Food for Thought

I was having coffee with a good friend the other day and she was telling me about a documentary she had seen. It was a different perspective on why we as Americans react the way we do to different situations. Mostly as to why our reactions are so violent. My curiosity was peaked and I already knew I liked the director so I asked to borrow the movie. My husband and I sat down to watch this movie last night, not a word was spoken during the film. It was a whole new perspective.
The whole idea behind the film was that we, as Americans, are spoon fed fear on a constant basis. Think about it, their right. I watch the news atleast twice a day. Yea I know, I'm old. But after seeing this I have noticed some things that I didn't notice before. We all are aware that 99% of what you see on the news is bad, but pay attention to what they do when they run out of stories about people being criminals. My local channel happened to do a segment last night called "Things in your home that could kill you and you don't know about". Hmmm Where are the stories about the good people in our communities? Where are the stories about the people who make a difference? But wait, they answered that question in the documentary as well, it doesn't make for good ratings.
They showed some interesting statistics. The year this film was made there were over 11,000 gun deaths in the USA, the next runner up was Germany with just over 300. Pretty scary that the next runner up was still over 10,000 behind. Why do we in this country have such a lack of respect for life? Why do we not have respect for the basic human right to breath? My daughter tells me all the time when she grows up it will be different. She will make a change. She says she will stop the corruption in our government, our corporations and our communities. I hope she does, I really hope she does.