Return to religious principles would improve school culture
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The recent tragedies and emphasis on bullying have caused me to reflect on my own 12 years in the Polson schools. Being a farm boy not allowed to play sports and having large front teeth did not help my popularity. The non-private bathroom facilities where older boys would intimidate younger ones was a terrible experience.
A prized possession I often wore to school was my uncle’s WWII sailor hat, until a class bully threw it out a second story fifth grade classroom window. Reporting to the teacher only got me labeled a tattletale. Instead of the bully retrieving it, I was told to get it myself. By the time I got outside, someone had taken it, and it was gone forever. That and other incidents, some undoubtedly caused by my own juvenile misbehavior in a feeble effort to be accepted, caused me to hate school and want revenge.
I have never publicly expressed how intense those feelings were, but I think it is time for us to speak out and take back our schools.
Farm boys had gopher guns, big game guns and shotguns, or easy access to their parent’s firearms and ammunition. My grandmother had given me an antique .38 caliber revolver. The thought seriously crossed my mind several times to get revenge on those that made my life miserable at school. Back then, school shootings were unheard of. We had a real admonishment to live the law of civility. We called it the Ten Commandments, and there was no effort by criminals, despots or the ACLU to take it out of the public eye, as there is now.
Being from a churchgoing family and having been taught the Ten Commandments, especially, “Thou shalt not kill,” as relates to my getting-revenge issue, was the only reason I did not act out my plan. I knew that killing someone in anger was the worst possible sin I could commit and that my life would be taken as just punishment. Therefore, the law had not only made me free, but those whose very lives had been in danger.
For those who will undoubtedly write rebuttals and derisive comments, I ask that, instead of taking a part of one sentence in the First Amendment to the Constitution out of context, you first read the intent of the founding fathers in their own words and books such as the Federalist Papers, and then tell me what harm would there be in displaying the Ten Commandments in public buildings and more especially, in the public schools. The founders wanted a “universal religion” taught in the schools, which embodied two higher laws, namely “Thou shalt love God,” and “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (To assist the Israelites in understanding steps to live better the higher law, Moses was given the Ten Commandments.) All society, regardless of religious philosophy or even those intolerant of religion, could benefit from striving to live these principles. Government cannot force men to be good nor bring a halt to evil, but the Lord will help us to be free and happier by striving to live His law.
Back to my personal issues with revenge, because of Jesus Christ, I have forgiven those who bullied me, and now can truthfully say I love them as my neighbors.
Would displaying the Ten Commandments or the higher laws stop crime and bullying in the schools? Not entirely, but I bet we would begin to see immediate improvement.
George Washington, in his farewell address, said, “Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”
(Editor’s note: Gil Mangels is a lifelong Polson resident.)
