Tuscon tragedy

John Cory, one of my favorite journalists, reflecting upon the shootings which took place in Tucson this past Saturday, quoted a statement from the Old Testament prophet Hosea: "For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind" (Hosea 8:7).  For some time now, we've all been witnessing a deterioration in our precious liberty as Americans, as radio talk show personalities and some TV commentators have encouraged violence toward those with whom they disagree.  [Freedom of speech is respected only if you agree with me?]  Yet, not one of us can be taken off the hook.  Each needs to ask What have I said, or left unsaid, to contribute to this climate of intolerance and hatred toward those of a different persuation politically or religiously?  What have I sown into the wind that has helped create this "whirlwind" of violence?   In the same article, John Cory wrote about what may well be the basic cause of the Arizona tragedy [and many other tragedies such as the recent Omaha school shooting].  He identifies that cause as our commitment to "perpetual war."  Here is what he said yesterday: "We have become a nation of, by and for perpetual war.  Perpetual war is our addiciton and our language. . .war is the metaphor of politics and business and daily discourse. . .a nation of perpetual war and constant fear eventually succumbs to self-hatred and self-loathing.  It becomes consumed by the value of extremism in the maintanence of empty empire through the deceit of language.  A nation of perpetual war numbs itself to violence by constant repetition of the rhetoric of death and mayhem and the slogans of militarism.  A nation of perpetual war does not value human life - but rather the hollow rhetoric about human life." [Reader Supported News, January 9, 2011]   Alas, I strongly suspect there is much truth to his assessment!  It certainly matches what I have observed day-in-and-day-out.   Recently, I read a couple of quotes shared by a Canadian Bible commentator, Laurel A. Dykstra, which tie in with "reaping the whirlwind," and which caused me to think of the young man who did the shooting in Tucson. These are the quotes: "Maya Angelou said, 'There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.' Audre Lorde [a poet] called us to transform our silence into language and action, asking 'What are the words you do not yet have?  What do you need to say?  What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day, and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence'?"   I don't pretend to know what sinister forces drove this young man to commit such a horrendous act, but as I reflected up his possible state of mind, that question, "What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day, and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them. . .", grabbed my attention.  Indeed, I wonder what are the tyrannies many are forced to swallow day by day?   I close now with a prayer which was printed this morning in the daily "Verse and Voice" column of Sojourners. "Oh Healer, we lift up all those who have been affected by the senseless shooting in Arizona last week.  For the families and friends of those wounded and killed, we ask for your abundant strength and peace.  We offer up to you our feelings of anger, confusion, and deep grief, and ask that you return to us a renewed desire for love in this broken world.  Amen." Shalom, Del