I'm singing in the rain... just singing in the rain...
We joke about disturbing news being the sign of the decline of civilization, but articles like this really do suggest to me a sadly backward swinging pendulum.
That, and Anthony Burgess was sadly prescient about a bit of the old ultra-violence:
"...There was nothing I hated more than to see a filthy old drunkie, a-howling away at the filthy songs ( Read more... )
That, and Anthony Burgess was sadly prescient about a bit of the old ultra-violence:
"...There was nothing I hated more than to see a filthy old drunkie, a-howling away at the filthy songs ( Read more... )
Religion has nothing to do with moral-compasses -- rather it has everything to do with appearances. Moral-compasses are the result of individual psyches naturally capable of empathy, and the nurturing of that empathy by truly moral role models. Such a moral compass is more likely to develop in an atheist or an agnostic than it is in a person raised in a religious environment, particularly a religious environment that teaches not moral behavior but an "escape clause" approach to morality, i.e.: "Christians aren't better than everyone else, just forgiven."
In my humble opinion, this behavior is a "natural" result of the Calvinist-Salem Witch trial "the rich deserve everything they get and the poor deserve everything that happens to them" mentality that sifts down from the current occupant of the Oval Office. Such regimes always, by default, o.k. a group of scapegoats: minorities, L.G.B.T-G. people, liberals, "uppity" women -- "the powers that be will thank us for ridding society of these people or putting them in their place." As poverty and mental illness are the current "sins," unworthy of compassion and help, the homeless are the current targets.
The cycle of *veterans* who've served this country, then, rather than being given treatment for the physical and mental disorders that are a direct result of that service, being thrown away like garbage by our "leaders" and then murdered on our streets -- the blame for all of this lies squarely at the feet of Reagan, Bush I and Bush II.
We don't even allow feral animals to be treated like this. It makes me ashamed to call myself an American.
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Regarding your comment on the cycle of veterans...
Newsweek did an article recently that highlighted the problems faced by veterans, and someone in the VA department made the comment that they couldn't ask for as much money in the budget as they knew they would need, because that would be admitting that the war will go on much longer and with way more casualties than Dubya had planned - so admitting they need more money would be an admission of failure by the administration. So the vets are just screwed, because of politics. Maddening.
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