PUBLISHER'S NOTEBOOK: Mindless Menace of Violence

One of my favorite speeches was delivered by Robert Kennedy at the Sheraton Hotel in Cleveland to the City Club of Cleveland on April 5th 1968. It was the day after Martin Luther King was assassinated and urban America was destroying its own backyard with riots across the country. I’m sure weighing heavy on his mind and heart was the assassination of his own brother less than five years earlier. For me, the speech still holds water today fifty years later.

“This is a time of shame and sorrow. It is not a day for politics”

It is still a time for shame and sorrow. There are those amongst us filled with so much evil and hate in their hearts. They perpetrate violence in many forms. The loner loser who craves for notoriety. Entering into a school, movie theater, concerts and other venues of unsuspecting unarmed innocent people and picking them off one by one as if they are targets at a carnival game. These acts of violence grab the national spotlight. The violence in our own community is enough to weigh on one’s heart. The first trial of those accused of the senseless murder of 16 year old David Grunwald will be entering its second week. Listen to the testimony of David’s mother and father Edie and Ben Grunwald. It will break your heart.

“The victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown. They are, most important of all human beings whom other human beings loved and needed.”

Mass shooters don’t look at demographics to determine their victims. They kill whoever is in their way. Mass violence has been felt in urban and rural communities a like. But no one is immune to the violence and violence comes in many forms. Domestic violence and violence against children numbers in Alaska are staggering. When I read the arrest affidavit of Seth Loggins who stands accused of physical and sexual assault of at least eight little boys I had to put it down several times. If these charges are found to be true, what those boys went through killed a part of their innocence they will never get back. No child should ever be violated in such a manner. We read the stories of these kind of cases and shake our heads then move on with our day. The suffering in our community is real and runs deep. For those whose jobs are to advocate for those in our community who suffer at the hands of such violence have to feel the effects of their stories. Yet they forge ahead.

“Whenever we tear at the fabric of life which another man has painfully and clumsily woven for himself and his children, the whole nation is degraded.”

When we isolate those of differing views by name calling or vulgar discourse in a public forum we contribute to the degrading of what makes this country great. Debate is a beautiful byproduct of democracy. When that debate escalates into random acts of violence such as the shooting of law enforcement, shooting at workplaces or shooting at churches and the like then we have to look at our own hearts. We can have political debate or disagreements without degrading those who don’t share the same opinion. When we decide to play in the sewer at the end of the day we degrade ourselves. We work too hard to build our lives to undermine our accomplishments to win an argument on social media at the expense of the morale of others.

“We make it easy for men of all shades of sanity to acquire weapons and ammunition they desire.”

This was the only part of Kennedy’s speech that addressed guns. I believe he knew that violence wasn’t in the weapon but in the heart of man. I don’t think anyone would argue that we have to find ways to keep weapons out of the hands of those who are not mentally stable. The banning of guns will not happen. I was a sporting goods department manager during the assault rifle ban. One of our most popular guns was the Ruger Mini 14. It was popular because prairie dogs infested the community and the semi-auto action along with the .223 caliber bullet made it the perfect weapon. It had the same action and caliber as the AR-15, just not as menacing to look at. It was not part of the ban. For our community, it had a function. We have to quit focusing on the weapon and focus more on the individual. Not an easy task, I know, but our collective efforts are needed for a solution to be found.

“For there is another kind of violence, slower but just as deadly, destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions; indifference and inaction and slow decay.”

The destruction of the family unit and the acceptance that this is the new norm is slowly but steadily contributing to our moral destruction. Men who father children but are enabled to not take responsibility leaving young women to fend for themselves and their children. Men who won’t even offer co-parenting or financial support. Men who want to play the emotional victim when the fact of the matter is they were never prepared to take on responsibility. Women who abandon their children to be raised by grandparents because the single parent stress is too much to bear. The financial and emotional burden on this demographic is taking a toll on society as a whole. The child is focused on the ones who have abandoned them and won’t truly appreciate the ones who stepped in until they are emotionally mature enough to understand the sacrifice they made.

The families who are barely scraping by financially and find themselves robbing Peter to pay Paul are only digging into a deeper hole. There you find children who don’t have enough to eat and go hungry; children who fall through the cracks of the educational system. These obstacles slowly wear down the spirit of the victims of the indifference and inaction of their communities.

“But we can perhaps remember — even if only for a time — that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short movement of life, that they seek – as we do – nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.”

There are many in our communities who have identified the weakness in our society and volunteer countless hours to support those who are of need. We have to be willing to reach across racial, political, social and economic lines and lift our neighbor’s spirits. To understand that we all have the same goal of our pursuit of happiness and fulfillment. We will never cleanse ourselves of those who want to cause destruction of innocence. We will never live in a perfect society. What we can do is love our neighbors and treat others like we would like to be treated. And have the courage to reach out to those who are hurting. It could be as simple as a friendly smile or words. I’ll end this column with the ending of Kennedy’s speech. Two months later his own life ended at the hands of an assassin.

“Surely this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our hearts brothers and countrymen again.”