When will we learn we're all in this together

IPods. The Internet. Organ transplantation. Space travel.

We certainly have come a long way since Neanderthal times, when we clubbed each other until the one still alive grunted in victory over his kill. Or have we?

With all that we have invented and discovered since the dawn of mankind- the wheel, the automobile, flight, radio, television, computer technology- one would think that an evolution of the human brain would coincide. But there are some things that just don't make sense here.

If we have come so far, if we are the superior species on this planet, if we have truly evolved, then why do we still resort to killing each other to settle our differences?

The notion that war still exists in the modern world is absurd. We barbarically shoot to kill, mutilating and murdering whoever gets in our way, casually shrugging off the countless innocent lives lost in the battles to win the victory prize at "the end." If it weren't so tragic, the preposterousness of this concept would be darkly funny.

My children and I often wonder what it would be like to see Earth from the point of view of a visiting alien.

What would it be like to look down from thousands of light years above and be able to clearly see what's going on down on our planet? What would the alien observe?

We often come to the conclusion that he would see Disneyland and the Super Bowl. But we also wonder if he would notice how the human race is one species on one planet.

And then he would notice all these little imaginary lines we call borders, used to divide the planet into little parts.

He would watch as each time one human would attempt to cross over into another part, a fight would erupt.

He would see how we still kill each other and then slap little stickers on our cars that say things like, "God Bless the U.S.A," as if only one part of the planet should be blessed, between the imaginary lines that divide up the humans.

How would we explain to our alien friend that we truly have evolved from our barbaric clubwielding caveman days?

How could we claim that we finally shed the primitive part of our brain that allows war? That we finally value our species? Our planet? Our universe? And all living things? More importantly, how do we explain this to our children? Nancy Birnie Simi Valley