Blood Money

I finished the year 2010 feeling a little better about things in general. 

The mid-term elections were over and the economy, although still struggling, were showing some signs of picking up.  I had done my part by shopping for Christmas presents on-line and at the stores and I had even picked up some ‘savings’ in the process.  When the year end retail and on-line sales statistics came out, hope was again in the air that the country was seeing an uptick in consumer confidence and that would lead to increased corporate hiring and spending.

The Congress, in a lame-duck session, was surprisingly able to pass some new laws that led many to believe that the Republicans and Democrats were finally on a new course that would enable them to move the business of the nation forward. 

Most encouragingly, the media had returned their focus mundane things such as the weather, a clear indication that nothing seriously bad was happening apart from the acts of nature that were disrupting travel and everyday life in various parts of the country.

Unfortunately, that period of bliss ended quite abruptly last Saturday.  One week and one day into the New Year, a lone gunman in Tucson, Arizona, fired into a crowd gathered outside a supermarket, seriously injuring an elected member of the Congress, killing a Federal judge and a number of other innocent victims, including a nine year-old girl who, as fate would have it, was born on 9/11/2001. 

It immediately brought to mind my blog last September titled “Dear World – a letter from America” and caused me to re-read it and ponder if there were salient points that I had missed or if I had been mistaken in my take on the vitriolic rhetoric by the various factions that had so troubled the people in the United States as well as in countries around the world as to the level of intolerance and hate that we were showing, in words and in actions that were repeatedly aired on Television, on radio talk-shows and in Blogs on the Internet. 

Sadly, “reality TV” has become too real for the families of those victims in Arizona who were injured or killed in this incident.  No amount of “could have”, “would have” or “should have” will ever mitigate their loss or bring back their loved ones.

Those who have been employing the language of hate, spurring their followers into a state of frenzy and those who are unstable enough in their minds into acts of violence, are now denying responsibility and quickly removing evidence of their hateful remarks from their web-pages, blogs and Twitter postings.

This latest manifestation of the destructiveness of spiteful words require an immediate re-imposition of civility in our discourse and a civilized approach to reconciling our differences.  We must eschew (shun, avoid, turn away from, have nothing to do with) those who employ barbaric words designed to incite others into acting out their anger.  We must deny them the reach and effect they desire from planting those words and seeds of hatred in the minds of their listeners. 

The Media has a duty to reject and not give air-time or printed space to people who capitalize on their fame and say anything that comes to mind with total disregard of the safety and well being of other.  Just as they would refuse to show graphic images of death and destruction, the Media must refuse to give voice to those whose spew hatred and whose words would clearly spur others into acts of violence.  It would not be a denial of the right to free speech – instead it would be the Media’s exercising of its duty to prevent the exploitation of free speech by those who clearly intend to cause harm.  What the Media carry as “news” must be worthy to be called as such and must pass the test of balanced reporting, and not be a verbatim report of unsubstantiated claims or wild accusations by some attention seeker.  If they report on the declarations of a person in the news, they must have a duty to investigate decry the lies and fabrications at the same time.

Clearly, gun laws around the country need to be improved – over the objections of the gun lobbyists and the NRA.  Those desiring to buy and carry a gun must be made to undergo psychiatric tests to ensure that they are not unstable in their heads and they are not and will not be a threat to community, both prior to being sold a gun and regularly afterwards.  It is no different than drivers having to pass eye-exams to renew their driving licenses.  Additionally, they should be required to purchase insurance coverage for victims of their actions, intended or otherwise, so that there is a recurring cost and reminder of the importance of safely handing the weapon they have in their hands.  States that permit the carrying of concealed weapons must immediately revoke those laws so that law enforcement and security officers can more easily carry out their tasks with impunity.

Profits that come from the destruction of innocent lives is Blood Money – not much different from the thirteen pieces of silver that bought the betrayal of Jesus.

Dear World – a letter from America

Dear World,

Despite what you’ve seen or heard on the news lately, America is not what some fanatics would make it out to be.  Yes, there are the few loose nuts who made the headlines lately with their rants and the rather frightening and unreasoned blabbering.  Please just ignore them. 

