Rabble-rousing, Rounds, and Rhetoric – The Tucson Tragedy

It is difficult to process the shooting in Tucson over the weekend, and even more so if you are a parent. It is really unthinkable to lose a child by any means, but it is especially devastating when a child is taken by such senseless violence. Too many families lost too many loved ones over the weekend, and for what? We don’t know yet what the killer’s motives were for his rampage, but I think there is much evidence as to why these acts of violence continue to occur and at an ever increasing rate.

As a species, we have a long history of violence and although we like to think of ourselves as “civilized” the reality is that there exists a very fine veil between our illusion of civility and a boiling under current of chaos and violence. Our American culture is fascinated by violence, and you don’t have to look far to see its widespread glorification.

Every time a tragedy like this happens, we watch the same story play out. There is “talk” of changing rhetoric, of learning to understand other people, of restoring civility. But, this is just pillow talk. In a very short time, we will hear the same tone and tenor permeate our public discourse, and very likely we will see a return in the future of painful new lessons that we refuse to learn from.

In essence, as a society we have positioned ourselves in a Mexican standoff of colossal proportions – two guns loaded with rounds pointed at ourselves. If you look at the political sparring going on, you will see folks from the right blaming pop-culture, especially music, TV, and the movies. Folks on the left blame the gun-toting right, specifically the Tea Party, and Palin’s now infamous political maps with gun sights to target the democrat political opponents.

If you go a little farther right (and straight into the ass of the Universe) you end up with the Westboro Baptist Church, the now infamous Kansas church of loons that picketed fallen soldiers funerals. They have reached a new low and have announced plans to picket the victims of the Tucson tragedy, even the 9-year old girl that lost her life. Can you imagine this happening to you and your family? I must admit, this personally tests my limits of patience and can honestly say that if I were present to witness this travesty of humanity I would likely get in their business and it would most likely get ugly.

And there lies the problem. We as humans are naturally aggressive and violent, but our illusion of self keeps us from solving these problems as a culture. We don’t try to elevate each others thinking and find common ground, instead we reduce the clarity of issues and promote division and indifference. I have a long-held belief that you can’t really grow as a person unless you’re honest about your self, about your shortcomings, and about what needs to be done to improve and progress as a person. We can’t really solve problems like these until we all admit we are just a dominant, violent species that masks its nature with the illusion of stability.

The truth is, there is no easy fix. A good start would be to see our elected leaders and our media grow up a little and stop setting the bar so low. They should be examples of what we all strive to be, instead of frustrating reminders of how backwards and self-destructive we are as a species. We need to evolve passed school-yard tactics and attitudes, and work together to usher in a new era of truth and a focus on finding common ground rather than fanning the flames of indifference.

If we really hope to reach our full potential as a species, it will require a huge dose of humility, honesty, and compassion that I am not sure we are really capable of achieving. But I remain hopeful.

~ by shawnpcunningham on January 11, 2011.