“Nothing good ever comes of violence.” These noble words from 16th century German priest and poet Martin Luther (no, not the iconic civil rights leader) could not be closer to the truth than they are today. Nothing good ever comes from violence, especially uncontrolled violence.

Uncontrolled violence is not an uncommon occurrence in the U.S., as we practically deal with it on a daily basis. Recent issues with Syria over their supposed use of chemical weapons on their own people brought the U.S. to the brink of yet more military action abroad.  Gun violence is nothing new in the U.S. either, as we continue to feel the pain of mass shootings like the recent Navy Yard shooting that took the lives of twelve people.

The Navy Yard shooting – a horrific event that brought gun violence, yet again, to the forefront of peoples’ consciousness — came only 10 months after the shocking events at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut that took the lives of 26 people – including 20 children.

Unfortunately, the list of violent acts could go on for pages – the Boston Marathon bombings; the Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooting; and the 9/11 terrorist attacks all reveal the level of destruction and inhumane violence humanity is capable of causing toward itself.

These violent events often occur almost out of nowhere and turn normal days into moments of tragedy, grief, shock, anger, and sadness. When these events occur, we ask ourselves: “What is wrong with humanity?”

As perplexing as this question is, we must accept the fact that uncontrolled violence is a problem, and humanity is at the center of it.  However, instead of blaming human nature for these acts of uncontrolled violence, we should focus at least part of our enmity toward the media, whose intense and overzealous coverage of these events, in essence, glamorizes this kind of behavior. Music, television, and especially the Internet are sources that so fanatically cover these violent moments that they seem commonplace or even expected.  Open any newspaper or online news source, and you are confronted with multiple stories, all with tragic endings.

What we really need to understand and take from each of these tragic events of uncontrolled violence is that humanity is, in part, violent by nature.  While society cannot change this, it can choose to subdue its violent nature and concentrate its time and efforts toward positive acts of humanity, rather than the destruction of it.