What are we doing here?

I feel shell-shocked sometimes when I read the news. Do you? Does anyone? Sitting here in the middle of the night as the snows march toward rush hour, I hop online to check out what's happening in the world. And what I see ... it leaves me saddened. Not always. But tonight, there's a family in Georgia and people in North Carolina, who are grieving over a senseless death. And for what? A car? A couple tons of steel was apparently worth a life. I don't get it.

Basic lack of respect for humanity, you know? For people. I can't even begin to think about knowing how to fathom this. Where in our brains does it make the distinction between the value of a human life over the value of something that in 20 years will be a rusted, rotted, shell? How does someone even make that jump, that irrational thought process complete itself to make them -- to give them the impression that they should wield the power of life and death?

I don't get it.

I never will. I can't ever grasp the idea that a human being is worthless. I know there are billions of us, but every single one of us is a person with the right to live. And everyday on the news I read about another senseless shooting, a robbery, a botched this and frakked up that, people being used as fodder or to set up as examples.

We should be upset. And we are -- but where does the solution come from? Where's the fix all? How do we teach each other to respect one another? To stop being selfish. To stop seeing the world in terms of "mine" and look at it in terms of "ours". Basic lack of respect. I see it everyday.

Yesterday, a lot of good was done in the world. A lot. There are people out there who do care. Who do show respect. Who stand up everyday and fight for equality, human rights, and do what they can with what they have to bring some type of help to what seems like a rapidly decaying world. A lot of good. But we don't see it on the news. Headlines to hold up the respectful. They hold up the ugly. Why?

Show us something good for once. Remind the species of the species in good way. In a way that ignites the fires in our bellies to rally together and make changes that we can be proud of. Encourage us to respect our brothers and sisters. Show us what a little caring can really do. Give us the tiniest glimpse of something wonderful and let us see that we have the capacity to be more than we are and better to each other than barbarians. Open our eyes to the idea that humanity can do something. We have charted the world. Invented machines that can fly. Composed symphonies and written words into stories and poems that can render people speechless.

As I'm often want to do, I like to quote film and theatre. And the occasional literature. But today, tonight, this morning, the two passages that spring to mind come from a play by Tom Griffin called "The Boys Next Door" and the movie "Contact". Two works that are radically different and yet carry a similar theme: asking us to stop and look at humanity and realize that we are more than we are.

"I am here to remind the species of the species. Without me you will never be frightened of what you might have become or may become." — Lucien, "The Boys Next Door"

"I... had an experience... I can't prove it, I can't even explain it, but everything that I know as a human being, everything that I am tells me that it was real! I was given something wonderful, something that changed me forever... A vision of the universe, that tells us, undeniably, how tiny, and insignificant and how... rare, and precious we all are! A vision that tells us that we belong to something that is greater then ourselves, that we are *not*, that none of us are alone! I wish... I... could share that... I wish, that everybody, if only for one... moment, could feel... that awe, and humility, and hope. But... That continues to be my wish." — Ellie Arrorway, "Contact"

They kind of sum up what I'm feeling right now. Sitting here on my couch in the middle of the night. There's a whole world going on outside. 12 time zones away, someone's making a decision or doing something that will gave an impact on this world. I hope it's a good one.

I love that in a few hours I get to go to work at a place that's entire mission is the betterment of humankind. I'm fortunate that I get a daily reminder of the species. In the most wonderful of ways.

It doesn't help me understand senselessness. But it reminds me of the species and how precious we all are.

A human life should be worth more than a car. More than the 20 bucks in their wallet. More than their beliefs. We are worth so much more than that and if a human being has to lose their life, it should be for the advancement of our species, for progress, not the other way around.

There have been people throughout history who have stood up and risked their lives for the betterment of mankind. Explorers charting the unknown, scientists, scholars, soldiers, and heroes. There have been so many people who have willingly sacrificed themselves so we might thrive as a species; so that this world might be something better than it is.

We should respect that.

Don't you think?