It is undoubtedly true that among the things that make up nature as we have it today, humans clearly stand out as the most intelligent. No wonder biologists tagged human beings as Homo sapiens which is translated as a wise man.
From any angle one views it, humans are indeed very intelligent, only humans among all the living things in nature have been able to use their brains to bring about a very drastic change to the environment.
Humans started from going about naked, living in caves, walking about barefooted, and eating raw food. Today we have learned how to build and live in skyscrapers, travel by flight, and developed microwaves for cooking.
Humans are talking about 3D printing, electric cars, driverless vehicles, artificial intelligence, and more complicated issues. We have been able to apply our brains to make our lives comfortable.
The only thing humans have done that tends to disturb and dis-organize the equilibrium that nature has put in place, is the wanton destruction of lives. We have in our actions and inactions brought about a serious destabilization to the ecosystem.
As if that is not enough, we go about put into practice acts and behaviors that bring about the death of not only our fellow human beings but other living things. We shall, however, leave out our actions that bring about the destruction of other living things for another discourse.
The United States Census Bureau in the Components of Population Change of Oct. 9, 2017, recorded one death in every 12 seconds.
This is an alarming death rate by any standard and it does not require a rocket scientist to evolve that a large proportion of these deaths do not occur naturally. Some of these deaths occur wantonly and could be avoided.
The question that should be on everybody’s lips is what do we do to curb to curb wanton destruction of lives in the United States?
The following 6 approaches will bring about a drastic reduction and possible stoppage to these wanton destructions.
- Safety driving
The Highway Traffic Safety Administration, on Oct. 8, 2017, reported that some 37,461 people died in vehicle collisions in 2016, the highest annual tally since 2007.
The truth is that here and there, we always have a pocket of crashes that result due to systems failure of vehicles but a greater majority of car crashes that take place in the United States is as a result of careless driving.
A lot of citizens completely ignore safety driving. People do drunk driving, text message while at the wheels, while some completely are indifferent to regulations put in place by the Safety Administration as regards the age of teen drivers that can get on the highways with cars.
If all measures put in place by the federal and state Safety Administrations are followed to the letter, a lot of these crashes that result in deaths and maiming of lives will be completely avoided.
Apart from the deaths, the colossal sum the government sinks into the rehabilitation of the injured and maintenance can be utilized in some other areas to bring about a friendlier living environment for the citizenry at large.
Another angle we need to work on is the temperament of drivers. As a driver on the highway, you need to cultivate a high degree of patience and sense of maturity. Impatience has led to a lot of avoidable crashes that have killed and maimed many.
- Selective arms possession
Arms are good. They actually represent one of the humanity’s ingenuity. In the stone age, humans used clubs and the like to hunt and that was a very dangerous venture. The manufacture of arms brought about a radical departure from the way hunting was carried out and saved the man a lot of stress.
But if I dare to ask you, is that what we use arms for today?
When junkies, cranks, nut cases, extremists, and serial killers who ordinarily should be quarantined and only allowed access to headshrinkers are allowed to prowl the streets in the name of one freedom or the other and sometimes armed to the teeth.
You do see here that civilization and nature at large have their guards dropped and the jaws ready for the sucker punch. What we should expect is mayhem, a killing spree.
In as much as arms should be carried by people, it should be done selectively. Before a license is issued to anybody to bear arms, the person should have through tests and certified completely sane.
Armed dealers must be made to sell arms to only people who present a certified document from the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency put in place for arms regulation.
- A joint war waged on drug abuse and addiction
We should all join hands in waging war on drug abuse and addiction. A research conducted in the United States in 2010, showed that criminals who had abused drugs and alcohol simultaneously committed 21.4 percent of aggressive crimes.
I don’t believe and so should you too that nobody was killed in these aggressive crimes. A lot of people must have lost their lives for no reason by these drug abusers. As the war is being waged on users, we should not also spare the drug pushers and barons of this earth.
It is correct to say that if there are no pushers there won’t be users. I strongly opine that mother nature did not give us these drugs to be used wrongly this way.
- A concerted action on environmental pollution
Too much has been said about global warming, greenhouse gases, depletion of the ozone layer, and the melting of icebergs that if we delve into that again, we shall be over flogging the issue.
The attendant effects, however, are there for us all to see. Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria all occurred in 2017 and we all witnessed the havoc they wrecked and also the death tolls.
CNN in one of its report gave a vivid picture of how Puerto Rico grappled with damages and deaths caused by Hurricane Maria as the storm hurtled down the Caribbean.
Mexico was not left out of the recent catastrophic events.it was reported that the Sept. 19 earthquake in Central Mexico killed more than 300 people and destroyed many buildings in the nation’s capital.
All these are destruction which could have been avoided if we have taken proper measures to adequately live according to the tenets of nature.
- Discourage racial discrimination
The United States has had its fair share of lives destroyed as a result of racial discrimination. There is absolutely no reason why humans can not live and see each other as human beings of equal status.
It beats me why one person will believe that another is not fit to leave just because of the color of the skin.
- Religious tolerance
One other thing we need to control is religious intolerance. We must put measures in place to ensure that we are able to understand and appreciate the religious beliefs of others.
No religion should be seen as better than the other and it is your unalloyed duty as a religious leader to preach the sanctity of life to adherents of your faith.
Hate speeches should be completely removed from sermons by religious leaders. Your watchwords should be peace, love, tolerance, and brotherliness.
Religious leaders should remember the famous saying of Karl Marx that “religion is the opium of the people” and use it to channel their thoughts and actions appropriately.
In conclusion, if we endeavor to fashion our ways and actions properly utilizing the 6 pronged approaches, we will be on our way to curbing wanton destruction of lives.
