Cooperation eases strain

Since the Connecticut shooting, I have both heard and read repeatedly short expressions like “evil exists,” “evil is real,” “there is evil in this world,” etc. Actually, as I grow older, I have a harder and harder time seeing or discerning real, genuine evil anywhere.

What I have no trouble whatever with is seeing the ever-increasing scores of frightened, stressed out, stunted, bewildered, neglected, ignored and utterly frustrated human beings as the result of nothing more than the ordinary stresses of daily life. It’s anybody’s guess just how many hover right now on the verge of complete mental breakdown.

Connecticut, Colorado, Columbine – they just keep on happening and we unwittingly do little more than set things up for another. Incompetence, stupidity and mismanagement emanate from every quarter and level of human society, ours included. The very planet we live on has become a shameful repository of competition, greed, malice, anger and envy. What’s kept me from going berserk after nearly 70 years on it is something to ponder daily.

Rather than compete with, sue and shoot one another, maybe simple cooperation would do much to eliminate mass murder(s) and reduce the stress and strain on us all.

Dennis Roberts

Spokane