What has been missing in the continuing debate about guns is a focus on the declining value our culture places on life, as well as any notion of personal responsibility and accountability for one’s actions. From the continued advocacy by some for no restrictions on abortion, to states that have passed assisted-suicide legislation, the value on human life “endowed by our Creator” has eroded like sand at the seashore.

The Nazis systematically murdered 11 million people — 6 million of them Jews, the rest homosexuals, communists, labor unionists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the disabled — for the “crime” of worshiping, thinking or being, different. That’s a September 11 attack every day for 10 years.

Unless humanity can immediately reverse the course of planetary destruction, there is little hope for a brighter future. The unanswered question is whether we in the United States and the rest of the global community can find a viable path forward. It will require those of us who have lived a profligate life of luxury to reduce our consumption and to start the sharing of our great wealth with the have nots.

The book “Gender Queer” is not grooming our children. It is not promoting sex. It is doing the exact opposite. It offers the reader simple, relatable examples of consent, boundaries, and respect — all things we desperately need and want for our children.