Dateline Dayton — Do we value life anymore? Yesterday, the Dayton area had its eighth murder in June, the highest monthly total in years.

I realize this is a modest number for some cities. For Dayton, it is a genuine concern.

Some killings are blamed on drug deals gone wrong, Then again, aren’t all drug deals wrong? Some murders are arguments that escalate to the point of a readily available gun.

We all have disagreements. If we used guns to settle, there would be a lot more dead people.

Even children are getting killed due to people not being able to get along. How about the Houston area mother who killed her two grown daughters, in front of their father, because they were getting a divorce and she knew how much he loved them.

Many murders can be traced to today’s mentality concerning life. Our Supreme Court this week gave its continued approval to allowing babies to be killed. The federal government must get out of the business of funding the killing of innocent children.

In some states it is legal to take your own life should you be ill. It would not surprise me for this to change to, if you are old, maybe even young and no longer want to go on living, you may legally kill yourself.

When I was growing up, on Saturday mornings you went to the movies to see a Western, good guys killing bad guys. Many of us had a set of guns to play cowboy with during the summer. If lucky, we might have had a cap gun.

Any good cowboy had to have bullets (wooden) and a horse, better known as a broom. Even with this background and the watching of Westerns on television, never did I own a real gun, nor ever give thought to killing anyone.

We must change our thinking on life, when it begins and when it ends!

Yesterday, Pauline and I went to Piqua, visiting the cemetery and having supper with my sister. Surprises awaited us at the cemetery. Pauline’s brother’s gravesite had sunk at least a foot. At my parents’ gravesite, piles of rocks and dirt greeted us.

These problems called for a trip to the superintendent. A very nice guy, Jim told me he was aware of the gravesite sinking. He had hoped to have it corrected today, but had to put his people on another project.

He was unaware of the rocks and dirt.He blamed a groundhog. I couldn’t believe a groundhog could move rocks as big as the ones in front of the tombstone. Sure enough, I went back and could see the hole underneath the shrub, to the left of the tombstone.

While at the cemetery, we sketched a plan for my brother-in-law Joe’s tombstone as well as ours. If we don’t take care of this, it may never get done.

Mr. Hennessey may be contacted at pmhenn@sbcgobal.net