Week #7  - October 31, 2022
Making Choices About Gun Violence

 by Kelley Lum Oshiro

Every day another mass shooting dominates the airwaves across America. Yet the gun violence epidemic in our country is made up of much more than high-profile media events.

Every 16 hours, a woman in America is shot and killed by a current or former intimate partner. Suicides account for 60 percent of all gun-related deaths [https://www.bradyunited.org/].

In many communities of color, deaths by gun violence, linked to decades of oppressive policies, are an everyday reality.  Here are some additional sobering statistics:

There were 1.5 million firearm deaths between 1968 and 2017 - that's higher than the number of soldiers killed in every US conflict since the American War for Independence in 1775. In 2020 alone, more than 45,000 Americans died at the end of a barrel of a gun, more than any other year on record. The figure represents a 25% increase from five years prior, and a 43% increase from 2010. But the issue is a highly political one, pitting gun control advocates against sectors of the population fiercely protective of their constitutionally-enshrined right to bear arms [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41488081].

Anytime we become polarized over an issue in society, we simply become part of the problem. Perhaps our emotions stem from headlines, from conversations with those on the “other side” of the issue, or even from someone close to us who has lost their life to gun violence.

Our instinct is often to blame someone. Renown sociologist Brené Brown says,

Here's what we know from the research. Blame is simply the discharging of discomfort and pain. It has an inverse relationship with accountability. Blaming is a way that we discharge anger.

In order to be part of the solution we must have the courage to pause, step back, take a breath (take at least three, actually) and begin by calming our selves, our minds, and re-establishing our inner peace. Letting go of our anger and frustration, taking the time to breathe and calm our emotions, allows us to respond rather than react to a situation.

Next, we must seek out gratitude in every situation, especially those times that seem most difficult and void of anything good. My friend Scarlett Lewis’s six-year-old son Jesse was murdered in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting along with 19 of his classmates and 6 educators. Scarlett always tells me that they had to rent warehouses, six or seven of them, to hold all the letters and stuffed animals and gifts that were sent to the families of the victims from all over the world. She says there was so much more love that day than hate, and she is grateful for that outpouring. She is also grateful that she has another son, JT, who is still alive. Scarlett says that using gratitude every day helps her get through her pain. As we take our calming breaths, we can meditate on all the things we have to be grateful for, both big and small.

This same friend, Scarlett, whose young son was brutally shot dead, chose to forgive the shooter. In fact, she saw him as a victim of a society that lacked the resources to care for the shooter when he was a child: bullied in school, documented to have mental health issues by his school that didn’t have the ability to help him and a single mother who didn’t have the funds to support his mental health needs, either. And many people actually condemned her for her forgiveness. But she did not say that the shooter should not be held accountable (though he was dead as well) or that what he did was okay -- obviously it was not. But by forgiving the shooter, she was able to take her personal power back and move forward. And also, she could identify the crux of the problem by not blaming the shooter, but rather seeing his circumstance and identifying what was lacking for him. She understood what produced the environment that “created the monster” that would commit such a heinous crime. Thus, she created an organization called the Choose Love Movement, with a curriculum taught in schools in all 50 states and over 20 countries, that builds self-awareness, social awareness, and relationship skills. It teaches youth to care about one another and be up-standers, rather than bullies. It helps them learn means to feel connected and not alone, to love rather than fear, to know how to turn a negative into a positive, and how to confront their emotions like anger and frustration in a positive way.

Which leads me to the idea of positive vs negative peace.

As we meditate on the issue of gun violence in America, how can we be positive peace builders? What is negative versus positive peace? Peace Educator Maya Soetoro, an expert in the field of peace building, says that …

[M]ost of us focus on what we don’t want rather than building a creative collective of what we desire to make us strong and healthy. We focus on negative peace, in other words. Negative peace is not necessarily negative, but it’s insufficient. Negative peace is the absence of acute violence or conflict. It’s not necessarily the presence of a loving, caring, just community.

Activating each individual’s potential to bring about the collective good and enlivening community energy is the essence of positive peace. Each of us has the capacity to impact our immediate surroundings, and we can play at least a small role in working towards positive systemic change.

I leave you, then, with questions rather than answers; questions to meditate on. And I ask that you contemplate your answers with the compassion in your heart that Scarlett Lewis demonstrates as an example of one who so closely identifies with the issue of gun violence in her personal life. What can we all agree on when it comes to the havoc wreaked on society by gun violence? What is the root cause of mass shootings? Suicides? Domestic Violence? Is it guns? Do we need both negative and positive peace building? What small act are you willing to commit to in order to be part of the solution?

This is your life, your family, your state, your country, your world. Choose Peace. Choose Love.  

A native son of Germany, transplanted in the islands of Hawai`i, reflects on the country of his birth...and the country of his Hopes.

America, the Beautiful

by Joerg Alfter, of Honolulu, Hawai`i

The emotional and haunting melody of “America the Beautiful” undoubtedly carries the sentiment and pride of a nation -- a nation built on the idea of liberty, equality and the freedom of religion and speech.

