Initiation season is upon us again, which means more young men will still die horrific deaths and hundreds of their comrades will be grotesquely maimed.

Initiation season is upon us again, which means more young men will still die horrific deaths and hundreds of their comrades will be grotesquely maimed.

How can we still accept this?

The backyard butchers who cause most of this death and mutilation are money-grubbing bums who don't care a hoot about the proud tradition they are supposedly imparting to initiates.

In these days of the HIV plague traditional surgeons must be trained and licensed. We seldom hear horror stories about graduates of legitimate schools presided over by these responsible folk. Only the get-rich-quick scammers with little to impart seem to kill and maim.

Circumcision is one of the last steps for those being initiated into a long and proud tradition.

We have the laws and resources to stop them. But for as long as our young men and their parents treat circumcision as a fad rather than the mark of initiation into our proud culture these fly-by-night chop-shop mutilations will continue.

Only when society stands up united against this demeaning of our tradition will the horror end.