My day job is caring for newborn to preschool infants, and in case you haven't done that for a while, or ever, it is a remarkably difficult job. Newborns require patience, complete sacrifice of one's own goals, and consciousness of the probable long-range effect of everything one is saying or doing on another human being. (Which of course is not possible. One can only strive and fail.)

When I look around at all the violence in the world, I have to ask, "Is what we're really seeing our world-wide failure as parents? What happened to those bombers, when they were so small they only slept an hour or two at a stretch, and cried interminably for 'no apparent reason'? What violence was done to them way back then, before consciousness was even possible, which settled deep into the crevices of their psyches, and burst out later in adulthood as pieces of flying shrapnel?"

I know, I know. Just saying this opens me up to all sorts of criticism. You're blaming mothers and fathers for horrible things their children do… that's  not fair, etc., etc.,etc.

And maybe it isn't fair. Maybe we can't just blame the mothers and fathers. Maybe we have to blame some of the cultures we've created, the ones that don't cherish children or childhood. The ones that create grinding poverty and a sense of hopelessness for most people while a chosen few get unimaginably rich. The ones that look down on motherhood and stay-at-home moms. The ones where it costs so much to live that everyone has to work, and no one has the time and patience to deal responsibly with a newborn. The ones that send mothers back to work 6 weeks after birth.

Once again, we end up having to blame ourselves; realizing the enemy are us.

Because it's just damn obvious that the more time, thought, and energy we put into caring and providing for young children, the less violence we would have in the world.