Educate about mores

We need to educate people about anti-social behavior. The dictionary says such behaviors are a violation of a group’s mores. Mores are the customs and traditions agreed upon for acceptable behavior.

When immigrants are taught other mores, they need to change to live among us. For instance, we do not cut off the hands of thieves, as some societies do; and we do not murder violators of mores by throwing stones at them until they are dead. This was an ancient custom of people who live in the Holy Land. For some societies, it still is the custom.

Mores can change; one has changed in my lifetime. Husbands were allowed to beat their wives. Now this is called “domestic violence,” and the society no longer tolerates it.

The Boston bombers were immigrants who certainly violated our mores, as well as our laws. We call such people “sociopaths.”

Sometimes, governments are taken over by sociopaths, which leads to war among nations. Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party of World War II Germany is such an example.

Merrilee Foley

Spokane