This morning I was thinking of this subject of life and death, and of how we might honor the transition from one to the other. I came then to Jon Carroll:
http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/carroll/
I think we've been a bit babyish in this country about making hard decisions. We continue to make weapons and invade other countries and kill people, often civilians, because that is what we've always done. We arrived here and after learning a few survival techniques began to mistreat the native peoples whose home this was. We shoved them off their land, and murdered and imprisoned them. Meanwhile now we cut more and more services, and leave our children uneducated and many without health care. How can a country survive that does not look to its children?
They are our future, the ones who will care for us, the elders, if we treat them with the respect we expect to receive. How much is spent daily overseas while life here continues to show a lack of care, compassion, and heart?
We wave a flag for the deaths on 9-11 and yes, it is right to honor those who died and those who risked their lives. Yes, who could argue with that, and yet, meanwhile children are dying here from lack of care.