Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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JULY 1-7, 2015 UCW 5 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Like millions of ot her sad Americans, I cannot keep my mind away f rom t he horrible event at t he Bible st udy class in Charleston, k now n as t he " holy cit y," a reference, in par t, to it s many churches. Our nat ional dist ress and rev ulsion are clear. The mass murder of innocent s has st ruck a chord in us unlike it s grisly predecessors. Among t he millions t hink ing about t his v iolent at t ack are t housands also w rit ing about it — in various publicat ions and online w it h almost universal and righteous condemnat ion. Millions of words have spilled for t h and w ill cont inue to do so, addressing t he innocence of t he v ict ims, t he yout h and life inexpe- rience of t he presumed shooter and t he proliferat ion of g uns and g un v iolence in our cult ure unlike, as President Obama so rightly pointed out, any other developed nation. Given much note, as well, is the tearful forgiveness bestowed in court on the young man in custody by victims' families. How, we ask ourselves, could the families be so generous only hours after losing loved ones to sense- less and inexplicable violence? None of us underst and why our coun- t r y cont inues to experience t argeted and gross v iolence aimed at st rang- ers w it h whom t he shooters have no connect ion and, t hus, cannot t arget indiv idually. I do not pretend to under- st and any of it, but cer t ain aspect s st and out to me. Young men, guns and the Internet do not mix well. Development al researchers tell us t hat t he human brain, especially in men, is not mat ure unt il t he person is in his or her mid-20s. Think of inci- dent s since t he massacre at Columbine High School in 1999, including t he mass murders by g unf ire at a Sik h temple in Wisconsin, a Colorado mov ie t heater, a f irst-grade classroom in Sandy Hook, Connect icut, at t he Boston Marat hon, and, earlier t his year, in Chapel Hill. Except for t he Chapel Hill shoot ing , t he k illers were young men in t heir teens or early 20s, angr y and isolated if not ac t ually deranged. We must ask ourselves how and why our societ y is producing , even nur t uring , young men who k ill indiscriminately in mov ie houses and on cit y st reet s and somet imes w it h dist inct t arget s as in Wisconsin and Charleston. W hy and how does our cult ure grow such young men and prov ide t hem t he easy means to commit mass-murder? Mass-murders at rocit ies w ill not diminish unt il we ack nowledge and f ind answers to our quest ions. Par t of t he answers — in my mind, at least — is f ig uring out how we, t he American people, have come to t hink of people not like ourselves as "t he ot her." My photograph appears at t he bot tom of t his page and reveals me t he way I t hink of myself, as a late middle-aged white woman. You may not k now any t hing else about me, but chances are t hat readers w ill make assumpt ions about me and my life based on t hat photo, and for some, I w ill be "t he ot her." Par t of t his is human nat ure, but we in America at t his point in our histor y seem to have t aken "ot herness" to new height s. People who are not like us are "t hem." People of another color than our own are "others." So are people of different religious beliefs and traditions, so are people who dress differently, whose path to our nation was unlike our own and people of different economic situations. People somewhere along t he sexual spect rum dif ferent t han our place are rout inely ridiculed. Public school suppor ters may be sus- picious of private school suppor ters and v ice versa. People who cannot live w it hout g uns t hink t he g unless are nut s and v ice versa. Dit to for only English speak- ers and t hose who speak one or more ot her lang uages. Dit to for Fox News and MSNBC fans, for Democrat s and Republicans, for document ar y and realit y show watch- ers for Universit y of Nor t h Carolina-Chapel Hill and Nor t h Carolina St ate fans. You, of course, can t hink of many more "t hems" and "ot hers" and may even have some of your ow n. Our list s of "ot hers" and "t hems" now seem endless, and we are div iding and damaging our ow n nat ion and our ow n cult ure. We are separat ing ourselves f rom each ot her, and in t his div isive process, we are spaw ning mass murderers. No one, least of all I, has an answer to how we slipped away from Francis Bellamy's unif ying words embodied in our pledge of allegiance to our f lag, "…one nation under God, indivisible with libert y and justice for all." A s we prepare to celebrate t he 4t h of July, I hope I live long enough to see t he civ ilit y and respect implicit in t hat concept ret urn to our nat ion. All the Others by MARGARET DICKSON MARGARET DICKSON, Columnist. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com. 910.484.6200. Banquet rooms available up to 100 guests THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET