The Not OK Corral

I have been quite taken, shaken by the shootout killing in Tuscon, Arizona on Saturday, January 8.  Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, holding a constituents meeting called, "Congress on Your Corner" at a Safeway (?) supermarket, was critically injured. Six people, including a U.S. judge and a nine-year old girl were killed and several others were injured.

One of the earliest and most impressive commentaries I saw was a blog post/sermon by Fred Hamond, author of the blog, Unitarian Universalist Minister in the South, and a minister in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. His post was entitled, Find the Cost of Freedom.

Here are a couple of excerpts:

This treating others as we would have them treat us is hard work, it seems.  It is far easier to denigrate others, to ostracize others, to refuse to understand the other’s plights.  Yet, we must begin to see that each person is part of who we are as a people.  When one person suffers in our country, we all suffer.  When an injustice is done to one person; injustice is done to all of us.   

...

 To undo the history of our nation’s propensity to violence takes each of us to transform our own hearts towards peace, towards nonviolence in all areas of our lives.  Not just in reducing physical violence against another but also seeking to reduce emotional and spiritual violence towards others.  A harsh word as we have seen can engender physical violence in another. 

I recommend the full post.

May Peace Prevail in Arizona and in the United States! Condolences and prayers regarding the victims and their families.