Discipline

My world traveling daughter has returned home to replenish her finances (by getting a job, I hope). On the way back from the airport she asked me if we were strict parents. It only took me a fraction of a second to get over my surprise and reply that yes, we were. I don't think we were strict in the stereotypical sense of beatings and groundings and a whole encyclopedia of rules and regulations. In general I think we were pretty lax. The thing is, we established the ground rules early on and stuck to our guns. There were a few moments when they were little that caused us some consternation, but we laid down the law and that pretty much put an end to whatever it was. You will forgive me if all this sounds a little rosy. My youngest just turned 21 and everybody knows your memory suffers when you are not getting enough sleep and parents of young children don't get enough sleep.While my youngest still attacks me every time he sees me (ala Cato in The Pink Panther films)  none of them are in jail or the hospital or the morgue (cross my fingers).
    Yesterday I'm reading something about blacks and the NRA (National Rifle Association), about how the NRA is mostly OWG (Old White Guys), and how if the best response to violent crime is an armed response, then the NRA is missing out on large group of potential members, that is, black people who live in crime ridden neighborhoods.
    I was going to say something about how people who live in ghettos / neighborhoods are undisciplined. When you know all your neighbors (and talk to them), what your neighbors think is probably more important to you than any abstract concepts about what the logical course of action should be. Besides, owning a firearm requires a certain amount of discipline. First of all you have to save up enough money to buy one. If you are on food stamps that can be tough to do. Then if you are going to be able to use it, you need to remember where it is, and where the ammunition is, and how to operate it. All that requires discipline. Not much, but at least some.
    But now I'm thinking this is just something white people like to argue about. Violent crime rates may be higher in some neighborhoods, but maybe that's good. Maybe the people who live there are more alive than all these stodgy old white people living out their dead, dead lives out in the suburbs.