It is a Grim World (Grunwald) When Violence is Defended
I couldn’t sleep and got up to write something on my blog to find this issue of US Time Senior Correspondent Mike Grunwald making news in respect of a Tweet expressing his desire to write a defence of a drone strike on Australian, Julian Assange. I then discuss an Australian Chris Lane a baseball player killed randomly by American youth and an Australian military advertisement, all linking to the mindset of violence. I will provide commentaries between and below the articles.
Mike Grunwald’s comment is as follows, as reported by TIME:
A TIME Magazine reporter sparked a Twitter firestorm yesterday when he controversially stated he couldn’t wait for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to be killed in a drone strike.
Michael Grunwald wrote from his Twitter account: “I can’t wait to write a defense of the drone strike that takes out Julian Assange”.
The senior national correspondent was pressured to delete the offending tweet after a bewildered follower argued it would encourage Assange supporters.
Grunwald has written extensively about his support for the United States strategy of killing terrorists using unmanned military drones.
His comment, widely met with hostility online, was swiftly condemned by Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian who broke the story of NSA whistle-blower Edward Norton.
“Things like this make you not just understand, but celebrate, the failings of large media outlets – TIME edition,” Greenwald tweeted.
When I heard of the Time Journalist’s desire to write a defence on a drone strike of Julian Assange I then suddenly remembered the Australian baseball athlete who was killed jogging this week in Oklahoma, the United States. Teenagers are reported to have just randomly chosen to kill someone. He was shot in the back. Another was shot at a house.
Here is the story.
‘Senseless’ death of Australian baseball player
Jessica Wright and Deborah Gough
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The family of shooting victim and Australian baseballer Chris Lane have delivered an emotional tribute to their son, saying they are struggling to deal with his “senseless” killing.
There’s not going to be any good come out of this because it was just so senseless.
The 22-year-old Melburnian was gunned down on Friday when he left the home of his girlfriend and went for a jog in Duncan, a quiet town in southern Oklahoma with a population of just 25,000.
Christopher Lane with his girlfriend Sarah Harper. Photo: Facebook
Three teenagers are accused of the random drive-by shooting, with US authorities saying they were on a “killing spree” after leaving a chilling message on Facebook.
A 16-year-old boy has told police he fired on Mr Lane, according to Duncan chief of police Danny Ford. Chief Ford said the 16-year-old was with two other teens, aged 15 and 17, at the time of the shooting. All three have been arrested.
Chief Ford said the accused killers drove to another house to murder a second, unrelated, victim just hours after shooting Lane in the back and leaving him to die on the side of a road.
Tragic loss: Christopher Lane. Photo: Essendon Baseball Club
His father, Peter Lane, spoke to reporters outside his son’s Australian sporting home, the Essendon Baseball Club.
“He was a kid on the cusp of making his life,” Mr Lane said. “He gave up a lot to follow his dreams.
“There’s not going to be any good come out of this because it was just so senseless.
“There wasn’t anything he did or could have done.
“He was an athlete going for a jog like he would do five or six days a week in terms of his training schedule.
“It’s happened, it’s wrong and we just try and deal with it the best we can.”
Chris was the product of a good family and close-knit sporting community, his father said.
He had dreamed of attending a college in the United States since he was 15.
“He was a very talented athlete, he was a very talented junior footballer as well,” Mr Lane said.
“He picked baseball because it gave him a chance to go to college.”
Lane, who grew up in Oak Park in Melbourne’s north, was studying at East Central University (ECU), where he had won a scholarship to be the team’s catcher, and had been back in the US for just three days after visiting his family in Australia, along with girlfriend Sarah Harper. The pair had been together for four years.
In a Facebook tribute posted just hours after his death, Ms Harper said she had “amazing memories” and cherished a “last adventure together”.
“I love you so much babe. From 2009 until forever you will always be mine and in a very special and protected place in my heart,” she wrote.
US authorities say the tragic event was a case of Lane being caught in the the wrong place at the wrong time.
The three boys, in a black car, randomly spotted Lane, police allege.
“They followed him,” Chief Ford said. “They came up from behind, shot him in the back with a small-calibre hand gun and sped off.”
On one of the alleged killers’ Facebook pages investigators said they later found the message: “Bang. Two drops in two hours.”
“They wanted to be Billy Bob Badasses,” Chief Ford said.
“I think they were on a killing spree.
“We would have had more bodies that night if we didn’t get them.”
Witnesses saw Lane stumble across the road and then get down on his knees before struggling to a drainage area on the side of the road.
A woman came from a nearby house to attempt CPR while another woman in a car called police.
Despite paramedics and police getting to the scene in minutes and transporting Lane to a nearby hospital, he was pronounced dead about an hour later.
“I know everybody thinks there has to be a reason, but I’ve been in this business for 30 years and there doesn’t have to be a reason with these kids,” the chief said.
