mass shootings – Engaging Peace

Who Will Be a Violent White Supremacist? Part 2: Programs that are bound to fail

Posted on September 4, 2019September 3, 2019 by kathiemm

by Alice LoCicero

Why do so many resources go into counter-terrorism programs that are bound to fail? Here it’s important to distinguish between research programs and community programs that are implemented to identify potential homegrown terrorists. While I think it’s unlikely, for many reasons, that researchers will be able to identify future terrorists anytime soon, well-intentioned people can reasonably disagree on that point. Research done ethically and openly (without deceit) may be justifiably funded.

But when it comes to implementing programs, such as the DHS sponsored Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) programs funded throughout the US and overseas, they are not only based on deceit and junk science, they are also apt to be harmful in several ways:

They increase bias.
They cause disruption and harm in communities.
They blatantly encourage providers such as teachers, doctors, and mental health professionals to violate their professional ethics by spying on their students, patients, and/or clients.
They target specific communities based on demographic factors.
They deceive the participants and the public.
They criminalize normal adolescent development.
They criminalize thought.
They encourage a colonialist attitude, assuming that communities cannot help themselves, but need mainstream professionals and authorities to design ways to assist them.

After reflecting on the deadly events in Charlottesville, Christchurch, El Paso, Pittsburgh, and other places, many Americans are starting to wonder why the government is spending so much of its resources on spying on Muslim communities. They wonder if it would be better to apply these funds to counter the rise of alt-right extremists. The answer is a loud, “No” for all the reasons above.

The CVE type programs are in violation of science, human rights, understanding of adolescent development, and the right to explore thoughts and conversation without being criminalized.

Something has gone very wrong

Posted on August 7, 2019August 7, 2019 by kathiemm

Participants at vigil, Sherborn, MA, August 6, 2019, commemorating Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and latest mass shootings in the USA. Photo courtesy of Lewis Randa, the Peace Abbey

by Dot Walsh

In the years from 1982 to the present, there have been 110 mass shootings in the United States; according to statistics, 107 of these have been perpetrated by young to older men.

As I reflect on the carnage and suffering engulfing our country, I am bewildered and angered by how our Congress has resisted passing a simple law banning assault weapons and requiring a background check for all gun buyers, including those who buy guns online. Something has gone very wrong in this country when we cannot see clearly what is happening or gather the courage to stand up for the values that will promote peace and love.

Some men and women do show that courage. Among them are a group of people who have been standing up and speaking out, holding vigils, and praying for many years, remembering the people who bear the suffering that comes with the loss of their loved ones to violence.

The Life Experience School and friends gathered Tuesday, August 6, 2019, at the Peace Memorial in Sherborn, Massachusetts, to honor those who were killed in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio. The group gathered at the Stone that memorializes all victims of violence, both past and present.

To promote resistance to violence, I want to send a message to all the young men in our country who are being abused by corporate America and taught to hate. Social media, Hollywood, and others have gained power over you and led you down a path of ignorance and submission. But you have been gifted by a Higher Power with talents and energy as yet undiscovered. Stop for one minute and list in your mind two things you are grateful for. Then ask yourself how you can pay forward for the gifts you have received. We all have reasons to be thankful for living in this country. Maybe the problem facing the country today is not having enough positive role models and not absorbing enough LOVE in our hearts to take a stand to make things right. Can you become one of those role models? Can you find and share the love in your heart?

References: Washington Post Statista research department

Dot Walsh is a Peace Chaplain. Shi is also host of Oneness and Wellness, a cable TV show from Dedham, Mass.She is dedicated to changing the world with peace and love.

Note from Kathie MM: Pegean says, Now’s your chance to get it right. Be the candle, be the light. Be the beacon, be the dove. Be the voice of peace and love.

Four countries that have nearly eliminated gun deaths

Posted on February 15, 2018February 15, 2018 by kathiemm

Anyone who believes that all human beings are hopelessly and incurably aggressive and that nothing can be done to halt the growing number of mass shootings in this country should read Chris Weller’s article in Business Insider.

And please don’t try to tell me we the people can’t move our country in the same directions as Australia, the UK, Norway, and Japan if we become more active, more educated about political candidates, more willing to speak out on behalf of nonviolence, more willing to speak truth to power. No community, however rich or white, can be safe from gun violencse while the NRA owns such a large percentage of our Congress. Do you care about your kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews? if so, maybe it is time for you to become a gun control activist.

TRUE COLORS, Part 2

Posted on October 18, 2017October 17, 2017 by kathiemm

by Doe West

[note from Kathie: this is post 2 in a four part series by Dr, Doe West, award-winning psychologist and pastor. ]

At times like this [in the wake of the latest mass killing], we, Christians and others, get asked the worst questions–from other people and ourselves: Must we forgive? This? HIM?!

Ephesians 4:31-32 – 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

We read those words and may even taste some bile in our throats that rises with those words hitting deep in our pain.

I have been called a red letter Christian … preaching from and turning to the words of the Christ over the words in the Old Testament. But I do read all the words … and I do preach from the Old Testament … but it always surprises me when the Old Testament helps me with the New Testament.

Isaiah 43:25-26 25 I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more. 26 Review the past for me, let us argue the matter together; state the case for your innocence.

Yes, Father God, let us argue the matter.

And how I would love to hear the case for this mass murderer’s innocence… and mine, as I deal with my anger toward his behavior.

I realize that I cannot hate or be angry with him for I know only what is printed about him and his life and his preparation for that night. Which is nothing I can know much less prove.

What I feel is the anger / rage at is his behavior.

In all my decades of learning and work –as Pastor, as Counselor, as Professor – I find one path for escaping from the constant on-state of pain during such times is by engaging my mind with my emotions… using contemplation and consideration as a rope walk up from that pit of rage.

I learned a phrase when working on a grant at the Harvard School of Public Health when we were doing investigation and debate of findings on some unknown pathogen … pathogens of body or mind or behavior: What do we think? —- what do we know? — what can we prove?

So often we get stuck at what we think but do not know.

Or know but cannot prove.

In my next posts, I will share what I think and what I know and what I can prove, and how these insights may help all of us,