The old argument that our environment causes our actions wasn't too far off.  The conditions that people live in bias them towards certain sets of behaviors.

            Each biological form of life lives within a range of certain conditions: a range of temperature, a range of water requirements and so on.  Salt-water fish can't live in fresh water, nor can fresh water fish live in salt water.

            At extreme ends of the ranges a form of life survives but doesn't thrive. Within each range lies a smaller, optimum range where a form of life not only lives but also thrives and lives out its full, joyful potential.

            As adaptable as we humans are - living in conditions from the Arctic to rain forests to the Sahara - there are conditions in which we physically thrive and others in which we just barely survive.  At present we have no dwellings at the peaks of the Himalayas or at the bottom of the Marianas Trench.

            Just as with physical life so it is with our behavior.  Different types of behavior thrive or barely survive in different conditions.

            Some conditions encourage one type of behavior while discouraging others.  For example, extreme poverty in close proximity to fabulous wealth will tend to encourage theft, property destruction, even violence.

            If the place where we live continues to produce destructive behavior, then we need to investigate the conditions of our place and work to make it a better place.

            Over time our chosen behaviors create the kinds of places we live in.

            Under any given set of circumstances any group of us will tend to act within a range of "normal" behavior for that particular set of circumstances.

            If you put a bunch of people out on a baseball field, outfit them in the uniforms of two different teams, give them bats, balls and gloves, put a crowd in the bleachers, sell hot dogs and then sing the national anthem, chances are pretty good that they will start playing baseball.

            If the places where we live continue to produce destructive behavior, then we need to investigate the conditions of our places and work to make them better places.

            Our urban environments support a violent drug culture.  The suburban environment supports its fair share of the drug culture as well as producing a high suicide rate and seemingly random acts of violence epitomized by school shootings. The shooters indicate the presence of a larger population who feel the same way but don't act out quite at that level.

            How did they spring up all at once?
Have you ever noticed one kind of weed seemingly overnight sprouts up everywhere? The conditions become right for it to thrive.
            What conditions lead teenagers across the country to develop attitudes that lead to self-destruction and shooting their classmates?
            How can we change the conditions to discourage rather than encourage these attitudes?
            We don't need to have the answers immediately at hand. Asking this more difficult issue, “How do we change the conditions that suggest and support destructive behavior?” is the right question.  Asking "How can we physically prevent kids from carrying guns into school?" is the wrong question. Not that we shouldn't try to protect ourselves. We should.  But, metal detectors and locker searches can't stop everyone who is determined to harm others.  Thinking they will is a deception.

            Is that our view of a good place to live, anyway? A place filled with people who want to harm themselves and others, but where we pluck the instruments of destruction from their hands at the last moment?   We can imagine a better place

            In any set of conditions any individual could choose to live much more destructively than most others, or much more righteously than most others.

            However, the conditions we live in suggest, support and reinforce certain ranges of behavior.

            If we don't like the range of behavior that our places produce then we must work to improve our places.

            We each have our own will, of course.

            However, under any given set of circumstances any group of us will act within a range of "normal" behavior for that particular set of circumstances.

            If the places where we live continue to produce destructive behavior, then we need to investigate the conditions of our places and work to make them better places.

            Our chosen behaviors, over time, create the kinds of places we live in.

            We are all connected to each other. To change our places we must change our behavior. To change our behavior we must have our hearts changed.

        The real change must take place in our hearts.
 
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