Can we talk?

Respect for life

         A big topic, but I only want to handle one aspect of it.In view of our increasing violent society, we need to be sure our culture is leaning the value of human life. Between violent games, TV and movies, and the news, we see lots of violence and murder. /but we seldom see much relationship between that violence and pain or loss. We see the glory but not the personal reality.Somehow we separate the action from the results.

         For instance, an ER doctor, treating a young teenager with a bullet wound, said he told her he didn't know it would hurt so much. It was cool to be in a gang and carry a weapon, but none of the kids had realized the risk to life or limb for themselves or others. How do we as a society teach that link, that risk between action and result?

         Let's go a step further. People need to know about death and injury, that it hurts physically and emotionally. It hurts not only me or my family, but ALL people. I need to respect the deaf-mute, the foreigners, the other religions, other lifestyles. I don't get to decide who lives or dies, or who gets punished. Yet somehow people are not learning this. They are their own little gods in their own little worlds. Take away their guns and they'll find another way. (Charles Manson's followers didn't use guns.)

         There is a very basic need in our culture. I don't know how to address it. But we're trying to solve our problems the wrong way. We're not getting to the real issues, the cause of our violent world. We're only hitting the symptoms.