Will an alien force invade your home this month?
I grew up on a farm and life there included taking care of farm animals: cows, goats, rabbits, horses and hens. The experience left me with a very negative view of poultry. Watching chickens over my formative years left me convinced that they represented the very worst character traits of human beings.
When one bird had a sore spot, the other birds would pick at her until they killed her. When a few birds were scared, usually by nothing, they would run to a corner, causing panic and often killing other birds in their hysteria. In the last year or so, the actions of my fellow Americans have started to make the chickens look good.
14 months ago it was the Ebola scare. You will recall that as we approached the midterm elections two things were going on. 1. The United States was leading the world community to stop the spread of the virus in Africa, and 2. Americans were crying out in fear and supporting leaders who wanted to incarcerate the very health professionals who were fighting the battle for all of us. All this fear and yet the chances of an American dying of Ebola were less than being killed by a raging Moose.
Now we have the killings in California. Carried out against fellow workers by a couple that appear to have been motivated in large part by hate nurtured by their distorted idea of the teaching of Islam. Just a few days before we experienced a mass killing in Colorado, evidently motivated by a man under the influence of people with a distorted idea of Christianity. It is tempting to stop here and inquire why we fear Muslim nuts more than we fear Christian nuts. That discussion might illuminate the problem, but it does not define it.
What is the cause of our national panic? Why has this recent event got the news media wringing their hands and acting like Chicken Little. I am not suggesting we should become insouciant about mass shootings, but why the panic? What is the degree of threat we are facing? To what degree have chances of being murdered gone up as these mass shootings have happened. Interestingly, your chances of being murdered in America are less than half now than they were when Papa Bush was President. The rate went down from 9.8 per 100,000 in 1991 to 5.6 when his son left office. And in Obama’s time it has continued down to 4.5.
So what accounts for our flirtation with mass hysteria? Some say it’s the international picture. Really? As part of the generation that grew up with duck and cover and watched the Cuban Missile Crisis unfold in real time, give me a break. ISIS is a regional threat, and its hate driven message is music to the ears of a few sick souls. But they control less territory than they did a year ago and the coalition against them has gotten bigger and more highly motivated.
Civilization has made the human experience a much safer and enjoyable one. It has enriched and extended our lives. However, this progress requires that we put faith in each other. It requires we put our faith in laws and learning. The progress of science require sharing our discoveries. Peace requires finding ways to work together. It short, civilization requires us not to give in to the Reptilian brain.
What does reason suggest we should do? The President hit on much of it on the head in his Oval Office Address last night. We should all demand that Congress stop acting like spectators at the Roman games and do some common sense things to move the ball forward. Endorse the war against ISIS. Get guns out of the hands of people on the no fly list and allow our federal government to collect information on gun violence. But I would also suggest something much closer to home. Turn off the news for the holidays. Instead of listening to a bunch of strangers running around saying the sky is falling, talk to your neighbors. Get to know them a little better. If a neighbor needs a hand, give it to them. If you find a neighbor who has stockpiled weapons to fight the government, try and talk them down a little. If they are talking about killing people of a different faith, give the police a heads up.
Of course the biggest problem most of us will discover as we conduct this meet your neighbor campaign is we will find many of the folks who live right next door, have a strange obsession with an alien who lives and works in a secret facility outside the USA, and has figured out how to overcome gravity. And strangely enough, you will find most people are preparing for this threat, not by laying in arms but instead by making sure they have enough milk and cookies to satiate this home invader. Follow their example and strive to see our beautiful world through the eyes of a child. Then by the New Year maybe we will be ready to carry on like the stalwart adults we want our children to become.
I grew up on a farm and life there included taking care of farm animals: cows, goats, rabbits, horses and hens. The experience left me with a very negative view of poultry. Watching chickens over my formative years left me convinced that they represented the very worst character traits of human beings.
When one bird had a sore spot, the other birds would pick at her until they killed her. When a few birds were scared, usually by nothing, they would run to a corner, causing panic and often killing other birds in their hysteria. In the last year or so, the actions of my fellow Americans have started to make the chickens look good.
14 months ago it was the Ebola scare. You will recall that as we approached the midterm elections two things were going on. 1. The United States was leading the world community to stop the spread of the virus in Africa, and 2. Americans were crying out in fear and supporting leaders who wanted to incarcerate the very health professionals who were fighting the battle for all of us. All this fear and yet the chances of an American dying of Ebola were less than being killed by a raging Moose.
Now we have the killings in California. Carried out against fellow workers by a couple that appear to have been motivated in large part by hate nurtured by their distorted idea of the teaching of Islam. Just a few days before we experienced a mass killing in Colorado, evidently motivated by a man under the influence of people with a distorted idea of Christianity. It is tempting to stop here and inquire why we fear Muslim nuts more than we fear Christian nuts. That discussion might illuminate the problem, but it does not define it.
What is the cause of our national panic? Why has this recent event got the news media wringing their hands and acting like Chicken Little. I am not suggesting we should become insouciant about mass shootings, but why the panic? What is the degree of threat we are facing? To what degree have chances of being murdered gone up as these mass shootings have happened. Interestingly, your chances of being murdered in America are less than half now than they were when Papa Bush was President. The rate went down from 9.8 per 100,000 in 1991 to 5.6 when his son left office. And in Obama’s time it has continued down to 4.5.
So what accounts for our flirtation with mass hysteria? Some say it’s the international picture. Really? As part of the generation that grew up with duck and cover and watched the Cuban Missile Crisis unfold in real time, give me a break. ISIS is a regional threat, and its hate driven message is music to the ears of a few sick souls. But they control less territory than they did a year ago and the coalition against them has gotten bigger and more highly motivated.
Civilization has made the human experience a much safer and enjoyable one. It has enriched and extended our lives. However, this progress requires that we put faith in each other. It requires we put our faith in laws and learning. The progress of science require sharing our discoveries. Peace requires finding ways to work together. It short, civilization requires us not to give in to the Reptilian brain.
What does reason suggest we should do? The President hit on much of it on the head in his Oval Office Address last night. We should all demand that Congress stop acting like spectators at the Roman games and do some common sense things to move the ball forward. Endorse the war against ISIS. Get guns out of the hands of people on the no fly list and allow our federal government to collect information on gun violence. But I would also suggest something much closer to home. Turn off the news for the holidays. Instead of listening to a bunch of strangers running around saying the sky is falling, talk to your neighbors. Get to know them a little better. If a neighbor needs a hand, give it to them. If you find a neighbor who has stockpiled weapons to fight the government, try and talk them down a little. If they are talking about killing people of a different faith, give the police a heads up.
Of course the biggest problem most of us will discover as we conduct this meet your neighbor campaign is we will find many of the folks who live right next door, have a strange obsession with an alien who lives and works in a secret facility outside the USA, and has figured out how to overcome gravity. And strangely enough, you will find most people are preparing for this threat, not by laying in arms but instead by making sure they have enough milk and cookies to satiate this home invader. Follow their example and strive to see our beautiful world through the eyes of a child. Then by the New Year maybe we will be ready to carry on like the stalwart adults we want our children to become.