And yet at times we wonder how much progress we have really made. This century which now draws to a close has witnessed more wars and more death and suffering than any other century in human history. Even today we witness the tragedies occurring in Liberia, in Israel and its neighbors, in Bosnia, in Ireland, and everywhere. Civility and mutual respect seem to have disappeared as people kill one another over ethnic differences. But civility also appears to be fading much closer to home.
Civility covers a host of matters in the relationships among human beings.
But everywhere about us we see the opposite. This is evident in growing gangs, whose members show little respect for life and no respect for their enemies, who mar beautiful walls and buildings with their ugly graffiti, who evidently think only in terms of self. Crime is essentially an absence of civility. Some question the methodology of the study, but surely no one can question the gravity of the problem. No one can comprehend a figure of that magnitude.