Ronald J. Coughlin, Ed.D., Hamilton
To the editor:
Tragic and horrific again and again with officers ambushed and gunned down in Baton Rouge as they were recently in Dallas. Sadly, we see people in movie theatres, schools and malls gunned down as well.
More and more of these types of mass killings are becoming a way of life in America. Experts look to prevention and explanation and emphasize that we cannot let this happen again, but no one, no one, has offered a solution to stop these killings.
That is because no one, for the most part, has identified what the root cause is of all these killings. As thought by many, it is not mental illness, nor just belonging to a terrorist organization or the availability of guns (when guns are outlawed as in Japan, 19 were killed by a man wielding a knife), the underlying cause of all these acts of violence, including becoming a terrorist, is the emotion of anger.
The most effective way to prevent these killings in the long run is anger regulation training in all our schools starting in kindergarten up through the 12th grade, so by the time that the student graduates he or she has 12 years of anger regulation training.
The goal in the long run is for our country to become more compassionate. Anger is the only emotion that can affect every organ and muscle at the same time. It blocks out rational thinking and produces an urge to attack.
Ronald J. Coughlin, Ed.D.
Hamilton
