Volley #1

I have titled my blog "not supposed to be this way" because in my view, for the time that we live in, things are not supposed to be this way. I was born before the middle of the last century, during a time when the entire world was embroiled in a horrific war, that ended with a couple of gigantic explosions that ushered us into a nuclear world. We also entered into a time of hope for the future. Technology was advancing at an incredible pace. Everyone was excited about what the future would bring, thinking we were on the threshold of a marvelous world to come, where life would be utopian. That we could at last, live peacefully with our world neighbors.

Bad people around the world were plotting to take over the world in the 1930's and '40's. The Allies rallied to the cry of freedom. When the smoke had cleared and treaties were signed over 60 million lives had been lost. About 3% of the world population at the time. 416,000 American armed service members laid down their lives for freedom around the world. Freeing people from oppression in lands they knew very little or nothing about.

Oh yeah, those big nuclear blasts I spoke of earlier, well Russia now had those big bad weapons. The dreams of utopia were not as bright now. We were learning how to survive a nuclear holocaust. We had bomb shelters everywhere, air raid drills in schools. Then there was the nuclear showdown between the USA and Russia over Cuba. We were involved in war again, but it was "cold war". We learned about new things, things the world had never seen, like "nuclear winter".

All of this new drama is happening just a few short years after the horrific destruction and bloodshed caused by conventional weaponry. When you stop and truly analyze this, you just have to ask yourself why the human race is so self destructive. It seems we can't wait to get into the next conflict. Human beings have been on this planet for a very long time. We see archeological evidence of how life was thousands of years ago. The human race has advanced to unbelievable levels of technology. In my lifetime alone, I have witnessed incredible advances. But it seems that no matter how many marvelous things we create, or how much knowledge we amass, we are basically the same angry, destructive beings that inhabited this earth thousands of years ago. They killed each other with clubs and stones. We kill each other with amazing skills and weapons. We don't even have to look the opponent in the eyes before we kill them.

So my point is quite simple. Why is it, that we can create a marvelous world for ourselves, filled with incredible amenities, but we can't stop fighting. It seems that we can kill everything but hate. It's just not supposed to be this way.