There is a sickness in the American culture—we are in love
with violence. It is not just a casual
indulgence it is an obsession. We love
violence in any form (be it in the pursuit of the bad or the good). We love it in our movies, TVs, video games
and even in our music—most notably in rap.
We can see it in our love of sports—the more violent the better and football
tops all. A subtler lure to violence is
an increasing interest in extreme sports that thrive on the desire to ‘push the
envelope’ ever farther.
Among so many
Americans there is an open love affair with guns and any attempt to set
reasonable controls meets with angry resistance. Mass shootings have become so commonplace as
to be part of today’s norm.
The political process of our nation has become a circus of
verbal violence with shouts and insults and foul language and bold lies. It goes on because the public responds not
with criticism of it but with eager attention to it. It is an embarrassment before the world that
the highest office in our land is negotiated in such a manner.
I seem to be saying, “the grass is green”—yes, everyone
knows of these things, but do we treat the love of violence as a serious
problem that needs attention? It doesn’t
‘just happen’ we choose it! We respond
eagerly at its display whether it is in the films we watch or the sports events
upon which we spend billions of dollars.
As a nation we refuse to face the gun issue in a rational way. As a society we refuse to look in the mirror
at ourselves and see the self-damage we inflict . . . like the drug addict and
alcoholic we maintain there is no problem—refusing to acknowledge the evidence.
If we are striving to be leaders of the free world, we have an
obligation to set a precedence of choosing attitudes and behaviors that enhance
rather than diminish, to do that we must face our addiction to violence.