Get Used To It!

Roughly 150,000 people around the world die each day. If anyone out there can calculate the percentage of those killed, I would be grateful. Death, as has been acknowledged in this blog many times, is the inevitable ultimate destiny of all living things. But to die a “natural” death as opposed to being killed is a stark contrast, almost a polarity on the continuum. 42,636 people were killed in U.S. automobile accidents in 2005 (is this really the most current data?) which calculated out to one death every 13 minutes. I’ll grant you that a death by accident is not the same thing as premeditated murder, but it is killing nonetheless when the death wouldn’t have occurred “naturally.” My point is this: we accept killing on so many levels that we are no longer repulsed by it. Indeed, we tend to glorify it. How many killings a year are simulated in books, movies and television? My training sergeant in the law enforcement academy stated simply, “A gun is for one thing, and one thing only, killing.” Even the NRA’s trumped up constitutional freedom for hunters can’t get around that one. I earned an expert rating on the police proficiency range by shooting at human silhouettes, a technique employed to make pulling the trigger on an actual human being easier. The hot topic of the day has been spun as the number of people who are killed each year because they don’t have health insurance? Let’s face it, we are killers. Now the only question is, do we find that acceptable?