Alright, now this is seriously just a rant. Violence seems to be at an all-time high these days. There is war all over the world: suicide bombings and terrorist attacks, tear gassing protesters and torturing hostages, assassination attempts and hand-to-hand soldier combat. But even in our local communities, such problems are consistently there. People are murdered every day, often without reason; children are bullied on the schoolyard by those looking for a temporary burst of self-esteem; missing person posters line police station bulletin boards and metropolitan telephone poles. Humans must truly be sick individuals to have the guts to defeat each other in such agile and ruthless ways. Either that, or there must be a horrible trait in every human being that so many people subconsciously realize and then come to the conclusion that we must be eliminated in order to solve the unsolvable problem. Oftentimes, it appears as though one party attacks another in the name of superiority in one or more aspects. But aren't all humans inherently the same? We are all born with the same basic components, aren't we? With necessary acknowledgement of the occasional exception, we all have two eyes, two ears, one nose, two arms, two legs, two hands, ten fingers, one heart. We are all born with a set of innate bits of knowledge. We are born good and then either turn bad or remain good; and of being "good" or "bad", these parameters are determined by every separate society as a whole, not on an individual basis. However, I'm not here to debate and philosophize about the definitions of good and evil, for that is not my purpose here. How do we hurt each other? Sometimes it's through nuclear or biological warfare. Various countries are so heavily armed that they could wipe out a rival nation (or even themselves if they didn't point the damn missiles at the right angle) with the push of a button. Then there is the more conventional method: being armed and dangerous. Whether it be the rifle of the army private or the handgun of the local criminal, the slicing of the bullet through innocent flesh is definitely a popular act. Overseas, for example, I can only imagine how many people are being shot and killed on a daily basis (although as popular media dictates, suicide bombings and vehicular explosions take priority). Not to mention the fact that school shootings are on the rise -- the events of Columbine and Virginia Tech are of particular significance in illustrating how pitiful some members of society can be -- and nobody can understand the reasoning behind such incidents. Disgruntled students killing classmates doesn't bode well with anyone with common sense. There is also the art of stabbing, the inexpensive killer. I've seen an army knife up close. It has a pocket on the side that, after being injected into the victim, fills with blood to prevent suction so the knife can be easily removed from the body. That doesn't sound like a knife designed for peeling an orange. And of course, unarmed combat: just getting punched in the face or kneed in the family jewels, either by a single entity or as a group beating session. That has to be unpleasant. Nobody likes that. I don't recall being concerned about the world in this way when I was a kid. Guns, violence, and the like were limited to silly kids' shows such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. Do you remember what the biggest threat in Grade 1 was? It wasn't the war overseas. It wasn't little Timmy who seemed unhappy and may have been planning to kill us all. No, the biggest threat was being attacked by a blue pair of those really lame Crayola scissors. Those things couldn't cut worth a damn. I tried cutting paper with Crayola scissors and failed miserably, several times in my life. I think paper would actually cut the scissors first. If someone tries stabbing you with a pair of those, you'll likely respond with a quip along the lines of, "Hey, please stop trying to impale me with that extremely blunt and weak object." Even trying to use those scissors as a weapon was demeaning. Clearly, you could have grabbed a gluestick and tried to seal a peer's eyelid shut with more successful negative results than with blunt scissors. Anyway, we really need to reconsider our priorities in order to live better lives. Granted, children lead sheltered existences and are often shielded from all the negativity of the world, but that's not quite what I'm referring to. Basically, it boils down to this: if they can live in their own world without excessive violence and hatred (since young children are generally not as prejudiced as their adult counterparts), why can't adults, most of whom possess solid reasoning and common sense, do the same? Are we such idiots that force is the only answer to life's little foibles? If this is the case, then we need to seriously re-evaluate our priorities. I didn't think the meaning of life was to bomb our fellow man when he starts his Pinto, but some people tend to think so. Supposedly, we were created and placed upon the Earth to love and cherish our fellow man. I guess love can be expressed in unusual ways.