Recoiling from a Violent World

by Samuel B. Parker

—

Today, we remember the 3,000 people who were killed in a national tragedy that changed us forever. Yesterday, millions of us watched as a man was brutally shot to death in front of hundreds of college students in broad daylight.

That came only months after the assassination of Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman, which came only months after the death of Brian Thompson, which came less than a year after the shooting of President Donald Trump, which came not too terribly long after the murder of George Floyd.

All the while, American children have continued to die in their classrooms. All the while, we’ve watched civilians perish in droves in Gaza and Ukraine — and in lesser-known, lesser-discussed conflicts in places like Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.

All the while, we’ve shrugged our shoulders and moved on because that’s what life demands of us.

I won’t endeavor to speak for everyone today. I’ll speak only for myself: I don’t want to lose the part of me that recoils from a violent world.

I don’t want to lose the pit in my stomach when another person is ended forever.

I don’t want to lose the softness, the tenderness that comes with seeing another human face.

I don’t want to lose the belief that no person should inflict suffering upon another, that no person should be subject to that suffering.

There are those who preach violence against the enemy and the unknown. I want to be better than they are. I want to live in a better world than the one they’re trying to build.

There are great men who have gone before us, fully committed to this end. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. described nonviolence as “a courageous confrontation of evil by the power of love.” Mohandas Gandhi called it “mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.” Jesus Christ said there was no greater love.

Today, in honor of their practice and sacrifice, I am choosing to believe it is still true.