Killing. That's our way.

My gawd. Eighty dead in Norway. I don't know what makes a human being do this. Something has gone haywire. Awry. But indiscriminate killing goes on daily. All over the world. Not only by random individuals. But by the state. By nations. A mentality that puts people to death. Executes 'em. Probably not much different from executions carried out in legal manners. By states. By armies. In wars. Kill. Kill. Kill. I try to imagine what it'd take for me to kill someone. What would motivate me? Compel me? Could I hate people to the point of killing them? I don't think so. But I try to imagine what's going on in the brain of the killer in Norway. Or how politicians in Germany or the Soviet Union or any country could justify war. The killing of millions of people. Men. Women. Children. So how much worse is it when a guy in Norway flips out...and kills, kills, kills. One after another. Why? Why? Why? Is it any worse than dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima or Nagasaki? Imagine how a single bomb can obliterate so many people. So many more than the 80 shot by one individual in Norway. We think of that as horrendous. But it's a paltry sum compared to dead left by a little skirmish in a war. And maybe we don't even shudder about that any more. It's routine. It's accepted. War/killing is a big part of our culture. Always has been. Always will be. That's our way. --Jim Broede