Letter: We value money more than life

Wednesday, June 13, 2001 | 9:26 a.m.

In regard to the terror of domestic abuse, I am amazed that we don't go after the abusers.

Why put them in jail for a "cooling-off period?" This only fuels their rage. Put them away for a very substantial amount of time the first time. If they do it a second time, put them away again and "throw away the key." The only reason most abusers abuse is because, as one confessed on a talk show, "I can. Nobody stops me."

That's the truth. Nobody does. Why is that? Personally, I feel it is because most abusers are men. Men are at the top of our social hierarchy, women and children are at the bottom.

The second factor we need to confront is the primary role of alcohol in domestic abuse. Yet we glorify alcohol. We practically turn it into a religious ritual, baptizing our young with its lure of excitement, its promise of fun, sexual and otherwise, and then explicitly implying that it is a passage of adulthood, the real implication, that it is a passage of "manhood." Sadly, this religious ritual often ends with "a laying of hands," to hurt, maim and kill helpless women and children.

Tragically, this kind of violence also reaps what it sows, more violence on future generations. The real travesty of all of this is we pretend to be a culture that worships God, but the truth is, we worship money. We value profits much more than we value human life.

SANDRA HANSON