CONNECTIVITY Like so many others, we found ourselves in a state of shock at the news coming from our homeland a short time ago that yet another in a series of senseless mass shootings had occurred. Our emotional reactions have ranged between disbelief, grief and anger. We are proud to be Americans and that conviction further heightens our despair for what appears to be a cancer lurking within contemporary American culture. The proliferation of and an apparent fascination with guns in America is very troubling. But focusing just on the guns themselves may miss the much larger issue; is there a compelling personal deficit that is driving so many to feel the need to have ready access to weapons? Feeling a need to have lethal force accessible for personal defense, or worse aggression, strongly suggests the presence of fear, alienation and a symptom of societal dysfunction. American culture is highly complex and as such, sociologic patterns are more of a matrix not readily reduced to cut-and-dry factors. There is much to admire in American energy and an impression of a ‘can do’ approach to life. At core may be an American abundance of a sense of ‘Individualism’ and self-confidence. When things were going well, Americans were naturally at their best. Self-assertion, competition, drive and self-confidence can produce results when opportunity and possibilities are available. Americans are so accustomed to taking positive potential for granted that when the playing field is altered, we may be left in a state of confusion and disorientation. America now seems on the rebound from multiple, yet probably related, assaults on ‘who’ we are. Life in the United States is outwardly projected as one of relaxed pleasure. It may still be for an increasingly smaller segment of our society. In reality, quite the opposite is how many other individual Americans currently seem to perceive their lives. There have been multiple examples of the failures of institutions, including financial, political and even religious, to live up to and honor the trust that has been invested by citizens. The economic collapse brought on by those who felt little restraint to curb their own greed has brought serious distress into the lives of those whose trust was betrayed....