(Omal uses the killings at Columbine high school earlier that day as an example of the declining morals of society hence the need to encourage a high moral standard for any child being raised. It's a subject made even more relevant in today's examples of mass shootings.) 

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Omal: okay, do we pick a topic or do we discuss things at random?

Russ: well one thing I wanted to work on a little bit was the shooting that did happen in the suburbs of Denver and the ability of people to snap. Whereas, as Kiri was saying, there’s a point where the moral base that people work from in the past has been stronger than it has been now apparently…..

Omal: uh-huh.

Russ: and the ability to snap and just lose it all in a moment or even pre-plan it for days or a week seems to have gotten less and less.

Omal: yes?

Russ: is as she was saying it is a sign of the times, was it media related perhaps?

Omal: perhaps yes, it is definitely the moral issue that life has become cheap, that you do see as Kiri put it so much death and destruction on your entertainment devices. It has become popular entertainment to watch people being maimed and killed whether it is in a pseudo-entertainment world or in actual fact on your news services.

Skip: uh-huh.

Omal: pick a movie.

Russ: "Groundhog Day".

Omal: is there somebody killed in that?

Russ: many times.

Omal: correct.

Skip: yes, yes, yes.

Omal: pick another one.

Russ: "Fantasia"?

Omal: are there people being killed in that?

Russ: yeah, absolutely.

Skip: in what?

Russ: "Fantasia", from Disney.

Omal: I am not familiar with "Fantasia" nor was I familiar with "Groundhog Day". Okay let’s pick another one.

Russ: go ahead Skip.

Skip: you mean violent ones?

Omal: any.
 
Russ: no just anything.

Skip: well even the cartoons that the kids watch which are what, five minutes of cartoons or ten minutes? They’re beating up on each other, they’re killing each other and everything else.

Omal: so therefore it is a part of society accepted, most people until recently it seems to me were aware that that was for entertainment and it was not real. Now the lines have become blurred because of your news media showing people getting shot, blown up, running out of houses on fire, bombs being dropped, being shot on beaches, being shot at vacation resorts, at high schools, at colleges, at universities and they hear all the gory details and see all the gory details that they become numb to it so therefore it loses its value as life.

Skip: uh-huh.

Omal: so it is definitely a sign of the times, whether or not it is a sign of an end or a beginning is unknown.

Skip: yeah that’s the media’s fault.

Omal: I wouldn’t say just the media, I would say it's people in general being prepared to sit down and see these events as it happens. It is a negative side of the technology communication revolution.......

Skip: uh-huh.

Omal: the fact that the morals seem to have gone by the wayside.

Russ: hmm.

Skip: yeah they have.

Russ: interesting. In dealing with it then, an individual’s morals are what are really important for now and to pass those onto others that you deal with.

Omal: correct.

Skip: but they’re not being passed on, that’s the problem.

Russ: well you and I and Mark, we pass our morals on.

Skip: okay, present company excepted…..

Russ: right.

Skip: but the young people growing up, their folks aren’t teaching them the morals like we were taught.

Russ: hmm. Omal is this maybe a problem of single families, or single-parent families perhaps?

Skip: no not really, even double-parent families……single-parent families it used to be that you didn’t, you didn’t live with another person unless you were married, now it’s an accepted thing for two people to live together period.

Omal: Skip is quite correct.

Russ: uh-huh

Skip: and that’s the beginning of your breakdown of your morals right there, that’s the start of it. And using vulgar or cursing language, there’s another problem.

Omal: uh-huh.

Skip: the parents use it, the kids use it and it's accepted all over even the films and movies and it is using the vulgar language which if we used vulgar language when I was a kid you get your mouth washed out with soap.

Russ: yeah I threatened one of my kids that was playing games tonight with that so I’m seeing it more and more.

(from an incident at the cyber cafe I co-owned at the time)

Skip: yeah you're seeing it all the time and even in feature films that are entertainment, the people are using foul language. They use four letter words like they’re running out of style.

