As I was reading the
new autobiography of Kofi Annan – “Interventions: A Life in War and Peace” last
night wherein he describes the unraveling of Somalia in the early 1990s, I was
struck that the same forces that allowed that kind of massacre to take place
were at work in Newtown last week. I believe that second amendment absolutists
are partially right, that guns are only part of the problem. The more
fundamental problem is one we’re more afraid to address than gun control.
It is this notion of revenge or vengeance that plagues us.
And on a more crowded planet with finite resources we might expect those
tussles could become more frequent. But we have been shown that there is
another way to live – Jesus, Gandhi, King, and Rachel Corrie demonstrated the way
to peace. But thus far we have rarely been brave enough to travel that path.
Meanwhile our culture celebrates vengeance. Click on TNT or a multitude of
television network programming and we become mesmerized and numbed by the
violence often shrouded in some
vindicatory guise. How many of the blockbuster films are built on this theme
featuring the caricatures of James Bond or Jason Bourne or a myriad other macho
guys destroying the enemy? Even President Obama seemed to take pleasure in the
gunning down of Osama Bin Laden and the use of unmanned drones to obliterate
others, regardless of innocents who may be ‘unfortunately’ nearby.
NFL highlights
celebrate the crushing blows on opponents, while hockey fans relish a check
that sends the opponent to the ice. Our modern day gladiators help foster the
honoring of vengeance and retribution. Even our economic system celebrates
running the competition out of business so that they can grab more of the
market. The political system more and more seems to be us vs. them. Do we
really believe for even a minute, that
spiraling gun deployment, especially with semi-automatic weapons (are not these
weapons of mass destruction – and thereby illegal under international law?), or
of stationing more armed guards in every public place will protect us from the
epidemic of violence that is so glorified in our economic, political, and
cultural systems? I think not.
I believe we need to first recognize the ways that violence and
vengeance are endemic to our current culture. Then we need to name them and
turn away from them - individually, in families, churches, mosques, temples, and
synagogues, in communities, states, nations and as a human family. We need to
take the profit out of those activities and the makers of them.
There are many among us who have done this and have been
showing us the way. They are the
peacemakers. Support them, join them – with time, money, talent, whatever you
can give. Locally that includes the
Peace Education Center, Michigan Peace Team, Greater Lansing Network Against
War and Injustice, Amnesty International, and Pax Christi to name a few. Peacemaking takes courage, more courage than
taking a gun and aiming it at an enemy. Find your courage and join with the
other peacemakers nearby. Our children and grandchildren need you be brave.
A.J. Muste, Fellowship of Reconciliation leader and active
for many years in the War Resisters’ League perhaps said it best, “There is no
way to peace. Peace is the way.” Let’s take the first step today.We needa revolution of the heart.
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