This is adapted from a Facebook post I made in light of the shootings that roiled the U.S. last week.

So, I feel that I should make some mention of what has happened this week, regarding the shootings of black men in Baton Rouge and Minnesota, and the killing of police in Dallas. Needless to say, there's been much shouting and writing about who's to blame, who's right, etc. And needless to say, most of them are wrong.

Full disclosure: I'm a strong supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, because I believe it's utterly reprehensible that black people in the U.S. are treated so appallingly at an alarmingly consistent rate. Nobody, not one person in this country, should ever feel that their very existence is at risk because of the color of their skin. The fact that so many police officers have performed, and continue to perform, the kind of conduct they've displayed towards black people should make anyone with a conscience feel like vomiting. I shouldn't have to feel that any of my friends, who I cherish, could end up in the same situation.

However, what's been made clear from the shootings this week is that neither party is entirely to blame. Once again, Americans can't see the forest for the trees. Quite obviously, racism, systemic or otherwise, is to blame. But worthy of the same amount of blame is the culture of violence that has been allowed to fester in the U.S.

Think about this: The number of police officers killed this year is over 40 percent more than last year, the number of black men killed by police is over 120 this year and the number of people overall killed by police is over 500. No one in this country would be surprised if those numbers just keep rising. That's stunning.

Unfortunately, most people are looking for answers in all the wrong places. It's sort of amazing that Donald Trump gave a reasonable, if mixed (this is Donald Trump, after all), statement about the shootings, which you can read here. To quote from that same NPR piece, "He said now is a time for 'strong leadership, love and compassion.'"

Here's the deal, though. Strong leadership is a given, and it's sort of rich to hear that from Trump, for reasons I won't reiterate here. However, calling for love and compassion is easy. Anyone can say those words in the face of tragedy. What's clear now, after a year that has seen the worst mass shooting in U.S. history (committed against the LGBT community, if anyone still needed to be reminded of that fact), is that we something that requires much more effort than love and compassion. We need discipline.

Discipline to resist solving all of our problems without the use of guns or violence. Discipline to treat everyone equally, whether that follows your personal beliefs or not. Discipline to try and get along, not because we want to or we've found our better angels, but because that's what's required to live in a civilized society.

That's the bottom line. If you believe that there are people who are lower than you, and your solution to what you perceive as a problem is violence (especially if it's with a gun), then you're part of the problem. There's absolutely no excuse for anyone to perpetuate the culture of violence in the U.S. Until we confront that head-on, we're gonna see more black people getting shot by police, more police officers getting killed and more anger and frustration boiling over.