“It is a sad, sad thing what happened with that young man.”
Frank FitzGerald, former principal of St Bernard’s College in Essendon, told Fairfax Media he knew Lane from year seven thorough to year 12 and that he had been ‘‘very highly regarded by all people at school’’.
‘‘He had such leadership qualities…and was a most cherished member of…the leadership group.
‘‘People had the highest regard for Chris, as he was a gentle person who would go out of his way to help fellow students,’’ Mr FitzGerald said.
Staff and student leaders, as well as Chris’ friends and sports mates are in shock, he said.
‘‘He was a very good athlete…and had the potential to play AFL football, but preferred to play another sport – baseball. He was also a member of the champion athletics team’’.
The Lane family had generational links to the school and had contributed to the school over many years, Mr FitzGerald said.
‘‘They are a wonderful family…I think the whole community is in shock’’.
Friends and teammates have begun changing their profile pictures on Facebook to images of Lane.
with Caroline Zielinski
When I was looking at the article (above) about Chris Lane’s murder, I saw an advertisement on military aircraft titled ‘creating Australian jobs’. I thought it was a video and tried to stop it but it just clicked up into a big advertisment and this is what it said in part.
Australia
5th Generation Capability for Australia
In 2009, the Australian Government announced its selection of the conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) F-35A Lightning II to replace its classic Hornet fighter fleet, building on a more than 50-year partnership between the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and Lockheed Martin. Some 100 5th Generation F-35As will transition the RAAF into a next generation net-centric fighter force that is capable of assuring the nation’s territorial integrity and national security…
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The issue of violence was placed in my face and unwittingly these links just came to me. The mentality of a Time journalist airing his desire to write a defence of a drone strike on an Australian, Julian Assange. Then the Australian athelete murdered whilst jogging by American youths – apparently for no reason, only the desire to kill. Lastly, the Australian Government buying attack aircraft from Lockheed Martin. I was not lost on what these articles had in common – the acts of violence as a mentality immune to the suffering of others. The idea that violence is legitimate is spawned from the military mindset associated with security.
My questions are – does violent mentalities bring security, peace or indeed freedom? Did the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Syria and now Egypt bring security or does it create pain, suffering, insecurity and the desire for endless revenge? Does it solve the problem or escalate the hatred? Is violence democracy? (sharing power or power over?)
Remember the old adage of revenge ‘an eye for an eye’. I recall Gandhi quoted as saying “an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.” That is, we can’t see the other, only our hatred is seen and that envisages the enemy. When I was teaching values and nonviolence I had the children experience a blindspot test. I made them cover one eye and look at a square card with two dots of equal spacing on it. As they stared at one dot the other disappeared. I explained to them when we think we are right we can’t see the other dot. We have a blindspot in our eyes. Sometimes we are absolutely sure we are right and the other viewpoint (dot) doesn’t exist. It disappears. Yet when we open both eyes we can see both dots, albeit, both sides. In truth the dots were always there but only when we choose to see the truth of matters. If we seek to be right we look for evidence to prove it, because we don’t like the feeling of being wrong. Moreover, the ego protects itself and has to reinforce its rightness and sometimes people will kill to defend an idea. I wonder if we can love each other enough to allow for other ideas and simply explore the differences without making one side right and the other wrong.
That is why constructive conversations that are not sound bytes but open forums designed to allow contrasting views can meet in a safe space. Open forums can be very illuminating in helping us grow through contrasts, as people. To create glee clubs (agreement) or groups where you either agree with us (for us) or are against us creates two camps and one has to be the enemy. This is the world of win/lose not win/win through diversity. We were meant to differ and through that tension we question ourselves and wisdom naturally arises. Yet we were never meant to take ourselves so seriously and actually desire the death of another. The tension was to bring us to truth. In order to do that we have to be able to look at ourselves honestly. We see that idea of using tensions to play out in the adversarial court system, political forums and the traditional Agora’s. In these ancient forums democracy was first birthed. As people stood up to speak their views in front of everyone, open to critique but not violence. Democracy was supposed to be the forum for airing diverse views as a safety valve release for society. In fact much of the argument against dictatorship is that tension builds as people are oppressed, thus it is important to allow for freedom of speech. I would qualify this by stating an intention in search of truth rather than playing politics in search of power. Democracy is not sameness it is freedom of expression as a search for truth rather than being right. There is a significant difference. Moreover, and most importantly, violence is not love. Love of the self and others creates a space for truth speaking. Of course the highest love is to speak the truth to yourself. Violence distracts from the real problem.
The real feeling I have in this moment is that violence begets violence and it sinks into a unconscious mentality that no longer understands the value of justice as fairness over retributive actions. Retribution judges as wrong and the other must be punished. The moment we slip into judgement impartiality is lost. I guess when citizens are exposed to endless movies depicting violence as the norm, this becomes normalised in our psyche’s and justifications found. We see nothing wrong in it. It is not real!
