discovery that will answer the supreme question that we humans have groped with since the beginning of our history – What happens when we die?  Living in this community reminds us that we are all very close to knowing the answer, no matter what our personal beliefs may be, to this ultimate of questions.

A few weeks ago one of our residents and certainly a friend of the Table, B, gave me a book she wanted me to read - Heaven Is Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story Of His Trip To Heaven And Backby Todd Burpo.  The book is purported to be the true story of a four-year old boy who during emergency surgery slips from consciousness and enters heaven.  The boy survives (a miracle, of course) and talks about being able to look down and see the doctor operating on him and his dad praying in the waiting room.  He surprised his parents by telling them he met his miscarried sister, whom no one had told him about, and his great grandfather who died 30 year before the boy was born including impossible for him to know details about each.

There followed descriptions of a horse that only Jesus could ride, about seeing God in his “reaaally big chair, sitting in His lap and stories about how the Holy Spirit “shoots down power from heaven” to help people.  (A non-existent miracle for the millions of people around the world who suffered and died for real on the same day as his near-death experience.  But who would expect a li’l boy to think about that?)  He also informs his parents that Jesus really loves children and that they should be prepared because there is a last battle coming soon between you know who and you know what.

Those of us at Table 54 were not surprised to learn that the boy’s father, Todd Burpo who authored the book, is a Wesleyan pastor at a local church and his mother, younger brother, and older sister are all active in the church.  One has to wonder how much this close association to church life influenced the boy’s stories and how much the father injected his own beliefs into the work.  Whatever the case it would take a real stretch of reality to believe that this book conveys any evidence of what actually happens when we die.  I’m sure, however, that the Christian masses out there will totally accept this story.  Hey, it’s about a kid and God and it’s a sooooo real and sad and warm and fuzzy and how much more could we possibly need to believe? 

I suggest you read the 3,000+ comments from people who’ve read this book (see link above) to gain an appreciation of what Christianity has done to the minds of its great flock of sheep out there.  Be warned, you might end up like the poor sick lad in the story who couldn’t stop throwing up.

Unfortunately despite the thousands of stories of near-death experiences (taken from every point-of-view you can shake a stick at) which have been reported and recorded, the veil between life and death still stands impenetrable.  Until someone dead (brain dead and heart stopped for a week or more who’s started to decompose or is buried for some time) comes back and relates his story about what happens when you die, we at Table 54 will continue to acknowledge that the unknown is just that…unknown.  And, we might add, unknowable.  These stories are no more evidence of life after death than the Bible itself (which most of them conflict with, I might add).

-Y

I saw an interesting news story on TV yesterday that I brought to the table at lunch.  It involved two children from two different families.  While zipping through the countryside the car they were in was T-boned by a driver that ignored a stop sign.  Both children went to the hospital with severe injuries.  After 24 hours passed, doctors reported to the families that one child was going to make it but the other wasn’t likely to live.  After a week, the first child was released and allowed to go home.  The second, however had lapsed into a coma and the outlook seemed very grim.  Doctors told the parents he would not last out the week.

Another two days went by the board.  The second child awoke from his coma, his vitals improving as each hour passed. Within another 24 hours he was out of the woods.  His doctors could not find a reason for the child’s recovery.  By all intents and purposes the boy should not have survived.  Under their breath, doctors called his resurgence a miracle.

During the same week, the first child was coloring in his room when he put his head down on his desk.  His mother found him a few minutes later and called 911 immediately.  The boy was dead on arrival at the local hospital.  Doctors found no evidence as to why the child died.  An autopsy was performed but it proved inconclusive.

The question that surfaced at the table today was simple.  In the case of the second child, why was it called a miracle just because today’s medical knowledge could find no intelligent reason for his recovery?  But even more important, why do we have no word in the English language the opposite of  ”miracle” to identify what happened in the unexplained death of the first child?

Table 54 maintains that people tend to label things a miracle when they can’t explain the reason why something, against all odds, has happened for the good.  Folks usually assign credit to God for stepping in and making things right.  But, under equal circumstances if the ending of a situation is bad, no one would dare claim it was God’s fault.  At best they might say it was “God’s Will” and justify that by saying “humans can’t understand the Divine Will of their Creator.”

Unfortunately there is no word for an event which turns out bad with no explainable conditions.  Perhaps we need to work on that.

Let’s get the argument out of the medical realm and talk sports.  Coming from the Philadelphia area I remember the game played between the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles on November 19, 1978 that became known as the Miracle of the Meadowlands.

For those of you too young to remember the game, the Giants led 17 – 12 with the time clock running down. They had just intercepted an Eagles pass on their own 27 yard line to kill what appeared to be the Birds final threat of the game.  The Giants ran a safe hand-off into the line on first down and quarterback Joe Pisarcek took a knee on second down.  The Eagles had no time-outs remaining and only 30 seconds were left on the clock.

The Giants offensive coordinator sent in a play to Pisarcek.  The quarterback took a quick hike from center, wheeled and tried to hand the ball off to running back Larry Csonka, who hadn’t had time to get into proper position.  The sudden hike surprised Pisarcek and hit his finger hard enough to draw blood.  When he tried to hand to ball off to Csonka, the ball hit the running back in the hip and bounced straight up in the air, coming down on one bounce into the hands of Eagels corner-back  Herman Edwards who ran the ball untouched into the Giants end-zone for what proved to be a 19-17 Philadelphia victory.

A miracle?  It depends on whose fans you ask.

The members of Table 54 concur that there is no such thing as a miracle in sports, in medicine, nor in any other circumstances.  There are only events that happen where we lack the knowledge to be able to explain them.

Oh, although Eagles fans might have thanked God for his help in their big win, I doubt if the Giants blamed the Big Guy in the sky for sinking their playoff hopes.  Ownership put the blame exactly where it belonged – Giants offensive coordinator, Bob Gibson was fired the next day and never held another coaching job in the NFL.  Head coach John Mcvay did not have his contract renewed at seasons end and he never held another coaching job in the NFL either.

-Y