The increasing boorishness, anger and violence in our society is causing growing concern for our individual safety and our community future. Religious leaders claim it's the result of taking prayer out of public schools and theology out of government. To me it is more likely the result of culture changes described by author Jeff Greenfield in his current novel, The Peoples Choice.

There was a time not so long ago when a major event had the power to pull us together, to share history side by side. Our grandparents flocked to the telegraph office and listened to the telegrapher shout out the latest news clattering in, one letter at a time. They stood, shivering outside the newspaper office, watching the numbers chalked up on a black board, to learn who had won the presidency. They crowded together on a downtown street, craning their necks up at the skyscraper around which electronic bulletins flashed. Our parents surrounded parked cars, leaning in to catch every muffled, tinny word blaring from the car radio, or they huddled outside an appliance store to watch the flickering images of a baseball game.

Today we lack most of that communal sense of drama; we sit at home, alone, to watch spaceships explode and wars begin and earthquakes shred a city. Gathered in our separate shelter, it is not always easy to connect with the common grief or joy or lust or fear.

--Flo Wineriter