Omal: again Skip is quite correct, it is something that can be changed. If you start at an early age that you do not use curse words, foul or abusive language, especially around a child and an infant, therefore it teaches even at an early age that it is wrong. And if you explain later to a child that the reason that the child mustn't use the language even at school with the companions of the child is because the child by not falling in with those word structures becomes superior, becomes morally better, becomes educationally better, is looked upon with more respect. At first it will be looked upon as the child is a wimp but if the child holds to the patterns laid down by the parent or parents, then the child becomes morally better and in later life looked upon and respected as long as the child also acts with strength. And if the child is instructed in a way that uses the child’s mind, that it can resort to name-calling so the other children do not understand that they're being name-called increases a child’s intellect and also makes a child realize that it can help its friends in the same way. One drop of water can be the drop of water that overflows the bucket.

Russ: hmmm.

Omal: or fills the vessel to full, whatever you wish to phrase it as but it is important from the get-go that there is no foul or abusive language. Continue.

Skip: what I keep running into and it’s not my generation but the generation that Mark and Russ are more or less in which would be what? Two generations behind me?

Russ: more or less.

Skip: yeah………..is even the ladies that have children are using foul and abusive language even around their children.

Omal: which is totally wrong and unacceptable.

Skip: but everybody, I say everybody, I’m using terminology of what I’ve run into accepts it and by accepting it they're tearing up their own morals, their own loyalty, their own……..when I was a kid patriotism and loyalty was something that made you glow from the inside but there isn’t any of that left anymore. The same with journeyman doing their job, there’s no craftsmanship left anymore or it seems not to be okay? In my own personal looking at things, we’ve gotten to a point of where they’ve made this a throwaway world.

Omal: you again are very correct, it is definitely changing. Whether it is changing for the better or for the worse is something that is yet to be seen but, it is definitely the pangs of a society that is changing. Whether or not there will be a few voices in the wilderness such as yourselves that say, “stop, this is enough, it must change.” The old ways were probably correct, the new ways are probably incorrect or correct depending on your point of view…..

Skip: uh-huh.

Omal: but blending the two together. Certainly having a higher technology but having the intelligence to use the technology in such a way that it benefits all and lays a moral pathway that is beneficial for all.

Russ: well Skip brings up a good point on the question of patriotism. It seems now with the advanced communication abilities of both the media and the Internet, patriotism seems to have fallen by the wayside and we seem to be on that road. Now the question I have is again as you mentioned is it for the good or for the bad? Now one would say yes it’s for the good because patriotism brings a good sense of unity to the country you’re in but at the same time our efforts to change to a more world united planet would seem be pushing in the direction that says well maybe patriotism toward a species as us being humans or a species being involved with living on one planet might be important for the future also?

Omal: yes but also……..sorry, continue.

Skip: but what’s happening here is that’s not happening, people are losing patriotism in their country or their ethnic background or their religion or whatever or their country but they’re not replacing it with the patriotism of earthlings or humans or whatever. It’s not being replaced, it’s just being thrown away.

Omal: again Skip is very correct, you’re doing very well tonight as well I might add.

Skip: thank you.

Omal: I believe it was Kiri that was discussing pride in one’s ethnic group.

Skip: uh-huh.

Omal: I believe it was in connection with the comment of aren’t you earthlings after all? And Kiri said……her answer was, "well I am Sirian first but I’m also from the highlands second". It is good to have pride in your ethnic heritage…..

Skip: uh-huh.

Omal: in your ethnic group. So it would be equally wise and sensible to have pride in the fact of first of all you’re human but secondly you’re Americans…..

Skip: uh-huh.

Omal: and thirdly, you are of Native American descent or Polish descent or German descent or Irish or all of the above but you are Americans secondly and humans first.

Russ: no one seems to be pushing that end of it though you’re right, no one’s replacing it with anything.

Skip: that’s it exactly.

Russ: I think something should be done, maybe we should replace it with something.

Omal: maybe the talk here now should be turned into action. Don’t forget, you may be the little drops that are prelude to the storm, the shower, the rain cloud burst.

Russ: I absolutely agree, sure.

Skip: I understand.

Russ: I mean what we have at tools available, quite easy to do actually. It'd take a long time to get going but time is all we have left.

Skip: well…..

Russ: lessons to be learned, it’s a good lesson.

Skip: hmm.