[Peace-discuss] Obama on Our Violent Culture

[John W.]

At 06:37 AM 4/22/2007, Chuck Minne wrote:

>Obama on Our Violent Culture
>By Ruth Conniff
>April 18, 2007
>
>It was supposed to be a raucous event. Barack Obama's
>Wisconsin campaign kick-off at a sold-out theater in
>downtown Milwaukee started with a line of people
>wrapped around the block. Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett,
>who endorsed Obama for President, gave the
>introduction. But the balloons, music, and
>crowd-pleasing speeches were cancelled. Instead, there
>was a moment of silence, then somber reflection on the
>shootings of 32 Virginia Tech students just hours
>before. Obama threw away his prepared stump speech,
>and instead spoke about the day's tragic events.
>"Please, have a seat," he told the cheering crowd.
>
>He explained his reasons for changing the tone of the
>event. Then he quoted Bobby Kennedy's famous speech
>after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, about
>how, with one act of violence, "the whole nation is
>degraded." America, Kennedy said, seems to tolerate
>violence, whether it is "civilian slaughter in far-off
>lands," our increasingly coarse entertainment culture,
>or the ready access to guns.
>
>"That was written in 1968--almost 40 years ago," Obama
>said of Kennedy's remarks. "We haven't made much
>progress."
>
>Within hours of the shooting at Virginia Tech, Obama
>threw away his stump speech and talked about the tragic events.
>Monday's massacre, the biggest mass shooting in
>American history,


Yet another illustration of how myopic our white American view of history 
is, and how utterly unconscious of it we are.  This phrase, "the biggest 
mass shooting in American history", has already become an integral and 
thoroughly accepted part of the mainstream public discourse.  A friend of 
mine - a person of color, naturally - has suggested at least one instance 
that was roughly ten times worse.  See if you can guess what event he was 
thinking of.  From Wikipedia:


On <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_29>December 29, 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1890>1890, five hundred troops of the 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._7th_Cavalry_Regiment>U.S. 7th Cavalry, 
supported by four <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotchkiss_gun>Hotchkiss 
guns (a lightweight <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artillery>artillery piece 
capable of rapid fire), surrounded an encampment of Miniconjou Sioux 
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakota_people>Lakota) and Hunkpapa Sioux 
(Lakota)  with orders to escort them to the railroad for transport to 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omaha%2C_Nebraska>Omaha, Nebraska. The 
commander of the 7th had been ordered to disarm the Lakota before 
proceeding and placed his men in too close proximity to the Lakota, 
alarming them. Shooting broke out near the end of the disarmament, and 
accounts differ regarding who fired first and why.

By the time it was over, 25 troopers and 300 Lakota Sioux lay dead, 
including men, women, and children.  Many of the dead soldiers are believed 
to have been the victims of 
"<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendly_fire>friendly fire" as the shooting 
took place at point blank range in chaotic conditions, and most of the 
Lakota had previously been unarmed.  Around 150 Lakota are believed to have 
fled the chaos, of which many likely died from 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothermia>exposure.



>will prompt "all kinds of
>discussion," Obama said--about crime, violence, gun
>control, and campus security, among other topics. "But
>I hope there will be some discussion of violence in
>all its forms. . . . [In American culture] we glorify
>it, encourage it, ignore it . . . . It's
>heartbreaking. And it has to stop."
>
>Violence, and the callousness Americans have for the
>suffering of victims of violence, poverty, and
>oppression, is ultimately "rooted in our incapacity to
>recognize ourselves in each other--not understanding
>that we're all connected fundamentally as people,"
>Obama said. "Those who may not look like me, talk like
>me, worship the same God I do, are nonetheless worthy
>of respect and dignity. . . . [But] at some
>fundamental level, we're still trapped in this insane
>belief that we can impose our wills on each other."
>
>Part of the reason things are still as bad as they
>were 40 years ago, Obama said, in terms of poverty,
>lack of opportunity, broken health care and education
>systems, and "a war that never should have been
>authorized and never should have been fought" (his
>biggest applause line) is that "we haven't been as
>engaged as we should be."
>
>"We've given up. We look inward. . . . This same
>disengagement makes us tolerate violence." He made a
>pitch for overcoming cynicism and restoring " a sense
>that we have a mutual responsibility to care for each
>other."
>
>Like Bobby Kennedy in 1968, Obama is talking to a
>racially divided nation about prospects for
>reconciliation and peace. As he delivered his remarks,
>he did not know the identity of the Virginia Tech
>shooter, whose background as a South Korean immigrant
>is bound to stir up roiling racist and anti-immigrant
>sentiment.
>
>Obama's audience in Milwaukee, like many of his
>audiences around the country, was a remarkable mix of
>races and ages. There was a sense of optimism in the
>crowd that seemed to derive partly from the feeling
>that, as Obama put it, the diversity of his supporters
>"is a symbol of what I think America should be about."
>
>Kennedy's handlers in 1968 were afraid he would be
>killed if he went forward with his planned speech to a
>mostly African-American crowd. It fell to Kennedy to
>give them the news of Martin Luther King Jr.'s
>assassination, and the police and press traveling with
>him feared that a riot would erupt. Instead, he moved
>the crowd to tears with his call for a rejection of
>violence and a better, inclusive America.
>
>By invoking Kennedy, Obama was clearly reaching for
>the same high ground. To the extent that he strikes a
>chord with his listeners, he helps foster the hope
>that we could, indeed, heal what's wrong with our
>angry, violent, and divided country.
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