To the Precipice: Are We There Yet?

The other day, while riding a subway train, Jordan Neely, a homeless man, cried out, "I'm tired of being hungry... I have nothing to live for." Daniel Penny, an ex-Marine riding on that same New York City train, took it upon himself to put Neely in a choke-hold, and end his life, even as the train hurtled on to its next stop. It was a microcosm of the American experience imploding. Are we there yet? 

Shooting upon shootings, public chokings: We are headed for the cliff. In a civilized society, average American citizens have been given the green light to kill other citizens if they feel threatened by them. In a country so reckless, how long before our children expect the right, themselves, to "stand their ground," and shoot? they live under the threat of physical violence as much, if not more, than adults. Must they continue to ball up their little fists and settle things the old-fashioned way? 

We humans are at the top of the food chain.,. by far! Yet, we feel we need 400 million guns - the estimated number of guns circulating amongst the American populace - to cement our standing. If we were cows chewing our cuds, perhaps a sidearm would help. But, compared to all other earthlings, we are already super-beings. And, it is not guns that make us so; it is our minds. Guns only dumb us down - convince us to settle for for being bestial by flashing our teeth and our claws instead of our intelligence, and our humanity. 

Guns are so dumb. And, we are approaching the cliff... or, are we there yet?