The article about the Time journalist, if accurate, conveys he had trouble seeing the problem with his Tweet, and after criticism, decided to apologise. I note there was no remorse it was simply not to give his opponents an advantage, he couldn’t see his own violence inherent in his statement. He appeared not sensitised to how his Tweet may indeed incite anger or influence a mentality that reacts with violence, even if in word. If enough people believe words they manifest reality. We saw that in the war on terror and the secret communications that Wikileaks revealed. It is not easy for any of us to look into the mirror and see the enemy is ourselves. That is because projection is so powerful, we don’t even realise we are in denial as we push out what we don’t like in ourselves onto others and we see that as blame or condemnation. The moment we go into defence or attack, we are in denial of something within us. It is worth contemplating on.
Turning to the young teenage boys who decided they wanted to kill a stranger, begs the question – why? What made these kids even have the negative desire to kill rather than positively help someone? What had influenced their thinking? What were they seeking? Was it power they were seeking? Clearly they could not connect to the consequences for this victim’s family and the ripples of how the crime affected others. They would not have contemplated the pain the families and loved one’s carry for life nor indeed how they have changed their lives. It is a blindspot, sometimes it is called emotional detachment as a vision is playing in their heads. The consequences are not seen in violent movies, the consequences are never shown or analysed. It is just wanton violence where someone wins and someone loses with no consequence. That is the subtle nature of brainwashing and repeated exposures to violence, people eventually de-sensitise. The watching of videos or online media enables this repeated exposure and I am certain it affects behaviour. We are easily influenced. If we have little experience in life, then we are vulnerable to brainwashing.
Do I seek, as an Australian revenge? absolutely not. What I seek is understanding that this Australian athelete Chris Lane did not die in vain but that his death sparks a deeper inquiry within the United States about the Culture of Violence that affects all of us. The deaths of children in schools is a sign that something is deeply wrong in American society. I recall turning my head away from a really violent American movie shown on a bus when I was travelling in Mexico. I was stunned at how horrible the film was and how loud. No storyline just gratuitous violence. I had to plug in my ear plugs and listen to Byron Katie, the voice of self inquiry and in my view, sanity (refer www.thework.com). Byron Katie asserts all war should be put on paper and that our negativity is 100% projection. Yet when we question for truth we find what we see in the world is a reflection of our own beliefs. Her inquiry starts with the questions – 1) is it true? 2) can you be absolutely sure it is true? 3) how do you feel/react when you believe the thought? 4) Who would you be without the thought? 5) Turn it around (projection). How many of us actually ask the question – is it true? to question our own beliefs. We are quick to hold onto them believing we are right and always the other is wrong. In conflict resolution there are cartoons of a duck looking into a pond and seeing a swan. I always remember that when I think I am right. The most powerful statement you can make is ‘I could be wrong’ as it opens your mind to possibilities. Another thought ‘is it better to be right or happy?’. How much unhappiness has been caused by intractable conflicts where both parties don’t budge, we see this in families and years of feuds. Seeking for truth opens to deeper philosophical questions designed to have us reflect on what is true. Questioning brings us out of unconsciousness, as truth leads us to our true selves.
It is the truth that sets us free.
Is it true that this TIME writer desires to write a defence about drone strikes on Julian Assange or is it masking a deeper fear, a perception of exposing US defences makes him feel vulnerable? If this is true, why does he feel vulnerable? To what? Did the exposure of cables make the US more vulnerable? What is the evidence of that? Is it the feeling of vulnerability that makes us insecure? Does what you resist persist? and so on. The point is to question for truth. It is far more efficient as a solution than conflict that seeks right and wrong and entrenches conflict eventually escalating it into enemies of them and us and causing physical harm (violence). That is why we have endless wars, we haven’t learned to inquire into the truth or identify our blindspots.
It is true that the teenage boys killed the Australian athelete for no reason or was it masking powerless and confusion in these teenage boys? Why does killing make them feel powerful? How do we help the young people find clarity, what is true?
Does the threat of violence bring security? Or does the threat incite more violence? Can the threat of violence protect nation states or does it escalate distrust between neighbours? The questions are essential as they will lead you to real answers, if it is truth you are after.
Well I’ve spent a good part of the night writing. So I will go off to bed and dream of world peace where we no longer need to send out hate into the world. Where we can learn from contrasts, differences and tensions to find that life was always sending us what we needed not necessarily what we wanted. That our journey through this life is to discover who we really are and to reach for the highest part of ourselves, through contrasts we must decided what we choose. Life is always presenting scenarios. Life, when deeply questioned is kind and you are incredible, wonderful and infinite in potential. So I send you love and peace and all those above who either incite violence, inflict it or promote it. I especially send you love, as it was always the answer you were looking for.