Words Have Consequences!

Tucson, Arizona, Saturday, January 8, 2011—It has happened again.  A deranged young man apparently upset with the political views of his representative in Congress, Gabrielle Giffords, shot and seriously wounded her.  Others were killed and wounded.  Anyone who has listened to the radio, watched TV or read a newspaper already knows these preliminary facts.  The “usual” responses by friends, associates and commentators are flooding the communications environment.

I should be angry.  I am far beyond anger.  I am in despair.  I am NOT surprised that this happened, and I don’t believe most of you are either.  Given the incredible lack of sensitivity in the rhetoric to which we are now exposed minute by minute and the disregard for the potential consequences of our words, how could we not expect that such a tragedy would happen?  It has happened before too many times.

When you have such prominent persons as Sarah Palin “tweeting” with images of the crosshairs of a gun sight placed over the locations of politicians whose positions she disagrees with, you are suggesting an action of violence, whether intended or not.  When you have a candidate for the U.S. Senate suggest that “Second Amendment remedies” may be needed if certain politicians do not do as they are told to do, again, violence is the “subtle” suggestion.

When this tragedy was broadcast one of the first things I thought about was an essay I wrote in April of 2009 at the tenth anniversary of the Columbine High School shootings.  The article, “High Noon At the OK Corral,” took issue with the notion that guns had become the tools for dealing with our anger toward persons, policies or actions we did not like.  (The gunfight took place in Tombstone, AZ.)  It was of interest to me that the article alerted government sites that apparently track potential terrorist activity.  Our government knows there is a high level of anxiety and anger brewing in our population.

In an interview, one Arizona Senator said it was “incomprehensible” that such action could happen.  It is my strong opinion that it is NOT incomprehensible that people will do stupid things if they are constantly urged to bear arms, rail against people with whom they disagree and ultimately shoot and kill them!  Why are we surprised?  There are many things we can point to as the causes and all of them contribute some part of whole picture.  In the final analysis, for me, the problem is that we have utterly lost our ability to respect the differences of opinion that exist.  We have become so used to immediate awareness of conditions—via the Internet, TV, and radio—that we also expect immediate resolutions.  And we expect those resolutions to be according to our priorities.  Good heavens!  Are we such spoiled children that we have to have our way about everything?  Is there no room for considering the value of the contributions of others?

What is said by talk show hosts, news networks and demi-gods who present themselves as all-knowing prophets, leads to consequences for which few of them will think they have any responsibility.  It should be abundantly clear by now that the constant, bitter rhetoric is giving some individuals approval to do stupid, harmful things.

Words have consequences!

Getting Beyond “I don’t WANT to.”

A number of weeks ago a friend sent me a saying she liked and thought I might.  It was:

I don’t WANT to,

I don’t HAVE to,

You can’t MAKE me . . .

I’M RETIRED!!!

Maybe it was because it resonated with my frame of mind at the time, but I DID like it.  In fact, I immediately made it into a small poster, printed it and posted it on the wall in front of my computer where I saw it every time I was at the keyboard.

One of the reasons it resonated with me at the time was the fact of the growing discord in our societal “conversations.”  It seemed to me no one was listening to anyone else.  We each were shouting our opinions as though we were the only voice that counted. These were not only the voices of individuals, family members and friends, but also of the media and the politicians. The fact is that they had long since ceased to be “conversations” and were, for the most part, simply diatribes of complaint and finger-pointing.  I definitely didn’t WANT to continue being part of that frustration, but I was!

Then, this morning I received one of those innocuous email forwards.  At first I thought, “Here’s another one!”  The email referred the reader to a blog page, “Confessions of A Confetti Head.”  The first paragraph got me.

Where does REAL personal change come from? You know, the kind that puts you into a tailspin with profound “AHAs.” The kind that after you come back to Earth, you say, “WOW! That was AMAZING!” and from that moment on, you are different. You are different in ways that you may have struggled with for years, or even your entire life.

As I read on I discovered that the author had many degrees, had become certified in many human potential techniques, and yet still felt a distinct schism in her psyche.  With all she knew about living and how well qualified she felt to live life fully, she also “struggled with a dual experience of myself as dynamic and capable on one hand and invisible, unworthy, and less than on the other hand.”   I could also identify with those feelings of a strange inadequacy to really make a difference, to be heard above the din of angry confrontation and lack of civility. Who wants to listen to me?  (Also, who do I want to listen to?)

Personally, I have found myself echoing and believing the “I don’t want to” attitude about life.   What’s the use, I thought.  It is not a pleasant place to be when that is the way one thinks and feels about life.  In that place you feel like a voice crying in the wilderness, hoping the deaf will hear and the blind will see.  They don’t and they won’t as long as we cannot respect and accept our differences.  If this country stands for anything, it is the rights of each of us to be whom we are, and to recognize that right in every other American.  Remember, we ALL came from somewhere else (except for the Native Americans).

Somehow, I thought to myself, I have to get beyond these feelings of not wanting to participate in a world gone crazy.  I cannot hide away in a cave (as much as I would like to at times) and pretend there is nothing to be done, no way to make things better.  I do know I cannot change anyone else.  Great gravy!  It’s almost impossible to change myself.  What in the world makes me think I should even want to try to change anyone else?

I cannot help but remember an experience I had years ago that provided a profound example of what can happen when one decides to change his/her attitude.  I had felt deeply hurt by a situation that occurred.  I felt so angry that I defiantly told myself I didn’t even want to want forgive the other person.  Over a period of time working on that situation I came to a point where I realized I wanted to want to forgive the person.  Finally, I wanted to.  At last, after much work in prayer an objectively discussing the problem with those whose opinions I valued, I did forgive!  In that moment I was totally free from the negative power of the original event.

I wish I could say that overcoming that situation took me beyond ever feeling hurt again or angry and unforgiving.  It didn’t.  Life is not a matter of overcoming one situation and forever being free of challenges.  The most we can expect from meeting a challenge is to understand the process fully enough to use that knowledge to meet subsequent challenges. 

There is only one way, really, to get beyond “I don’t WANT to”.  You have to WANT to.  That is where real personal and societal change will come from.  It is my hope that our society will get beyond the anger and frustration that so many feel.  I suspect that once the midterm elections are over and the politicians have little more to gain from milking the adversity to their advantage that things will settle down for a month or so.  Of course, then the REAL election effort begins and we can return to accusing one party or the other of misleading us, being dishonest, baiting the divisive tendencies in those subject to such efforts and generally further destabilizing our sense of connectedness.  You see where this is going, right?