Military suicide rates evidence societal problems
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Editor,
When our young military men and women’s suicide rate exceeds the rate of deaths due to combat during a so-called wartime, something is very radically wrong. This points to something much deeper than the military. It points to a nation’s attitudes and moral character.
This military suicide rate is alarming, but look at all the other problems our nations faces, which are also alarming. They all stem from us. No one is doing these things to us. We have slipped and slid, over the years, into this greed-driven, selfishly motivated and morally questionable society. A person can make a good case about all this.
In my 82 years of life on earth, our society has changed from an agricultural-based economy with family units that stayed together, to an industrial-based economy, and now to what seems to be a services-based economy, all the while with divorce rates soaring, family units eroding, healthy eating habits declining, healthcare becoming a challenge instead of a given right, and education becoming a drain on personal and community finances rather than an absolute necessity for the future health of our nation.
There is another less visible side to all this slipping and sliding. It is the side of reason and unselfishness many people live by in our nation today. Their objectives, their accomplishments and actions are just not the “juicy” and filled with violence and drama type that captures media and public attention.
When local communities begin to affect some positive changes in the way they relate to, engage and involve the people, our nation is going to shift totally away from the ruinous road so vividly being demonstrated by both political parties as we speak. The forming “Montana Co-op” and the Greater Polson Foundation’s “Heart and Soul” project are examples of this positive momentum.
My point it this: “we the people” are the foundation of democracy. Our leadership, from the ground up, with minds and hearts motivated through reason, unselfishness and compassion determine whether we continue floundering in our problems or rising up through our wisdom.
Bob McClellan
Polson
