My Soapbox on Violence

I have tried not to think much about the Virginia Tech tragedy. As someone who attends a University as a Masters student, someone who will be teaching in a high school come fall, someone with large amounts of friends and family doing both those things, it's hard to think about without becoming afraid as much as sad. So, it's easier to cope with the things I have to do by putting it away.

But, it's easier said than done, and what keeps coming back to my mind when I hear about this horrible tragedy, is an essay I often use for a lesson plan I teach for creative nonfiction. I use this essay because it addresses the Columbine High School shooting, it adresses violence--and all these things are pertinent not just to everyone--but especially to young people who should be able to go to school without fear, but many cannot.

The essay is from the book of essays Small Wonder by Barbara Kingsolver. It is called, "Life is Precious, Or Its Not." I don't know that I agree with everything Kingsolver discusses in her essay, it's still an issue I'm working out on where I stand--but regardless of that stand I think we all need to think about violence and how we approach it in our homes and as a society. And, I think this paragraph that ends her essay is something that should be taken into consideration.

"For all of us who are clamoring for meaning, aching for the loss of these precious young lives in Littleton to mean something, my strongest instinct is to use the event to nail a permanent benchmark into our hearts: Life is that precious, period. It is possible to establish zero tolerance for murder as a solution to anything. Those of us who agree to this contract can start by removing from our households and lives every television program, video game, film, book, toy and CD that presents the killing of humans (however symbolic) as an entertainment option, rather than the apalling loss it really is..... Sound extreme? Let's be honest. DEATH is extreme, and the children are paying attention."

Really, I could quote the whole essay, because it raises some tough, tough questions that I myself can't even answer. When I have children, I don't know that I'll have the mindset to rid every movie and video game and CD that depicts killing. But, I think in this Kingsolver makes an excellent point, so much out there depicts killing, murder, violence--think of how hard it would be to rid your lives of it.

We are bombarded with images--on TV, news, movies, papers, and so on and so on of death. It's not all used as "entertainment" per se. And it's not all "bad" in my mind, but when we see nothing but death, I can't help but feel we come desensitized to it.

For example, I was watching a show on the history channel about the JFK assasination and it showed a clip of the Oliver Stone film JFK, where the moment the bullet hits JFK's head is repeated over and over. My stomach turned, I looked away, but I also found myself looking back--a little squeamish, but overall intranced. Consequently, watching the Discovery Earth show, I can't bear to watch another animal kill another animal. Shouldn't it be the other way around?

Again, I come to no real, concrete answers. Only the question that I think Kingsolver puts so eloquently in her essay: "Why would any student, however frustrated with mean-spirited tormentors, believe that bombs and guns were the answer?" Why does ANYONE feel that guns and bombs are the answer? What does death, violence, strife solve?

And I think, in the wake of continuing tragedy, not just here in the US, not just in our schools, but across the world, we need to start attempting to answer these questions--face these difficult questions with truth and fact and honesty, and then work toward answers.

I don't believe we can eradicate violence from this Earth. I don't think bad things will ever cease to happen, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. That doesn't mean we shouldn't attempt to change things--and I don't mean just attempting to make our schools safer--I mean trying to change this mindset that murder is an answer. We can install metal detectors, give kids ID badges, guard the school with police with guns--but I think if anything history proves it's that there's always a way to get around the precautions we throw up.

Change is not about fixing what we do--it's about fixing how we think.