IPFS
CONNECTING THE DOTS
Frosty Wooldridge
More About: Politics: General ActivismAftermath of Newtown, Connecticut—overwhelming sadness
You may be as sick of what happened in Newtown, Connecticut
as I am sick to my stomach. What makes me
sick stems from the fact that it keeps happening across our country quite
regularly, too often with too much insanity.
When I researched the facts about the killings going on in
America, I almost emotionally staggered at the five children who are killed
daily by their parents or care-givers.
In other words, a Newtown, Connecticut occurs within America every four
days, but no one thinks about it because the children who die are dispersed
across the USA. But just the same, those
children die horrible deaths, too. At
the hands of their parents.
When I researched the five million women who suffer beatings
at the hands of their husbands or boyfriends annually, I would have thought our
nation must be a country from the Middle East where they kill their wives and
daughters for honor killings—at least 5,000 annually and beat their wives
without mercy regularly.
But then I discover an American man beats his wife or
girlfriend every 15 seconds in America. How do you swallow that one
emotionally, intellectually or otherwise? We are supposed to be a moral,
ethical and lawful nation. Instead, we
are a sick bunch of child abusers and wife beaters.
Then, we compare Columbine’s 15 killed that horrible day in
Littleton, Colorado to the killings in Newtown, but I found out that 18
teenagers commit suicide every single day of the year in this country. Count those numbers dear friend: a
Columbine-like massacre occurs in this country every single day because those
kids feel so disconnected, so disenfranchised, so separated, so unloved that
they kill themselves. It takes my breath
away.
Then, when I start thinking about the fact that our Congress
and the past two presidents rained down bombs and drones to kill thousands upon
thousands of Iraqi and Afghanistan civilians in two 10 year long wars—and we
don’t say anything about it. Does
anyone see the disconnect of our self-righteousness as to the pretending to be
a moral and ethical nation? It’s beyond
me how our leaders and Congress critters sleep at night.
Then, we come to animal cruelty in this country. It’s
staggering. We kill over four million dogs and cats just because they
are excess because of our own irresponsible behavior of letting them breed.
Animal Cruelty Statistics
Each year, 10,000 bull dogs die in
bullfighting.
Women
in abusive relationships often don't leave their abuser because they worry
what will happen to their pet if they leave.
13% of
animal abuse involves domestic
violence.
70% of
animal abusers also have records of
other crimes.
3 to 4 million cats and dogs (young, healthy and adoptable) are euthanized every year in
shelters.
Animals
that aren't euthanized are often sent to no-kill shelters where the animals are caged for days, weeks,
months or years and the animals risk becoming insane and dying of
loneliness.
Millions of day-old male chicks are
killed in a high capacity
macerator because they are worthless to the egg industry.
In the
United States alone, 1.13 million
animals are used in testing and research every year.
More
than 15 million warm blooded
animals are used in research worldwide.
Scientists
estimate that 100 species of animals go extinct every day.
Continue reading at NowPublic.com: Animal Cruelty: Facts, Prevention, Statistics and Action | NowPublic News Coveragehttp://www.nowpublic.com/environment/animal-cruelty-facts-prevention-statistics-and-action-2886267.html#ixzz2FeWe8vQw
At some point, we have got to come to terms with the
violence in our culture, our violence toward other countries, our violence
against nature and our violence as a tool to solve things.
We need to reconnect with God, with Nature, with our natural
world, with the animals that we slaughter by the millions and the trashing of
our planet.
I mean, the human race continues to cause the extinction of
80 to 100 other creatures on this planet every 24 hours every day of the
week—without pause.
At some point, we must ask ourselves if we want to live on
this ravaged planet. I’ve reported on
the Great Pacific Garbage Patch which is a 100 million ton floating plastic
debris island out in the Pacific. That plastic litters every ocean on the
planet. It kills endless millions of sea
creatures, but none of our leaders and none of our citizens will stand up for a
simple 10 cent deposit-return law across this nation and/or across the
world.
It’s as if we think it will solve itself, but it only gets
worse.
We remain quiet as our military kills, maims and slaughters
endless other human beings in Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Iraq and
Afghanistan—as if we have the right to continue those wars for decades. How friggin’ sick is that kind of thinking
and that kind of action?
Then, when something as horrific as what we’ve done to other
countries and other creatures comes home to roost in Newtown, Connecticut, we
cry, we mourn, we condemn and we point fingers—but we don’t do anything.
We don’t stop the violent movies, violent video games, the
violence on TV and the violence to our women and children across the
board. We don’t even attempt to stop it.
What have you done at the local level, state level or
national level to stop the violence? When
will you do it? What actions will you
take? What will you do?
Answer: probably nothing.
##
Frosty Wooldridge has bicycled across six continents - from the Arctic to
the South Pole - as well as eight times across the USA, coast to coast and
border to border. In 2005, he bicycled from the Arctic Circle, Norway to
Athens, Greece. In 2012, he bicycled coast to coast across America. His latest book is: How to Live a Life of
Adventure: The Art of Exploring the World by Frosty Wooldridge, copies at 1 888
280 7715/ Motivational program: How to Live a Life of Adventure: The Art
of Exploring the World by Frosty Wooldridge, click:
1 Comments in Response to Aftermath of Newtown, Connecticut—overwhelming sadness
Not to mention 120,000 people killed each year by prescription drugs. Or the 90,000 a year by secondary infections in hospitals. Or 315,000 killed by needless surgery and doctors mistakes. Or for that matter from all the so-called "incurable" diseases which I know from personal experience ARE curable. Well, well, well, I wonder who owns the media??? Same people that own the politicians, armament manufacturers, drug companies, insurance companies, you know the rest. Sounds like its all by design doesn't it???