(no subject)

[violachic]

The Anabaptist community is shaken today by the shooting death of three female students at an Amish school in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

A CPT friend in the Philipines sent this email to our internal listserve:

Dear friends at CPT,

Your Filipino friends in the Philippines are extending their condolence in the senseless death of several children in an Amish school in PA. The culture of violence in the U.S. and the world are creating these averrations to target the few remaining pockets of peaceful resistance and hope in an otherwise violent society. Perhaps in the next few days we will have a clearer picture in what happend in PA. Note that the latest incident in the Amish school house is a continuation of a series of random , senseless killings directed against children and girls who are the most helpless in world today. And why choose an Amish school, a community well known for their pacifism. Let us all work for a culture of non-violence in the world.

I'm not sure why, but this incident is really affecting me. Perhaps especially because of the blurb at the end of the article that reads

On Wednesday, a 53-year-old man entered a high school in Bailey, Colorado, where he held several female students hostage at gunpoint. He shot one girl before killing himself seconds after a SWAT team stormed the classroom.

A high school student near Madison, Wisconsin, is suspected of fatally gunning down his principal on Friday, after he complained about being bullied and was disciplined for carrying tobacco.

Comments

[tanyad.livejournal.com]

Its saddening... deeply saddening to see things like this degenerate like this lately.

[unhipster.livejournal.com]

It seems like there have been a lot more school shootings lately, all of a sudden.

An Extremely Jaded Response

[ironheadjane.livejournal.com]

I think what really interests me about our culture of violence is that last week, I was talking w/ some nurses I work w/ about their kids -- all in elementary school. The public schools now have a Zero Tolerance policy towards violence, and one of the mothers said that she had to go into school cos her 8 year old daughter had pointed her finger and said, "bang bang," which was against the policy. Another mother said that her son, who is also 8, was in trouble at school for rolling up a piece of paper and playing "light sabers" with it.

I think that violence is generally bad, but that people are generally violent. Violence begins just with denying people human rights, not with actual physical blows, guns, explosions. It comes with a raised voice. And it comes with the rough and tumble play of childhood. The Zero Tolerance in schools is this weird notion that if we penalize youngsters for playing cops and robbers, cowboys and indians, and all those other games of war as youth, then kids won't be shooting up the place and dying. While it's true that our personalities (including sociopathic personalities) seem to be built into us by the time we're 10, the action that creates the killers vs. the well adjusted adult is far more subtle, and goes beyond any absolute.

Kids will get dirty, kids will pretend. These schools don't change the neighborhoods these kids grow up in, the games they play at home, the movies and television they watch, or the parents they have. A small kid pointing her finger saying "bang bang" might indicate that child has a wonderful imagination and is getting out her innate aggression in a safe, playful manner.

In other ways, that same behavior can indicate what she saw big brother do the night before, with a real gun.

It's largely contextual -- and I guess the main concern I have about our culture of violence is our culture of repression. I get to thinking that all these things many Americans have been trying to publicly repress - it's like as if the more you repress it, the more it comes seething out, worse than you ever imagined before. It becomes a fetish of the forbidden.

I mean, my family in KY grew up w/ guns around the house. You had fucking mountain lions to worry about, not to mention just getting some dinner, putting down an animal, etc. There wasn't this facination with guns, nor was anyone ingjured (to my knowledge) -- there was a respect for it as a tool, though, and a respect for the danger of that weapon. In retrospect, I'm glad I had hunter safety training when I was a kid.

A culture of violence is what we make it. I think that just as the prohibitions on drugs has made the drug problems worse (not that I think they should just be easily available) -- we've fetishized it all. Made it shiney where before we might not have cared.

Everyday I hear about my hospital's non-violence initiative -- which is all well and good until you realize that my job centers around working with the human element... and that human element is hurt, crazy, pissed off, all of the above or worse, weighs 300 lbs and just came in from jail and we're understaffed. Medication, seclusion and restraint are the tools of violence (even if calmly, and carefully administered) that we have to use, and when that person is coming at us, we're supposed to not use those tools -- we're not even supposed to use whatever self-defense knowledge we have to protect ourselves.

Re: An Extremely Jaded Response

[ironheadjane.livejournal.com]

Non-violence is a wonderful ideal, but to have it work, I think, is to require the removal of human beings innate survival mentality. It's their lurking, with our rage, or fight and flight, or chemicals swimming in our heads, sniffing it out with our reptilian brains. The only way through to non-violence, in our crazy world where people don't know how to meditate (or mediate), and simply can't do it in their lives and make money to survive, the only way we have to adapt is by medicating ourselves through pharmaceuticals or street drugs.

We all want peace, innately, we want to be able to rest and enjoy -- but naturally, when that peace that we want is threatened -- either actually or just seemingly -- we naturally desire to protect what little we know and love by any means we have.

These are just the rambling thoughts I've had since working in my pretty freakin' violent job.

Re: An Extremely Jaded Response

[violachic.livejournal.com]

I agree with pretty much all of what you've said. I don't really have the energy or the brain cells to respond much in length, but I'll say a couple things. First of all, I think that what you say is exactly why anyone who works for nonviolence MUST also work simultaneously for justice. I have a friend who likes to say "pacifism is a privilege", and I used to get really pissed at him over it. I've come to see that he is right, but that doesn't mean that somehow I'm not allowed to use my privilege to help others. But what it means is that I can't use only that privilege. And the thing about "human nature" is that humans are gifted with the ability to rise above our nature, if we have the opportunity. For some, its a choice, for some there is no choice, I understand that. For me, I have a choice, there's no doubt about that.

I'm not really sure where I'm going with this, so I'll stop now. I'll let you know if I have any other synapse firings.

Re: An Extremely Jaded Response

[violachic.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah...

Its something important enough for me I need to articulate this- I agree on the repression thing. Which is one of the many reasons why, as someone who self-identifies as a pacifist, I really think I need to get to a gun range and handle some weapons. I think the "war on drugs" is only slightly less ridiculous and terrifying than the "war on terror". Things can only get worse with the recent votes on the horrible bill that's in congress right now.

[brotherskeeper1.livejournal.com]

UPDATE: I'm sorry to tell you that FOX news reported about an hour ago that 4 are now dead.

Be certain that Amish community has the prayers of many, many, people tonight.

[violachic.livejournal.com]

My mother lives in a community in Northern Indiana where a lot of Amish lives. I'm sure the news has filtered through to them by now. I'm not sure why, but there's something about this that breaches a certain boundary for me.

[brotherskeeper1.livejournal.com]

When there is a massacre like this, it doesn't matter what Faith we are; we must pray for one another. Other than prayers, I know of no way to help that community.

As I said earlier, other than Columbine, this is the worst school massacre on record.

[brotherskeeper1.livejournal.com]

Sorry...FOX news just broke in and said that a 5th child has died :(

Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord and may perpetual light shine upon them and all the faithful departed+