The Violence - It's All Connected!

I have been a pacifist for most of my life. Initially my pacifism was based in my religion and religious beliefs. Over the yeas it has evolved into a values based, life philosophy.

As I've been listening to and watching all of the tragedy in Parkland, Florida yesterday and today, I've joined with so many others trying to figure out what happened and what's happening in our country. The one message that comes clear to me is how all of our violence is so terribly connected. Our anger with each other, our wars across the world with drones and nuclear threats and starvation. There is also our language and conversations of hate against those who are different, immigrants, people of color, the poor and the homeless. What about the war we wage against the poor with proposals like taking away food stamps and sending people boxes of government surplus food. We need to recognize that violence can be more than bullets, knives and bombs.

We all need to realize that our conversations with each other or perhaps around each other, have gotten more violent. Our President and his supporters, the opposition, Congress, both sides, the media, main stream and fringe, upstate, downstate, rural and suburban, all of us are being more and more hateful. Yes, we're all being more violent as our positions have become more rigid. Name calling, bullying and intolerance are all more examples of the daily violence. We talk about enemies, real and perceived as though it's acceptable to wipe them off the face of the earth. We don't even stop to think about it anymore.

And then....and then...there are the guns. The guns have accelerated, the shootings have accelerated. AR-15s and people arguing that guns made to kill people in large numbers and brutally are a right. Crazy is crazy and enough is enough and we have to say it.

But in the end, we all have a huge job ahead of us in terms of trying as hard as we can to change this culture of hate, to lower the volume and to connect the dots relative this awful violence. We need to help each other and our children to understand that it's all connected and it has to stop. You don't have to be a pacifist to help reduce the violence.