Page updated:
02/18/2008

Violence

The following is from the Pastor's Page on the St. Julie Billiart parish bulletin of Sunday, February 24, 2008.

"The Lane Bryant shootings were horrific enough. Close on the heels of that event comes another shock, the shootings at NIU. As I write this column for the bulletin the NIU shooting has just happened. By the time you read it, we will know more about the shooter, possible motives, and so on.

That’s not what I want to focus on in this column. Instead, I want to talk about violence.

It’s no secret that American society is violent. Our history, after all, is one of “manifest destiny.” Waves of settlers steadily moved across the continent from east to west simply because they needed the space and felt themselves better than the “heathens.” They subdued Native Americans, overrunning them, restraining them and ultimately confining them to reservations.

I know I’m simplifying the historical record and terrible mistakes were made on both sides. But that doesn’t mean that “manifest destiny” isn’t questionable and isn’t a euphemism for “we’re better because we’re Christian, white and (somewhat) educated.”

The Big Question

Why can’t some people live together with others in peace? Why do individuals and groups resort to violence in order to “solve” their problems?

There are no ready or pat answers to these questions. “Sinfulness,” of course, comes to mind as a quick answer, the sins of envy, greed, and anger. 

That last one, is a big part of the equation which leads to violence. People are just way too quick to become angry. Rage simmers just under the surface. Individuals even become angry with themselves as they pursue inner  conversations about the stuff of life. 

People are so quick to fly into a rage driving on the interstate as someone cuts them off. Special interest groups and spokespersons for organizations get   angry and vilify and demonize the “opposition.” Our national discourse is a bunch of finger-pointing as we try to  assign blame for things, rather than    engaging each other in dispassionate conversation about solutions. 

We are too much like the actors in soap operas. I don’t watch much daytime TV (except when I’m on the treadmill at the health club). But what I see of soap    operas convinces me that all the actors ever do is shout at each other and carry on like overheated baboons. We are fed a steady diet of violence in video games where the principles blow up the opposition with blood and gore flying in every direction. Movie heroes solve problems by resorting to guns and bombs. A     significant amount of the lyrics in rap music insult and put down others and incite listeners to violent behavior and attitudes. 

We learn from all this. This is not harmless fare. We have forgotten that the root word for civilization is civil, which means in the original Latin, “courteous, polite.” 

Strengthen Relationships,

Cultivate Peace

 How do we work to minimize rage?  How do we “unlearn” the message of violence that comes to us in the popular culture? Here are some suggestions— 

Take the time at least three nights a week to eat supper together as a family. Everybody talks.  Everybody reviews their activities. If the kids are old enough, you can also talk about violence, about the disturbing events of the world.  How would each of you change things for the better, starting with yourselves and your family?

Turn off the TV and shut down the video games. Instead of everybody off by themselves, enjoying their own little world, why not learn to play cards together, or mah jong (look it up), or Twister (for the little ones).

Pope Paul VI wisely said, “If you want peace, work for justice.”  Society can’t become more peaceful until there is more justice. Justice relies on right relationships. What might you as an individual or as a family be actively involved in to promote greater justice in society?  There are plenty of worthy causes, we just have to jump in and invest ourselves in them. 

And you thought Lent was just a matter of giving up chocolate. Hardly. 

Lent is a time for deepening our conversion. And conversion requires making some decisions and working to make ourselves better—that the world might have a chance at being better, more peaceful and less violent.

Rev. Steven M. Lanza
For Sunday, Feb 24, 2008
St. Julie Billiart parish Bulletin
 

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