Unfortunately, our media (notably our TV media) is constantly and desperately seeking to outdo each other in being the first to air the latest exciting news.  In doing so, some networks have opted for sensationalism and have forgotten what journalism is all about – informing the public of worthwhile news and analyzing, printing or airing topics that are important for the welfare of the nation and the general public.  Topics get old very quickly on a 24-hour TV news cycle and there are insufficient breakthroughs in medical research, weather and climate changes, development of new technologies, etc., to fill up the air time.  In their desperation to stay exciting in order to grab a bigger viewership and more advertising dollars, they have resorted to giving voice to attention seekers of all sorts.  Consequently, more and more TV “news” programs have taken on a tabloid characteristic.  If you are not one to fall for the “exposés” in supermarket tabloids, you shouldn’t fall for all the sensational news items on TV channels either.

Please, look beyond the obvious.  I am a hundred percent sure that if you take a closer look, you will find that there are, in reality, many times more sane people than the insane ones.  It is just that the sane ones aren’t as vocal or they find it harder to get the media’s attention.  On TV, sane and normal are not as audience captivating as the wild and unbelievable.  TV show producers love the “exotic” acts - those who would do anything to get their five minutes of fame in front of a camera.  What’s better for the networks’ bottom line than if they don’t have to pay for those acts?

The early settlers in America had left their homeland for the new world so that they could practice their faith free from the oppressive powers that controlled Europe back then and, when America became an independent nation, the founding fathers of the nation followed that same instinct and spirit of freedom and the authors of the US Constitution entrenched in it certain fundamental rights for all Americans, including the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and the freedom to petition.  As a result of such freedoms, we can express our dissent without fear of arrest and incarceration.  Those freedoms, as you may have noted, are essentially freedoms of expression and do not extend to include acts of violence.

We can’t really silence the few individuals who are vocal and whose incantations are welcomed by the media.  We can only seek to expose their falsehood and lies by speaking out (or writing) against them, arguing our case with facts and good logic.  Exercising those same freedoms, some Americans voice their opposition to the offensive speeches through counter demonstrations and marches.  Sadly, there are also those who are in positions of influence and responsibility who choose to remain silent instead of bringing a reasoned voice to the debate. 

Freedom has a price and democracies are messy but the alternatives are oftentimes worse. 

America has shown and continues to show its true heart and compassion when disasters strike in other countries.  With little hesitation, Americans jump in to help rescue and treat victims of earthquakes, Tsunamis, floods, AIDS, and other disasters.  Because we’re essentially a mixed bag of immigrants from all over the world, anytime a disaster happens in some corner of the world, we feel it and we feel engaged and involved.  Although we are American citizens, we treasure the heritage and culture of the countries that we or our parents or their parents came from.

We are a nation of workers and our lives are not very different from yours.  We love our children like you do yours: we clothe and feed them, we send them off to school and we hug them and kiss them goodnight when bedtime comes.  We make mistakes (hopefully not too often) and we try to remedy them.  We do our best to learn from our mistakes and we try not to repeat them.  Sometimes we succeed and other times we fail but we don’t give up on trying.  When we fail, we laugh at ourselves and we try not to take ourselves too seriously.  We cry over the loss of a loved one and we sympathize with others who have experienced a personal loss.  We are excited at the success of someone we know and we root for the ‘underdog’ who is trying to beat the odds and come out on top. 

Our hope is that you will not listen to the few fanatics and false prophets who would exploit the sensitivities of others for their own glorification.  Don’t give credence to them or use the mindless words of the few crazies against all Americans.  Our appeal to you is to tune them out, just as you would tune out those among you who seek only to provoke and to incite others to no good.

Remember: not everything you see on TV or read on the Internet is real. Be sure that there is a hidden plot or lots of clever editing to keep the viewers or readers enthralled.  Just as you have learned to discern what’s real and what’s not on “Reality TV” shows, you must apply the same thought logic to what you see or hear on the news.

“Finally, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is fair, whatever is pure, whatever is acceptable, whatever is commendable, if there is anything of excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy-keep thinking about these things.”

Your friend,

America

[Quote taken from the letter of Paul to the Philippians]