I was moved to tears last night, several times, hearing President Obama’s moving memorial to the victims, and empathic speech of hope to the survivors. He offered condolences along with encouragement to maintain civility.

Civility is the lesson we need to take from this senseless tragedy. We are in a culture of televised violence and murderous imagery 24 hours a day. News is filled with terroristic messages, evil themes and “entertaining” reports of insane behavior, homicide and mayhem. We’re obsessed with heinous acts and violence.

Should we be surprised that we again have another mass shooting? It’s happening more and more often. Assassination attempts, school gun rampages, serial killings — those are in the news more and more — no surprise, they’ve been in movies, TV shows, novels and crime dramas for years. The difference is that now, the fiction is becoming real. Are we honestly surprised?

The lack of civility, to put it mildly, entered politics long ago, as well. Dredging up the worst; character assignation and blame; slander and libel have been the hallmarks of politics now for a decade. It’s not just uncivilized, it’s disgusting and reprehensible.

Our president is right. We must stop our uncivilized behavior. We must return to intelligence, compassion, and good manners. We need to respect each other. Furthermore, we need to stop being so obsessed with violence and terrorism. Politicians need to tone down the confrontations and slander. Producers and journalists need to stop featuring and forwarding violent and uncivilized messages.

We are an intelligent and cultured people, a global community. We need to unite and work together, instead of tearing each other apart and gunning people down.

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