"The
essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic and a killer."
—
D.H. Lawrence
The death
toll from small arms “dwarfs that of all other weapons systems — and in most
years greatly exceeds the toll of the atomic bombs that devastated Hiroshima
and Nagasaki.”
— Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, 2000
“A lot of
gun owners indulge in childish fantasies about the ways in which weapons
protect life. That’s hardly surprising when as an icon in American culture a
gun’s power is invested in the finger on the trigger, not the kinetic force of
metal ripping apart flesh.”
— Paul Woodward (“Bearing Witness to Gun
Violence in America”)
“If it is
not acceptable to risk the lives of the three billion inhabitants of the earth
in order to protect ourselves from surprise attack, then how many people would
we be willing to risk? I believe that both
the United States and NATO would reluctantly be willing to envisage the possibility
of one or two hundred million people…dying from the immediate effects, even if
one does not include deferred long-term effects due to radiation, if an
all-out thermonuclear war results from a failure of Type I Deterrence.”
— Herman Kahn (“supergenius” cold war nuclear
strategist)
[i.e. A lot of U.S. Defense policy makers
indulge in deadly fantasies about the ways in which nuclear weapons protect
life…]
“That which dominates our imaginations and our
thoughts will determine our lives, and our character. Therefore, it behooves us
to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming.”
— Ralph
Waldo Emerson
D. H.
Lawrence, above, seems a bit harsh in his description of the American
character. Then I turn on the news. Then I wonder if his observation has a serious
element of truth, especially in these days of deadly drone warfare and fiery verbal
defenses of firearms. Ralph Waldo
Emerson has an eloquent way of stating the adage that what we focus on is what
we become. Are we focusing so much on
guns and gun violence because it’s happening far too much on a daily basis, and
chronically on a mass scale? Do “we”
have a hard, killer’s soul?? OR are we
reaping the consequences of our own obsessions, our own idols of worship?
We’re
not alone of course. Just this week
North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test, while fears continue
regarding Iran’s nuclear goals and capabilities. And over the past several years North Korea
has been testing the range of its long-range missiles, thankfully without much
success…yet. Perhaps we should dust out
the old fallout shelters and renew the “Duck and Cover” educational programs to
prepare us for an atomic attack. When I
was growing up in Salt Lake City, Utah, my mom set up a potential bomb shelter
in our basement; I tended to see it more as a giant tomb, knowing even as a
child that the basement would not protect us from deadly radiation…it was a
step up, however, from the ridiculous air raid drills at school where we’d
crawl under our desks.
I
recommend the film Testament about
life after a nuclear blast. It takes
place in a small Northern California town.
You see no bombs or blasts; you simply see the realities of coping w/ mere
survival let alone radiation poisoning.
Australian writer Neville Shute’s novel, and the film version, On the Beach, offers a global look at
the aftermath of nuclear war.
Meanwhile,
debates about the best solution to gun violence continue, as do gun deaths,
with too many children involved. Just
last week I heard two stories that simply stunned me. In the first, a three year-old little boy was
recently killed while playing with his seen year-old sister, when they came
across a pink gun at home and thought it was a toy; he was shot in the
head. In the second, two 5th
grade boys were arrested for planning a murder of a classmate; they were found
at school with a knife—the intended murder weapon—and a semiautomatic, in case
anyone tried to stop them. They didn’t
like the way the little girl had been treating them. Their plan was foiled by a 4th
grader who saw the weapons on the school bus and reported them as soon as he
got to school. According to the NRA,
these “bad guys with a gun” simply needed to be stopped by “good guys with a
gun”; I guess now we not only need to arm teachers at school, we need to arm
students on the way to school…of course only the “good guy” students. (too
sarcastic?)
Wayne
LaPierre is right however when he says we worship at the altar of violent
entertainment; we do amuse ourselves far too often by humiliating others and
with violence: in our jokes, in our music, on our screens, in our games, in our
sports. Again, we are not alone; the
rest of the world watches much the same programs, surfs the same Web, plays the
same video games, listens to much the same music.
What
sets us apart in the U.S.? It is our
virtual obsession with, if not worship of explosive fire arms. I am currently reading the book, America and Its Guns: A Theological Expose,
by retired Presbyterian minister, James Atwood, who has also been involved with
the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence
for over 30 years. He calls America’s
obsession with guns outright idolatry, and he quotes NRA leadership to help him
make his point. “You would get a far
better understanding of the NRA if you were approaching us as one of the great
religions of the world” (former NRA executive, Warren Cassidy; 19-20). Sure enough, an NRA enthusiast also cites
Cassidy’s words to promote the 2009 NRA annual meeting. Tying Cassidy’s words into meeting
attendance, Sebastian” on a pro-gun rights Website enthuses: “The more you get
to know of the issue, the more you think the metaphor actually fits. One aspect of NRA [sic] that takes on a
religious nature is the Annual Meeting…We’re expecting 50,000 of the faithful
to make the pilgrimage, something every NRA member should do at least once in
their life.”
We
become what we worship. We become what
we focus upon. Atwood holds nothing
back: “Part of America’s national creed
is that the tools of violence, be they large [as in nuclear arms]…or small, as
in handguns and assault weapons, will keep us safe, secure and ‘free’”
(24). But are we safer, Atwood asks,
with all our armaments and personal arsenals?
Do we really feel more secure (25)?
Or are we just unwilling to take our altars of violence down and instead
seek to live in peace with our God and with each other?
OK, so
y’all have your homework:
- Watch Testament
- Read &/or watch On the Beach (I did both; last movie scene's chilling!)
- Oh, and also, there’s this really cool video, if you can still find it: Kurt Sayenga’s Explosive Situations which does this most excellent job of connecting the explosive power of bombs with firearms. I got my copy from the Discovery Channel about 12 years ago. It’s worth it if you can get it!
- Consider what it is you think we focus on and worship, then reflect upon what YOU focus on and worship.
- Then let’s work together to find more peace-building obsessions.
