Superman Through the Ages! Forum

Sometimes I just don't get the U.S.A. The worst piece of news we had here this week was the deliberate shooting of the Amish schoolgirls in Pennsylvania.

I have always admired the Amish, and, on occasion, I have entertained the fantasy that maybe I, too, could eschew the trappings of the modern world and live in a sheltered community of horse-drawn carts and simple values. Of course, they would never have me, and I probably wouldn't last too long there -- although, I'm probably being too hard on them, and me.

What's up with America that every other week a low-life murders a bunch of school-age children?

I still think America is the greatest country in the world, and that means it will have the best of things, and the worst. I saw the worst in the reports of a dysfunctional scumbag murdering little girls; but later I saw the best in the strength and dignity of the amazing Amish people who had to cope with horrors most people can barely imagine.

The whole thing is depressing and I couldn't even watch the tv coverage --most of the news I got from driving around listening to the CBC --at best a 2minute radio report on the hourly news, not the sort of relentless coverage that I knew CNN would give to the grieving families and the psychology of the murderer.

I live in an area with a large Mennonite population and I see little kids like the ones who were shot all the time.  Very sad to contemplate something like that happening.

The violence of the culture is spreading --there was a shooting in Montreal a few back (of course Canada is "at war" now in Afghanistan so it's not like we are some sort of utopian, gunless society like Japan or Iceland).

It seems to me that much which occurs in American politics and "culture" (movies, TV, the internet, etc) has been on a downward spiral recently.  Instead of being based on kindness, optimism, respect, and admiration for human progress; it is attempting to outdo itself with new levels of fear, panic, belittlement, hatred, negativity and depravity.

Many people can't help but get caught up in it.   The more they expose themselves to it and particiapte in it, the worse the problem gets - and the more damage they do to themselves.  It's like a huge feedback loop.