Week 5 Blog: Global War Involvement and Domestic Murder and Violence Go Hand in Hand

James Park
ASA2 Section A01
10/18/15
Week #5

In the article “Empire of Death and the Plague of Civic Violence,” Hamamoto highlights the correlation of the growing acceptance of violence and war to the increasing domestic killings within the United States. Throughout the article, I was shocked and appalled to read that this trend of murders and deaths from serial killers, mass murders, and post-war veterans has been linked to the nation’s growing involvement of war and its losses. The progression of types of deaths and motives behind them notably correspond to which era of war the nation was in, leading to the racial bias of victims from certain serial killers. I find it true that many people of today’s society are apathetic towards deaths and find it acceptable as a defining aspect of “human society”. It was disheartening to read that some criminal veterans would fabricate a story and blame their post-traumatic stress disorder from the war as a “get out of jail free” plea. Certain decorated soldiers actually have to live life with PTSD while others try to use it as an excuse for their heinous actions. It’s frightening to think that this trend is still continuing to grow and people of different racial backgrounds are targeted simply because of their race or ethnicity.

Would there have been less killings domestically had we not been so involved globally in terms of war and violence?