What a beautiful clear, crisp blue sky day we had Sunday. Monday started sunny. February is here: there are more hours of sunlight and the sun is higher in the sky and starting its march northward. And, we live in a state with sane legislators reflecting the majority of people's concerns. More laws restricting firearms may soon be passed in the legislature.

Can't this newspaper's editor leave that topic alone?

No.

Five Februarys after the Parkland, Florida high school murders, six years after the Las Vegas concert massacre, close to three years since first Breonna Taylor, then George Floyd were killed, we have 2023 opening with a six-year-old shooting his teacher and five Memphis police officers beating Tyre Nichols to death. So, as a responsible citizen possessing a public voice, I take this moment to again ask fellow citizens: Who and what are we as a society?

This is not about guns and it is not about individuals, a few bad apples and loners. This is about our culture, where "violence is as American as cherry pie," as H. Rap Brown said in 1967 and, as Malcom X noted after President Kennedy was assassinated, it was "merely a case of chickens coming home to roost."

More than in our culture's blood, violence, extreme violence is a strand of DNA common to far too many of us.

There is something in the air we breathe that cultivates violent punishment and sanctions acting from anger. That is a terrific combination for creating the death of others. But there is more.

Too many of us, from all walks of life, possess too much certainty. Righteousness is too often woven in with that certainty. That then leads to a simple finality, a finality ending in death for the cause or the color or the religion or the politics those and their side oppose.

How and why did some of us, fellow Americans, come to believe that others among us were so wrong that there was no hope and no chance of repairing our differences and working together? How and why have so many Americans – many of them in uniforms – embraced the certainty that the other is so bad that death is the right answer?

There is an anger – and its crippled twin, fear – behind too many of our eyes, in too many of our words, lurking in too many of our hearts. This is a moral issue. It is a religious issue, no matter which church we go to or whether we never go to church. It is an issue of civics and civility. And it is an issue of democracy.

When a faction among us believe their lives are worth more than those they disagree with and only their positions are right, that those in opposition cannot be trusted or worked with, then the rule of law becomes mob rule. Justice becomes power held by force.

Prophets. Know what a prophet is? Prophets are willing to speak truth to power till death do them part. They are not normal people, for they are not afraid. Often they are driven by love and compassion.

Once the prophet the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached: “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

Who among us is brave enough to love and embrace and work with and walk with those we do not know, do not trust and of whom we may be afraid?

As in every moment, it is the challenge of our times. It is our neighbor's challenge, also.