putting a dollar on life

Unless you are truly mentally deranged, we all value life. What I mean is that most of us would never try to seriously injure or kill someone. Except sometimes I have to admit that I'm really not so sure about that observation. From conversations with people in my family to my students to people on the discussion boards in my distance education graduate class, people get mad. They have certain ideas and beliefs, and if those are threatened, it inspires anger. Which is so dangerous. It took awhile for me to form certain beliefs that now really define who I am. But I cherish that process that formed me. It's called journalism. Around the 2004 presidential election, I really started to pay attention because I realized I didn't know much about politics, and what kind of citizen did that make me? And not to toot my own horn, but I really wish more people felt the same way. But if I encounter an article or opinion that threatens what I believe, I still consider it. Which is SO much more than almost anyone else can say today. The problem is that it's so easy to inspire anger and hatred, which is what society has seen over the centuries. But we're supposed to be more enlightened now, not more medieval. Sure, it's much easier on everyone if the world can be boiled down to black and white, but it's just not accurate. We all value life. People of all walks and beliefs and backgrounds and ethnicities and religions. Not just Christians who are white and middle to upper-class. I belong to that group, but I couldn't really be farther from it. Anyhow, what I really wanted to say tonight was about the shooting in Arizona. I think it's going to be easy to forget that people died, including a 9 year-old girl. My son is 9 years old. Why is it such a bad thing that people are calling for our national discourse to get rid of phrases from Sarah Palin like, "don't retreat, reload!" That isn't intellectual. Sure, it's a metaphor, but I'm guessing that with our current state of education, we can't be assuming that people have the skills to interpret metaphors. Especially when Sarah Palin is usually shown literally hunting something. Again, I like to think that most of us would never intentionally hurt someone else. But when I've seen hatred shown toward gay people, young girls who get pregnant on accident, and people who support government taxes, my faith falters in the goodness of people.