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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Gordon - This deep analysis seems spot on - gets at
the depth contradiction: our images of Who We Are as Americans.
Seems to me that for every glorious image I would really cheer for (welcoming,
learning from, and delighting in, cultures from all over the world, for
instance) there are powerful forces working to shift them into something
dangerous. "Be afraid - these immigrants will take your job - they will
destroy the rule of law - they will overwhelm us and change all we hold
dear. Be very afraid ..." </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>All this needs exploration, watching for clues to
positive change, exchanging thoughts about strategies. Gosh, I value
so hugely this ICA connection!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Janice Ulangca</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=gharper1@mindspring.com href="mailto:gharper1@mindspring.com">Gordon
Harper</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=oe@lists.wedgeblade.net
href="mailto:oe@lists.wedgeblade.net">Order Ecumenical Community</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Cc:</B> <A title=dialogue@wedgeblade.net
href="mailto:dialogue@wedgeblade.net">ICA LIST SERVE</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, December 18, 2012 4:52
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Dialogue] [Oe List ...]
more on guns</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV class=moz-cite-prefix><BIG><BIG>Since I'm part of this problem and
hopelessly complicit in sustaining it, I'll start with a little
confession. Like many of us, I grew up in a gun culture, in my case as a
Wisconsin farm boy. I loved the various rifles and handguns I
accumulated over those early years, and I continued to sharpen my target
shooting through college and graduate school and even as a young professor
(never really had the heart for hunting). I was (full disclosure) a
member of the NRA starting in high school, so that I could get my cases of 22
ammo for a pittance. (I dropped my membership while in college, when the
organization started to morph into the right wing entity that we see today.)
<BR><BR>When our family joined the symbolic order and moved to the West
Side, I got rid of everything except for a special treasure, my Ruger Single
Six (replica Colt six-gun) with its beautiful rosewood grips and fancy Mexican
fast draw holster. Lane Erskine and I used to enjoy sharing our
fascination with our handguns' workmanship. Unlike Lane, who was given
to packing heat as he moved about in 5th City, I kept mine unloaded and in a
locked case in our room. <BR><BR>After a few months, however, I became
concerned that even with those safeguards, in our community, with the kids
having easy access to everyone's rooms, it was too much of a risk. With
great sadness, I took my beloved revolver and holster to a gun shop in
Wisconsin and sold them, thus ending my gun ownership phase. When it
came time, a few years later, to decide which of my siblings would inherit our
father's firearms, I chose not to participate in the distribution.<BR><BR>I
start with this to make the point that what we're dealing with in this gun
culture lies very deep in many of us. I've had--and still have--a love
affair with the classic American Western film. This is a tradition that
exalts the single shootist, who is able to do good and make things right for
others precisely because he has at least one sidearm and when necessary uses
it well. <BR><BR>I see myself mirrored in the fascination of young
people today for all the first person shooter games, battlefield adventures
and standing one's ground against those hordes of attacking vampires.
It's a manifestation of our special culture as Americans, with our frontier
tradition and mythology. Which in turn is an aspect of what we sometimes
refer to as the concept of American exceptionalism. <BR><BR>To deal seriously
with gun violence, it seems to me, is to take on the challenge of shifting
these profoundly rooted national and personal images and stories of who we
are. They are so much a part of us that we hardly ever feel the need to
talk about them--they're simply assumed, taken for granted as part of the
common ground we share as Americans. <BR><BR>We all grieve when events
like those of this past week occur, and we feel personal shock and pain when
one of them hits close to home. At the same time, at some deep level we
also find our way to accepting these occurrences as the tragic but necessary
side effects of our special nature as a frontier people and the unique role of
our nation in the world. <BR><BR>It's like the collateral war damage to
innocent people that we've accustomed ourselves to living with. We
lament it, and we truly want to keep it to the bare minimum, but we also feel
that our historical role requires our paying this cost (a bit of White Man's
Burden, <I>redivivus</I>). Theologically, there's a strong connection
here with the myth of redemptive violence, which provides a religious
rationale for many among us to accept the way things are and for at least part
of the deep resistance we encounter to changing the gun laws. <BR><BR>I
suspect that we will now begin to see some modest changes in access to
semi-automatic weapons, some improvements in preventing, spotting and caring
for mental illness, maybe even more support for our educational systems.
</BIG></BIG><BIG><BIG>I'm hoping it's also a point in time where we will see,
in various formats and venues, the start of the conversation about our
national identity and values that we very much need to have.
<BR><BR></BIG></BIG><BIG><BIG>What I find myself looking for are ways to
engage our neighbors and ourselves in surfacing and exploring together these
largely unquestioned images and stories that so powerfully shape our
behavior. What is really special or exceptional about America--the good,
the bad and the ugly--relative to what is special and exceptional about any
other nation and people? How are we to understand that
exceptionalism, and what do we do with it in today's world?<BR><BR>Some of us
might like to get rid of the whole idea of exceptionalism, but I think in this
country, it's there, and we have to engage it. Doing so, it seems to me,
is key to that long range and indirect strategy we've been talking about in
this conversation. It's essential if we're to have a real shot at
</BIG></BIG><BIG><BIG>changing the images from which we continue to act and
from which we and others continue to suffer. <BR><BR>Engaging these
conversations, I'm afraid, means welcoming and </BIG></BIG><BIG><BIG>listening
deeply to those with whom we strongly disagree--sharing and discussing
together what we think the times call us to preserve in our heritage, what to
leave behind and what to recreate.</BIG></BIG><BIG><BIG> If it's to
work, it will have to be uncomfortably inclusive, in a big tent, as the Occupy
folk like to say. <BR><BR>We could begin to start such
conversations in our workplaces, our churches, our book groups, our community
meetings, at the pub or coffee shop, over dinner with friends, on line, using
all these wonderful social media tools. It's something each of us could
tackle, if we chose to, without much of an organizational structure.
Maybe down the road at some point, . . . .<BR><BR>Is this a tactic--and a
conversation--we want to be part of?<BR><BR>Gordon</BIG></BIG><BR><BR><BR>On
12/17/2012 1:45 PM, <A class=moz-txt-link-abbreviated
href="mailto:jlepps@pc.jaring.my">jlepps@pc.jaring.my</A> wrote:<BR></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE cite=mid:87.84.10725.9929FC05@vsmtp3.jaring.my
type="cite">Colleagues <BR><BR>I'd like to add one more note to this lively
dialogue (which I hope continues, and perhaps even begins to focus).
<BR><BR>It's obviously the case that a change of heart is required in this
situation. The question becomes how to make that happen, and I'm reminded of
Martin Luther Kings's response to us WASPS who were opposing desegregation
because "we need to have hearts change to support integration." To
paraphrase him, "Laws can't make you love me, but they may prevent you from
killing me." Strict gun control may be that kind of law. And, IMHO, whatever
will prevent this sort of mass murder is worth doing. Also I've noticed that
hearts are remarkably adaptable to their external situation. <BR><BR>In
terms of luring the tiger, the question now that she's out of her lair
(sorry Cynthia), what do we do: well perhaps something initial like
forbidding the sale of assault weapons and mass magazines. That might be
able to get some support from tigers. After all, we endure considerable
inconvenience to insure safety on airplanes,, so perhaps the inconvenience
of forbidding access to these instruments of mass destruction might be a
possible first step. <BR><BR>I don't believe we'll be able to change tigers
into lambs, but maybe we can help de-fang them! <BR><BR>John
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