Spending time with others could cure society's problems

Editor,

Chivalry is dead. There are no more knights. I no longer see a man or woman who stands up for everything they believe in and remains noble in doing so. Political attack ads vandalize our lives, and they make us see everyone for whatever negatives they bring. The stake of our world is dependent on two men who consistently jab the other in fashions the majority of the public find unbecoming.

But our culture has been so obsessed with focusing on the negatives to unleash a positive that it affects us in every aspect of our lives. For six months, I worked at a convenience store in a bad part of town. I met women who remained in abusive situations just for the sake of consistency, although they masqueraded it as love. I met men who found solace or certainty out of four cylinders and a bag. I saw children beg on street corners just so they had a shot at eating. Being exposed to something like this on a routine basis only heightens the flaws of everything that is wrong with all of us.

As a culture, we are an individual-centered society bound by technological isolation. We need to relinquish the need for immediate personal gratification and spend time just being with the people around us. This is the only way we will be able to fix all of the topical issues that plague us as a society.

The odds are, this letter won't make a difference in affecting anyone's views on how our lives are being led. People will go on mistreating the ones around them just because that is what we are exposed to in our popular culture. But if we can establish goodness in ourselves, maybe we might be able to revere it in others. And possibly, we might be able to establish a foundation that could make our lives fulfilling in ways we never even thought of.

I'll never be able to treat someone the way society says our modern relationships should be. I disagree with it, and hopefully some of you do, too. Because if even a couple of us can re-ignite this passion for purity, maybe we might be able to positively change this world we live in.

Nick Christian

UNM student