Fingers Of Flame, Fingers Of Blame

by Christopher G. Adamo

In the aftermath of the horrific 1998 Columbine killings in Littleton, Colorado, gun-control advocates went on their own rampage, demanding vastly more stringent laws restricting the rights of honest citizens to acquire, own, and bear firearms. For weeks, their regular media tirades continued unabated, as if a horde of additional laws, had they been in place prior to Harris and Klebold's killing spree, could possibly have given any protection to the victims. Somehow we are supposed to believe that protection wasn't already afforded by the two dozen or so laws the killers had already violated when they perpetrated the slaughter of their fellow classmates.

Finally, after unwarranted accusations against the NRA and other pro-Second Amendment groups had continued for far too long, House Majority Leader Tom Delay put matters in proper perspective. The shrillness and hype of liberals in response to Columbine obviously exceeded anything warranted even by that horrendous situation. Furthermore, calls for more gun-control laws clearly weren't a result of any truthful assessment of what had actually transpired. Therefore, Delay concluded, liberals were concerned about something other than their professed desire to ensure the safety of public school students.

In Delay's words, such hysterics resulted not merely from an attempt to exploit the situation, but moreso because liberals were “scared to death” that unless they created a significant distraction, society would begin to focus on the real root causes of the Columbine massacre. Access to guns had never before resulted in such an event. What was really different, and thus the greatest cause for alarm, was that students like Klebold and Harris could find it in themselves to wantonly slaughter their classmates.

What sort of influences had society, family, and perhaps most significantly, liberal “values clarification” indoctrination, instilled by the public schools, had on the obviously unstable minds of the two youths, which could transform them into such mindless monsters? To avoid facing the grim answer to that question, liberals needed to immediately divert the focus of all post-Columbine analysis to the availability of guns. Otherwise people might begin to conclude that the “values neutral” (read: morally bankrupt) approach to teaching, advocated by every major liberal institution in the country, and zealously imposed by the National Education Association, had helped to obliterate any remaining vestiges of conscience in Klebold and Harris.

Disturbingly similar behavior among liberals can be observed in response to a recent calamity that far eclipses Columbine both in lives lost and destruction to personal property. Throughout this past week, more Americans have died in Southern California's fires than from guerilla attacks in Iraq during that same period. Beyond that, more than three thousand homes have been destroyed by those fires.

Were Californians to honestly assess the factors contributing to this disaster, as well as the orchestrated actions that prevented the fires from being effectively extinguished, they would be marching in the streets today, not only to demand the immediate removal recalled Governor Gray Davis from any position of authority, but also to send packing with him every liberal/enviro-extremist heard ranting in state and local government.

In short, the California forests became “tinder boxes” under the stewardship of earth-worshipping bureaucrats who thwarted any legitimate efforts to thin growth and remove dead wood. Once the fires started, the unwillingness of Davis, out of deference to the public employee sector, to utilize readily available military fire-fighting assets, allowed them to grow into the destructive holocaust they have since become.

As in the aftermath of Columbine, liberals' present efforts are twofold. First, they see the terrible loss and tragedy as an excuse to make a pitch for, of all things, higher taxes (as if localities with lower tax bases are somehow more prone to combustion). More importantly however, they realize that unless they make their case that the fires resulted from development and insufficient government spending, the public will begin to examine the cause and effect relationship of environmental extremism to inevitable catastrophes such as the California fires.

As was the case with the September 11 attacks in the Northeast, Americans need to lend a hand and rally to the support of those Californians who have suffered grievous losses as a result of the fires. But these terrible tragedies are destined to be repeated unless society can learn from them and correct the mistakes that ultimately caused them. Liberals in general, and environmental extremists in particular, seem determined that no such lessons ever be learned.

Growing up during the turbulent decades of the ‘60's and ‘70's, Christopher  Adamo saw, to his dismay, the nation's moral foundations being destroyed  before his very eyes. But even then he was a staunch Conservative at heart,  and rejected outright the tenets of America's counterculture revolution.

 After a hitch in the Air Force, where he specialized in airborne  electro- optical systems, he pursued a career in the field of aerospace,  working for major defense contractors in California, Florida, and Colorado. But his career plans abruptly changed during the industry-wide downsizing that followed the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

Presently he is working in the field of industrial instrumentation in the state of Wyoming. Concurrently, he has become involved in that state's political process, attending state GOP conventions as a delegate, and serving as a member of the Wyoming Republican Central Committee. He has also aided in the candidacies of local legislators and state senators, as well as a U.S. Senator and Congresswoman.

From 1993 to 1996, he edited and wrote for “The Wyoming Christian”, the state newsletter for Christian Coalition of Wyoming. During that period, he developed an acute awareness of the harm being done to Conservatism by liberal activists within the Republican Party as well as the Democrats. This remains a favorite theme of his articles, which now appear as a regular feature on GOPUSA.