A few truths
Violence is never a solution. More guns does not equal more safety. The path to freedom and healing is one of compassion, inclusion, justice, and love.
At the end of a week in which depictions of horrific violence dominated, we hold fast to a few truths.
Violence is never, ever, a solution. Never.
A nation with more guns than people is not a safer, freer place. It just isn’t.
Every act of violence, and perhaps especially those committed by law enforcement officers, is a profoundly ugly moral and human failure. We are all complicit in these failures if we are not actively working to prevent violence and heal communities.
The desire for ownership and domination is often at the heart of violent acts, and systemic support for ownership and domination will always breed more violence.
An essential ingredient for violence to occur is dehumanization. The most powerful action we can take to stop the cycle of violence caused by fear, domination, and easy access to deadly weapons is to refuse to dehumanize anyone.
We hold that all who are attacked and harmed are fully complex humans with complex stories. They are far, far more than the stories of their attacks. No one deserves to be subjected to violent assaults.
We hold, difficult as it is, that those engaged in brutal attacks with bombs, with billy clubs, with knives, with guns, with fists, with words - these are all fully complex humans with complex stories. How else can we hold them fully accountable for their brutality?
As those of us who are lucky enough to escape the direct touch of violence go about our daily lives, we cannot succumb to the temptation to tune out. These crises - of guns, of corruption, of violence, of climate, poverty, and health - call us to action. We must not turn away, or turn against one another. Solutions, progress, and healing all lie in one direction:
Toward one another, toward compassion, toward inclusion, toward justice, toward love.
Walk safely and with love in the week ahead.