Letter: We as a people have lost all respect for human life

So, my question is this — does a person wake up one morning and say to themselves, because guns are sold at the store down the street, I am going to go buy one and kill as many people, police or others, as possible? There must be rottenness in their heart. We as a people have lost all respect for human life.

We kill because we are cut off in traffic, or some other minor event happens that we perceive as disrespect. We kill because someone else has something we want. Many, but not all of these killings, involve guns. Yet all of them involve a total lack of respect for the dignity of human life.

There is no leadership from the government, from our churches or from our schools that addresses and seeks to reconcile the deep and serious chasms that exist to divide us as a people. We have become a spoiled and self-centered people, interested only of ourselves.

If, as a nation, we cannot learn to respect all human life, we will certainly degenerate further into anarchy and chaos and slip into history as a noble experiment that failed.

This story was originally published August 4, 2016 at 3:12 AM with the headline "Letter: We as a people have lost all respect for human life."