Intolerant of Tolerance

I am becoming rather alarmed at the response to the graphic social media posts of the images of criminals gunned down in the pursuit of their "trade". The posts are ones of cheers and celebration. I don't know what bothers me more, the increasing number of these posts or the fact that I am cheering and celebrating with each one. I can look at the image of a man's lifeless body, lying in a pool of blood and feel absolutely no compassion for him. I feel almost a sense of relief that there is one less criminal out there that could threaten the lives of my loved ones. How have I (we) degenerated to such an extent that I am celebrating and even desiring more death, even if it is of the criminal persuasion. I am being brutally honest here but in the light of the subject being discussed, that is all that is warranted. I pride myself in being a very calm and level-headed person so finding myself caught up in this just sets the thermometer of the frustration level that is bubbling in our country. If I, as the calm and sensible type, am reaching the point of wanting to take up arms myself, then how much more are the radicals and impulsive types boiling over with intolerance and even more severe thoughts of violence. How long before the scales of reason and sensibility are toppled by rage and frustration? Even the fireworks have sparked new levels of intolerance because of selfishness and disrespect, on both the for and against groups. We have become intolerant of being tolerant. We all want what we want and screw everybody else. (There was a more emotive word in my mind but I decided to edit it out.)

How did we get here? More importantly, how do we get out of this situation?

It's easy to point a finger and blame the government for the turmoil we find our country in. A change in government will definitely be a move in the right direction but it is not the government's duty to control our emotions. What they do will certainly influence how we feel but each one of us has the power to decide how we react. It is within each one of us to change our perspective and consider our neighbour as we consider ourself. When this starts becoming commonplace amongst all of us then I believe we will see radical transformation. While we are still only looking out for ourself, I am sorry to say that I don't believe there is much hope.
It is going to be a very long and trying road to eradicate the heat under the cauldron of frustration and anger and to heal from the damage that has already been done. However, the longer we delay embarking on that journey, the more we will see loss of life and the greater the amount of healing that will be required.

God, please heal our land.