During the early morning darkness on June14, a man disguised as a police officer forced his way into the home of a Minnesota legislator and shot him and his wife multiple times. They survived. The same criminal proceeded to the house of another legislator and murdered her and her husband inside their home. His plans to kill many more were thwarted when he was apprehended by law enforcement the next day in a wooded area not far from his home. The media were breathless in their reporting – “horrified” at the growing “political violence.” Calls to tone down the rhetoric from some of the nastiest and most dishonest politicians and members of the media were sickening to those who watch them stir the pot every day.
That same weekend there were nearly 200 shootings across the country with at least 50 killed; riotous demonstrators in Portland and Los Angeles used “commercial grade” fireworks, rocks, and concrete as potentially lethal weapons against law enforcement officers who were doing their jobs. In the past 12 weeks there have been 7 homicides and 37 non-fatal shootings in Milwaukee’s Police District 7. A 15-year-old was killed; a 13-year-old and a cop among the wounded. In the state of Washington there is a massive manhunt underway for Travis Decker, 32, who murdered his 3 young daughters ages 5, 8, and 9 by asphyxiation. These young innocents were delivered into the hands of their homeless, mentally disturbed father for an unsupervised “visitation”. They deserved to be protected. Maxwell Anderson was found guilty in Milwaukee on June 6 for murdering and dismembering 19-year-old Sade Robinson. He scattered her body parts around the city. She thought they were on a date. Bryan Kohberger, a criminology PhD student at Washington State University, is charged with 4 counts of 1st degree murder for the gruesome stabbings of 4 University of Idaho students in their home last November. Last December, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione, a young man raised in privilege, assassinated a healthcare CEO on the streets of New York by shooting him in the back as an expression of his animosity for the healthcare industry. Thousands have glorified the murder as heroic and contributed to his defense fund. A musical about the killing sold out immediately.
We have become a violent society. Intentionally harming others is a common method of addressing grievances. No one is exempt from the devastation. Murders and attempted murders ravage the country from the President to helpless children. We’re looking for answers in all the wrong places.
Morality has taken a beating in our country over the past 50 years. As we have drifted further and further from the fundamentals, we distract ourselves from the truth with word games, trying to create nuance and distinctions without a difference. Cultural violence. Political violence. Gun violence. Domestic violence. Sexual violence. Violence is violence and regardless of what form it takes, it breaches both moral law and the law of the land. We deflect even further from the truth by attempting to split hairs and differentiate “hate crimes” from other crimes. What crime against a fellow human being is not hateful? What exactly is the point?
The path out of the darkness is clear and simple but far from easy. It shifts the focus to personal responsibility. It requires introspection and has no tolerance for flailing about, wringing our hands over things we do not control. It starts with the truth about right and wrong. We have allowed the nuclear family to crumble, deceiving ourselves about its critical role in developing communities and teaching America’s children how to live. As we have become increasingly secular, turning our backs on God, many are drifting aimlessly with no basis for what they believe. Those who don’t know what they believe cannot teach others how to live.
A clear understanding of right and wrong provides life’s essential foundation but is not nearly enough to change the course we are on. As imperfect people, we are challenged every day beyond just knowing what is right to doing what is right. Learning to exercise self-control when faced with the temptation to do wrong is how we translate what we know into what we do. The explosion of social media over the past decade has exposed the alarming truth that America’s adults are as sorely lacking impulse control as her children. Millions of people spend countless hours fighting with strangers online over nothing…hurling insults and profanity. For what? It’s time to reassess.
All the time spent pointing fingers at one another, offering deep psychological explanations (excuses) for transgressions and outright assaults on others, nuancing and redefining names for aggression, and spinning our wheels in countless different directions have done nothing to stem our societal decline. It is the behavior of individuals that morphs into collective behavior and becomes a culture. We need clarity not nuance.
