Before the sun sets on one more day, let's quit calling the daily onslaught of mass shootings and murder suicides as isolated incidents of violence. Collectively that's how we solve our problems. We are a violent country. We love violent movies, we play violent video games, we read books about murder mysteries. Our TV viewing is dominated by crime shows, some of which have been entertaining our insatiable appetite for violent crimes for decades. The largest part of our budget is the Pentagon's. Violence is profitable. A whopping 16.7 million firearms were sold in the US in 2023, so violence is great for business.
We love might more than peace, we love conquering more than discussion. If we really want to change this culture of violence in the US we have to get serious about teaching in our homes, schools and places of worship that violent 'answers' to problems only creates more pain and more problems. We have to stop idolizing those who wear their weaponry with prowess and pride. We have to pay attention to why people, especially our young people are in so much agony that death becomes a viable solution. We need to offer them more peaceful answers to their problems. We need to quit making more and more room for population growth which breeds the kind of anonymous neighbors who don't take care of each other, let alone know what is going on in their lives.
And for goodness sake we have to quit offering thoughts and prayers as our only response when there have been 488 mass shootings in 2024 so far, but don't worry we have more time to add to that horrific score.