Murder In Kenosha – Biting Commentary from a Ringside Report Reader!
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By Susan Dado
Leaving aside the stupidity of the ease with which guns may be obtained by a child for one moment, I wonder how does a seventeen year old (Kyle Rittenhouse) become so filled with hatred, so devoid of respect for the sanctity of human life, so desensitized to the pain and suffering of others that he wanders into a street and begins to murder other human beings? And, as he calls out “I’m thirsty” he is thrown a bottle of water and thanked for his efforts by one employed and entrusted to keep the citizenry safe.
They say the rise and decline of a civilization may be judged by how the young, the marginalized and the most vulnerable are treated. I’m adding “and how they treat others.” So, where have we come to as a society when our young turn on strangers with guns and indiscriminately snuff out their lives? And, to whom do we turn for solutions?
Christian believers might reply we are all born evil and are only restored through faith. That could be considered an easy way out. Waiting for God to “fix it” absolves believers of any responsibility to act. There are some who are perfectly content to look towards divine solutions from the original “I am”. They can say “I weep”, sit back in the Lazyboy and get on with observing the game. Faith without action reminds me of a teacher’s comment a the semester report card “I look forward to Johnnie demonstrating his full potential.”
One of my mother’s favorite sayings used to be, “God helps those who help themselves”. In other words, get up out of the Lazyboy and do something. But, what to do? How to do it? Where to start?
The perfect time to look for political leadership, right?
Some trust and others hope that our political leaders will put forward a plan so that the human behaviors that mark a ‘civilized’ society, and, the values we treasure, will be preserved and strengthened. We want our young to be nurtured and nurturing, we want the marginalized to be protected and cared for-we want rich relationships within families and communities, regardless of our race. Don’t we?
Many of the laws governing us today come from the Judao Christian tradition. Think Ten Commandments. They’re old but goodies. The majority of us accept most of them as a given. For example, thou shall not steal, thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbour, thou shall not commit adultery, thou shall not murder.
Here’s a tip. Next time you listen to a political leader, gauge their character against some of these basic laws. Measure their words and actions against the same.
Ask simple questions like what is their vision for families, for our children, for the marginalised, for our communities, for our country. If they profess “the sanctity of life is beyond politics” and can’t tell you for example, that the second highest cause of death for children under 19 is due to firearms in the United States,* they are ignorant. If they haven’t commented on the fact that black American children are over eight times more likely to die from firearm homicide than their white counterparts, we need to ask what do they really care about the sanctity of life?*
To make society great again, we firstly need to act to keep our children alive. We need our leaders to do the same. We need to check our own sensitivity towards the pain and suffering of others. We need our leaders to do the same. We need to model and teach empathy, kindness, tolerance and respect. We need our leaders to do the same. We need to nurture the young and grow rich relationships with them in caring communities. And we need to take away their guns. We need our leaders to do the same. We don’t need warriors, we need men and women of peace.
*www.theconversation