In an unforgiving society characterized by anger and violence, it is not surprising that Brookhaven is not immune to the malaise reflected in unaccustomed violence over the past few months.

There are seductively simple solutions. My favorites are banning guns and treating mental illness when its victims are susceptible to interventions. For some, it may be revisiting liberalized liquor laws, although alcohol was not apparently a factor in the local violence. For others, it may be cracking down more forcefully on illegal drugs, although the costs, historically, are usually greater than the benefits and again, they do not appear to have been a factor in the local violence. In truth, guns, alcohol and drugs are tools we can use to destroy ourselves and others, but not what drives us to do so. Treating mental illness is important, but the mentally ill are products of our social malaise.

Putting God back into our schools has a certain appeal if it means teaching children to forgive “those who trespass” against them, whether it be your “neighbor,” a “stranger,” the “least of these,” the “prisoner, or persons “who hunger and thirst,” among those whom God calls us to love and serve. However, it may not make the most sense to try to teach forgiveness in institutions that require rules and discipline to succeed in their educational missions. Yet the answer is spiritual — learning to understand and forgive each other.

It starts with individual acts that are examples for all of us who are caught up in the societal cycle of anger and violence. Anger and violence grounded in incapacity or unwillingness to forgive, begets anger and violence. It’s a vicious cycle. It’s not just the Amish community in Pennsylvania that forgives the man who shot and killed children in an elementary school or the South Carolina AME Church that forgives the man who murders its pastor and members in a Bible study group. It’s also the political leader who seeks to work with the opposition rather than rejecting it as satanic. It’s the woman who doesn’t go ballistic at the check-out counter or on the phone with a customer service representative when the issue is a simple mistake. It’s any one of us holding his or her temper over a perceived slight or insult. It’s trying to understand your enemy and taking steps to reconcile with him or her.

The Daily Leader says it’s committed to being part of a solution. Certainly, the media needs to report and comment on the dark side, but it can also find opportunities to report on the simple acts of forgiveness that can help break Brookhaven and society, overall, out of the cycle of violence in which we find ourselves. The media also must be cautious about getting caught up in those simple solutions that don’t really address the problem.

It’s that simple. And that difficult.

 

Bob Arnold

Wesson resident