Two growing death trends should give us pause – domestic terrorism and deaths of despair.

Here’s a brief snapshot.

“The domestic terrorism caseload has exploded” according to FBI Director Christopher Wray. “The greatest terrorist threat we face here in the U.S. is from what are, in effect, lone actors. Because they act alone and move quickly from radicalization to action – often using easily obtainable weapons against soft targets – these attackers don’t leave a lot of ‘dots’ for investigators to connect, and not a lot of time in which to connect them.”

In addition to homegrown terrorists motivated by foreign ideologies, Wray said, “we’re also countering lone domestic violent extremists radicalized by personalized grievances ranging from racial and ethnic bias to anti-government, anti-authority sentiment to conspiracy theories.”

School shootings, such as one in Uvalde, Texas, and other public shootings, such as the one in the Buffalo, New York, supermarket, both last month, fit into this last group.

As did the shooting at Pearl High School back in 1997. Then 16-year-old 11th grade student Luke Woodham explained his motivation in a manifesto: “I am not insane, I am angry. I killed because people like me are mistreated every day. I did this to show society, push us and we will push back. … All throughout my life, I was ridiculed, always beaten, always hated. Can you, society, truly blame me for what I do? Yes, you will. … It was not a cry for attention, it was not a cry for help. It was a scream in sheer agony saying that if you can’t pry your eyes open, if I can’t do it through pacifism, if I can’t show you through the displaying of intelligence, then I will do it with a bullet.”

Meanwhile, deaths of despair from suicide, drug overdose, and alcoholism are on the rise. According to a National Institute of Health study, the largest increases in such deaths occurred among poorly educated rural adults and other adults suffering from economic distress, loneliness and depression.

A study by the Well Being Trust and the Robert Graham Center reported 1,120 such deaths in Mississippi in 2018. Since then deaths just from drug overdoses have exploded in Mississippi, reaching an all-time high in 2021, according to the CDC. Suicides by teens ages 15-19 have more than doubled over the past decade. On the not-as-bad side, Mississippi has had one of the lower growth rates for alcohol related deaths.

Both research and common sense tell us that domestic terrorism and deaths of despair are driven by strong negative emotions. That trends are increasing for both suggests growing levels of unhappiness and discontent, particularly with regard to our youth. And, yes, that should give us pause from our daily shenanigans.

It is unclear what, if anything, Mississippi is doing to address these trends. Same goes at the national level. With today’s politics more and more driven by anger and division, we can’t expect any broad-based policy initiatives to emerge from that hullaballoo. Indeed, such politics are part of the problem.

If nothing else we should heed this wisdom from the Bible – “Children are a heritage from the Lord” (Psalm 127:3) – and act accordingly.

Crawford is a syndicated columnist from Jackson