Reading the news lately has been especially painful and disturbing.  It just seems like instead of growing and becoming more civilized as you would expect, many elements of society are deteriorating. A friend recently remarked that 12/21/12, according to the Mayans , would mark the end of civilization but the recent shooting of innocent children indicates that ‘civilized society’ has already come to an end.  I should hope that is not true since I see many good people and good deeds going on as well but the kind of evil we hear about lately is definitely disturbing.

I could not stop crying, like many others, after reading about the Sandy Hook School shootings.  It really hit home for me since I have elementary school age children.  My husband and I became terrified thinking that we would not be able to keep our kids safe since nothing could have predicted a massacre like this.  None of those parents were able to do anything for their helpless children.  I just kept thinking about how someone could do something so evil.  I also kept thinking about why there is such easy access to guns in this country.  I know people in this country like to hunt, or go to shooting ranges, or believe a gun in the house will keep you safe.  I’d rather ban all guns but at least there should be certain types of restrictions.  None of those hobbies or self-defense reasons requires people to have these automatic weapons and large magazines that let people spray 30 or 100 bullets at a time.  There should also be restrictions on people with mental problems having access to guns.  Of course we also need to pay more attention to mental health issues in this country.  Obviously, there are many disturbed people out there and maybe if they had gotten the needed help they would not have committed these atrocious crimes.

Then as I was still reading about funerals of children I read about a gang rape of a 23-year-old woman on a bus in Delhi, India.  As I read the details of how she and her boyfriend were assaulted, she was brutally gang raped, beaten, stripped and thrown from the bus, I wanted to vomit.  My stomach turned at the senseless, evil violence that happened in daylight on a bus in the capital of an emerging country.  This was not a village in a war ravaged country somewhere where people’s morality is clouded by the violence that surrounds them.  This is in a big city in a developed country that is emerging as an economic power.  I read that no one attempted to help her or her boyfriend for an hour while they lay helpless on the side of the road.  How can things develop so much economically in a place while the morality of society is degrading?  This woman may not survive her physical injuries but even if she does she will never have a normal life again.

There was no reason for any of these violent crimes nor so many others we’ve heard about lately.  There appears to be no sanctuary from violence, not schools, houses of worship, theaters, etc.  It’s awful that all this transpired but I hope that it helps people step back and look at themselves and our society to rethink our values and laws.  People are always fighting over things like gay marriage and how by allowing that we are bringing a moral decline in society.  Well, I don’t really care who loves whom but I do care that nobody is allowed to hurt, rape or kill anyone else (esp. children).  I think we need to refocus on those basics.  That kind of morality is agreed on by every religion and even just for humanity’s sake.  I hope that we can make our society more good and safe.  If we can’t then there is no real value to all our other advancements.