Letters

Trained for behavior we’re seeing

Posted 8/2/16

To the Editor:

I would like to respond to Mr. Robert Shorr about the article he wrote titled “This has got to stop” to the Beacon, which was posted on July 26, 2016.

I don’t have a …

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Letters

Trained for behavior we’re seeing

Posted

To the Editor:

I would like to respond to Mr. Robert Shorr about the article he wrote titled “This has got to stop” to the Beacon, which was posted on July 26, 2016.

I don’t have a problem with the first two paragraphs, but then he narrows his focus to mental health and guns. We have had guns and people with mental health problems for hundreds of years without the problems that Mr. Shorr points out in the beginning of his article, so why now is the gun such a problem? My convictions are that it is the results of what we teach not only to our children but ourselves by what we watch and how we live. Take television programming and see how many crime shows you can watch each night with all the details of how many ways to commit a crime. Then go to the movies and watch in outstanding graphics how to be cruel and how many people and vehicles you can blow up.

Then we think it is okay for us or our kids to get on the computer to play some type of war game and how to kill our opponent using all sort of weapons. In this gaming we get to learn strategy of how to outsmart and kill our opponents, and this is all without personal emotions. It seems to me that it is a very short step to doing it for real.

I say we have lost something in our society or we thought we new better and discarded some old-time values that helped us to be more civil to one another.

It shows up on the road with “road rage”, domestic violence, the only way to settle a disagreement is to stab or shoot the other person. Do you want to blame domestic violence on mental health? I don’t think we want to blame all domestic violence or gun violence on mental health. So I think we need to look back to see what has changed in our society over the last 60 years that may have brought about the anger, the hatred, the lack of respect for people and property, the inability to get along with one another.

It seems to me we are learning, teaching and training for the behavior we see being played out in our society.

Allan Bucklin

Warwick

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  • davebarry109

    People look for an explanation to explain the unexplainable. Mental health is an easy choice.

    Tuesday, August 2, 2016 Report this