It's no secret that the US is experiencing an ever increasing amount of gun related violent crime in the form of mass shootings. Schools, clinics, work places and public events have become choice targets for evil individuals to carry out massive amounts of damage, pain and suffering against fellow human beings. Fingers are pointed at every thing from guns to medications to mental health as being the cause of such terroristic behavior. Sadly, the only thing we really know about mass shootings is that they have become a part of our daily lives in the US and many people are devistated by this reality.
In the search for answers to why mass shootings have become so common in the US, I rarely hear people discuss the examples for problem solving US citizens have become use to. Since World War 2, the US governments foriegn policy has taken an ever increasing stance of violence and aggression as a means of dealing with troubles and missunderstandings abroad. Military intervention and perpetual wars are how the US government has solved its disagreements with neighboring countries for as far back in my life as I can remember. We have adopted a culture where warriors are worshipped as heros and peace keepers are seen as weak. War with other nations and peoples have become so common place for Americans that we no longer question why or how we got involved in such acts to begin with. Political leaders and television personalities paint targets on people we've never met and say " they are our enemy" and we go along with it, without pausing to question the naritive. As a people, we have lost all respect for life and death until it hits close to home. When a murderer shoots up a classroom in the US, the internet springs to life with demands for change and resolution. When a school or hospital is bombed by a US military drone on the other side of the planet we say " that's unfortunate, but...".
We must stop making excuses. We cannot turn a blind eye to the violence and agression we administer abroad and expect it to have no influence amongst our own society. A culture that accepts perpetual war and agression as a means of problem solving will suffer the consiquences of the violent examples it has created. In short, you get what you give.
