THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 19, 1994 TAG: 9411180047
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 35 lines
Unfortunately, the stage is set for the next human tragedy like the one that recently took place in Union, S.C. Our sensitivities have begun to toughen to brace us for the next one. This will continue on and on unless we decide we can do something to stop the dangerous chain of events from being set in motion.
The Susan Smiths are products of a society that no longer takes the emotional needs of others as its responsibility. We are slowly becoming islands living in our own self-made worlds and when Susan's world is crumbling around her, there is no room in anyone else's world to let her in. We must be the watchful eyes and listening ears for such cries for help before the resolve in the dead of night reaches the final conclusion that ``no one understands or cares, there is no other way out.''
But we are the spouses, ex-spouses, parents, grandparents, co-workers and neighbors of the next innocent victim who will stare at us from the front page of our morning newspaper.
As a sophisticated society, we are setting a dangerous level for our sensitivity threshhold - what will or will not outrage us - always keeping someone else's pain at arm's length so it doesn't affect us so deeply that we have to experience any guilt over it happening.
It is never too late to step back from the edge of what we have created.
RITA L. FOSTER
Norfolk, Nov. 14, 1994 by CNB