Tired of Death

I am tired of death.

I am tired of reading about the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent victims of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. I am tired of the deaths of police officers killed simply because they are cops. I am tired of the deaths of members of our military who are killed in battles or skirmishes or helicopter crashes in some God-forsaken foreign country. I am tired of the deaths of African-Americans killed because of the color of their skin (whether they were committing a crime at the time or not). I am tired of the ongoing mass murders of innocent people by gun-toting people with anger or mental illness issues. I am tired of the deaths of people in 'ethnic cleansing' or religious wars. I am tired of innocent people being killed by fanatical suicide bombers and those who leave bombs in public places to kill as many people as possible. I am tired of people being shot because some thug thinks it would be 'fun' or wants to see what it feels like to kill someone.

I am tired of the deaths of wild animals. A grizzly bear in Idaho was killed recently for eating apples from an orchard. Her two cubs -- just a few months old -- were dropped off near Yellowstone National Park, to die this winter since they will not be able to fend for themselves. I am tired of the deaths of wolves through shooting, trapping, snaring and poisoning because of a fictitious belief that they are decimating elk populations or eating all the cows and sheep of ranchers. I am tired of the deaths of 400,000 coyotes every year, some 320,000 killed in 'contests' to see who can kill the most of these fascinating canids in a given amount of time. I am tired of the deaths of millions of wild animals killed each year at the hands of the U.S. Wildlife Services agency, which each year kills some 4 million animals at a cost to American taxpayers of more than $100 million.

I am tired of the deaths of magnificent wild animals killed so some impotent man can hang their heads on the wall of his 'man cave.' I am tired of the deaths of elephants for their tusks so some wealthy Chinese can have a trinket made of ivory, and I am tired of the deaths of rhinoceros so some Asian man can make himself feel virile by consuming ground-up rhino horn (which is made of keratin, the same substance found in fingernails). I am tired of the deaths of million of companion animals in the United States every year because their owners failed to have them spayed or neutered, or grew tired of them or the animals grew up and are no longer cute or for any number of equally stupid reasons. And I am tired of so many of my friends' wonderful dogs losing their battles with cancer.

So yes, I am tired of death. For a supposedly 'advanced' species, we humans certainly are doing a wonderful job of killing other animals as well as our fellow humans. I don't know how much more 'advancement' of our species I can take. How about you? Are you tired of death, too?