Musings: Boston Bombing

Recently at the Boston Marathon, another major tragedy took place in one of our most beautiful cities. Amidst the confusion, grief and loss, I think one question we MUST ask is why are we the most violent first-world nation? This would lead to other vital questions:

1. Why is there so much unabated anger in our population?
2. Why are we so obsessed with guns and weapons and now bombs?
3. What is it going to take for us to promulgate serious reform to curb violence in our cities, schools and communities?
4. How urgent and important is this action?

As I write this, my mind wonders where will be the next hit. Although the authorities and media identified two brothers as the suspects, there are still many questions left unanswered. No matter the details of this particular story, one thing is for certain: for such horrific situations, we need a solution and swiftly. I believe such a solution will have both a short-term and a long-term strategy.

The short-term strategy is to pass meaningful and helpful gun and violence legislation. I am glad we are having a nationwide conversation on this issue, and it is important we all get engaged. I speak as a US citizen and a victim of gun violence when I say that there needs to be a focus on the types of weapons we address with legislation. For example, handguns are made to kill human beings. Whereas I recognize that a ban isn’t politically possible, I do favor regulating ownership of handguns. Gun owners should be registered, receive a comprehensive background check, pay a fee and pass a test before they are allowed to possess a handgun much like we do when using an automobile. We must ban the Saturday night specials and automatic assault weapons. For more details about short-term strategies, see link HERE.

The long-term strategy is teaching the principles of nonviolence. Since I lost my son 18 years ago I have been actively working – through TKF, CANEI and now CSN – on teaching the principles of empathy, compassion, forgiveness and peacemaking. TKF notes these points in four of their key messages:

• Violence is real and hurts everyone.
• Everyone deserves to be loved and treated well.
• We can all make nonviolent choices and offer forgiveness instead of revenge
• In conflict lies the opportunity to create love and unity (as exemplified by my purposeful relationship with the killer of my son Tony Hicks, and his grandfather and guardian Ples Felix).

It would be such a wonderful world if everyone held these key messages to be true.

It’s exciting for me, after all these 18 years of peace and forgiveness work, to realize that these principles of nonviolence are teachable! Is that not exciting? Since violence is a learned behavior – no child was born violent – we are proving that nonviolence can also be a learned behavior, and TKF is the nation’s most effective program to teach these important principals.

Another positive point is that kids today are thirsty for such knowledge. Through my journey, these principles are validated and come alive in those who hear the message. I have given in excess of 1,000 school presentations, reached over 1 million children and received 100,000 letters. And in each the desire for peace is alive.

Think about it – in a couple of generations we can create a society that is nonviolent, compassionate, forgiving and committed to peacemaking. We would then set a positive example for the rest of the world, showing that America can not only excel in technology, business and sciences. but it can also solve social challenges that plague many parts of our planet and society.

It will be that day – as peace overrides violence, as love and brotherhood overrides revenge and war – when we reveal the higher decision and find solution to our society’s heinous acts of violence … with another choice of action.