Respect for Life

In today’s society, human life seems to have lost its former value; too many people act as if it means nothing at all. As mass murders continue to happen, it is important that we teach respect for life and the necessary skills needed to make that a reality. Nowadays, it seems as if political ideology and extremism have replaced conscience. We must not allow this to continue because when our conscience is taken away, so is our respect for life. To cultivate respect, we need to eradicate instances of bullying and violence. We need to be kind to one another and start having respect for people regardless of who they are, what they believe in, what their skin color is, or what gender they are. People who look down on others because they are different are simply annihilating their conscience, their sense of moral right and wrong, and instead replacing it with hate and contempt. A good civilization can never be built on contempt. Stalin took control of the Soviet Union on a platform of hate and disrespect and ultimately killed millions of kulaks. Hitler tried to build a civilization based on hating Jews, and that eventually led to their death via gas chambers. There is no future in hate, in contempt. We need to promote basic respect for life again and show people how it can be done. With all the shootings that have been going on, it’s easy to throw away respect for life since people have become so numb, angry, and frightened. I think a lot of Americans have become numb to all the violence and simply hope that they are not the victims of the next mass murder. In order to change this country for the better, we need to stand up and let people know that it is morally wrong to hate people and to kill others. These terrible events cannot keep happening. We need to respect each other’s differences, understand how to negotiate and compromise, and really listen to one another. We need to have teams of specialists traveling around the country and demonstrating how this can be done. Our society is never going to be ideal if we continue to let hate prevail. The only way we can get our country to where it needs to be is if we teach respect for human life and dignity once and for all.