In recent days, our senses have been assaulted with vicious prejudicial attacks against strangers, murders against peers and abusive verbal assaults against one's own child.So distracted am I by these events, as therapist, parent, woman, person, that I find it hard to write about anything else. How do we not remain disillusioned? And how do we remain outraged when public forces have even made attempts to defend some of these assaults?How do we integrate these images of hatred and anger without ourselves becoming desensitized? When the line between right and wrong becomes blurred, we are all more capable of crossing it and hurting someone.While the responsibility for each of these acts lies wholly with the perpetrator, is there something that each of us can do as a people to reduce the likelihood of such acts happening again? I have been shocked by comments that would attempt to the angry rant that actor Alec Baldwin left in a voicemail for his 11-year-old daughter, or deflect his responsibility by saying the other side should have never let the voicemail be released to the media. Long after his daughter, a young girl, has endured her reaction to the publicizing of these remarks, she will be left with the knowledge that her daddy could say them.Ours is a culture with a proliferation of images that would conspire to desensitize our children to basic values of decency and effectively dilute the difference between right and wrong. We, as the adults, must not be desensitized by the horrors we have seen in recent days, and continue to have clarity about what is and is not acceptable. With this clarity, we must raise our children, certain of which images and words do nothing to add to the quality of their experience and, at the very least, threaten to stunt their moral development.For sure, there has always been prejudice, murder and abuse. But this cannot be a reason for business as usual. We all have a responsibility for what is in our minds and in our hearts, what choices we make for entertainment, the jokes at which we choose to laugh and the subjects on which we choose to spend our hard-earned dollars.And we, as parents, know the incredible sanctity of life when we look at our children and can not help but see their worth. The parents of the Virginia Tech students feel this truth with searing pain known only to another parent who has experienced the murder of their child. We feel such love, connection and desire to protect. These instincts are right and hold only truth, for each child does indeed deserve to be held in the highest of esteem, protected, and given the assurance that his parent's truth for him should one day become his own.The Don Imuses, Seung-Hui Chos and Alec Baldwins of this world will always exist, but we can do more to undermine the development of these characters if we realize the power of our words, thoughts and actions as we raise each individual, precious child.Dr. Rachel Bryant is a licensed psychologist in private practice in the Southern Tier. The Star-Gazette will forward comments and questions. Send them to: Star-Gazette, Attn: Features Department, 201 Baldwin St., P.O. Box 285, Elmira, NY 14902.