For me, born and raised in Germany, America was far more than this: it was the land of Steven Spielberg and John Williams, the Empire State Building, Christmases in NYC, the Rock’n Roll Hall of Fame. It was the birthplace of Jazz, 24-hour Supermarkets and action figures from Mattel. It represented a nation so proud, it was breathtaking.

Most of the Germans of my generation - with little exceptions - shared this view of the United States of America. We heard many accounts about the liberators that rolled through the bombed alleys of a 1945 Germany, throwing Lucky Strikes and Wrigley’s Spearmint Gum from the Army tanks into the cheering crowd that lined up the streets. My father’s memory, standing there as a 11-year-old boy, has always been unclouded. The U.S troops had finally arrived! But this was the America of my childhood --the promised land that once was considered the leader of the western world.

My perspective changed, and so did America, after I moved here fifteen years ago.

But let me take you back with me to my youth in Germany. While discussing politics over a glass of wine with my oldest friend, he proclaimed, “There is no GOOD system. But of all the bad ones, we have the best: our constitutional state, our democracy, our multi-party system, based upon the Basic law of the Federal Republic of Germany (the constitution), and our exceptional public education system, accessible for everybody!”

Yes, we truly were blessed. In my early twenties, I had begun to look at my country differently. We certainly knew what it meant to not have those privileges. One trip to Berlin took you 100 miles through the GDR [German Democratic Republic, aka East Germany] once you crossed that border. After dividing Germany into West (democratic) and East (socialistic) in 1949 and the building of the Wall to manifest that division in 1961, there was the “other side” -- the land behind the rainbow, where all those privileges don’t exist. You simply left them at the border with your visa registration.

When Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech after winning the 2008 election, becoming the first African=American President in the history of the USA, we were listening to it on AM radio in the car. It was one of the most emotional moments of my life -- so much hope, so much excitement for the years to come.

But after the first few months of President Obama being in office the stage shifted, the soundtrack changed and the echo of the cheering crowds from inauguration night faded away. The increase of hate speech and openly verbalized racism was becoming unbearable. And I felt very uncomfortable witnessing a political party incrementally getting involved in this kind of antisemitic rhetoric. It boiled up more and more. For the first time I raised concerns about this, comparing the situation to 1930s Germany, when the NSDAP [the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, aka The Nazis] became stronger and louder.

What started with the birther movement during the 2008 election now turned into the racist genie in the American bottle. Things once said privately among right extremist families in the shelter of their living rooms now slowly became openly acceptable statements of local politicians, backed up by right-wing media. It was clear to me that this would be a tough walk for the Obamas. In 2013 the Black Lives Matter movement addressed police brutality against African Americans, and little did we know how many brutal executions we would see and discuss in the years to come. Or, did we know?

In 2015, when a certain political candidate hovered down that escalator in his surreal tower in Manhattan, the world knew instantly that THIS must not be the winner of any election in any public office anywhere. And yet, after observing his campaign for several months, I realized with great distress that he would win. 

What concerned me the most was his blatantly open attraction to authoritarian leaders. From the beginning he put those cards on the table, but no one wanted look at this. After he won the election, I watched as this proud nation became more divided than ever. I remember the aftermath of Thanksgiving 2017 in American homes. Parents could not talk to their children, old friends found themselves standing on different sides of a river - with no bridge in sight.

Then the elected president said the ultimate thing in an interview that left no doubts. When being asked about the 2020 election outcome after having his election fraud claims thrown out of the courtrooms dozens of times, he said: “I will accept the result of the election - if I win!” In this moment I knew that America had lost its course. Until this very day, his political party stands in silence and united behind this man, who clearly wants democracy to end!

January 6. of 2021 marked the darkest day of the America I once adored and looked up to. An attempted coup and storming of the capitol of the United States that we witnessed LIVE on TV, still gets downplayed by some senators and congressmen, and more than 35% of Americans believe that the election was stolen. Concerns multiply about manipulated voting machines, illegal and/or suppressed voting, and misinformation spread hourly on FOX, Breitbart and other media outlets. A once grand political party has been taken over by a cult. As for me -- I see myself sticking my nose again into the history of 1933, when the Nazi party ultimately took over the German parliament, Adolf Hitler became chancellor and the darkest chapter in Europe’s history started to unfold.

Once there was hope. When, in November of 1989 the Berlin Wall “came down”, we could hardly believe our eyes that were glued to the TV, watching Germans from either side dancing on the wall and walking freely through the Brandenburg Gate. They did it! They finally stood up to their regime and said: No More!

What a moment in my lifetime!

A few weeks later I found myself riding a bicycle down the “Strasse des 17. Juni” through the Brandenburg Gate to the east, onto the “Under den Linden” Avenue. I smiled…

Yes, there is always HOPE.
Hope…that suppression can be withstood, that racism and bigotry will be recognized and called out, while marching through the streets and chanting: WE ARE THE PEOPLE!

The late John Lewis said, "When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something."

When we stay silent, there is no Hope. Only when we act and take accountability seriously, there is the chance to sustain the precious gifts of liberty, equality, justice and peace. And only then there might be the chance that America can be beautiful again..