Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. First Amendment, U.S. Constitution
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords read these words as members of the 112th Congress recited the Constitution Thursday, January 6. On January 9, Congresswoman Giffords exercised her right to peaceable assembly and freedom of speech in front of a grocery store in Tucson, Arizona, where she was critically wounded with a bullet through the brain. Six individuals who were attending the assembly were killed and others were wounded. It was a tragic day for our nation.
There have been numerous comments suggesting the perpetrator of this crime was influenced by the hateful, violent and vitriolic rhetoric permeating much of our political discourse in the last few years. Jared L. Loughner, the 22-year-old accused assassin, has been described as “mentally unstable,” and he may or may not have been pushed over the edge by the rhetoric.
What we say and how we express ourselves does have consequences that transcends our intentions. Freedom of speech must be exercised wisely if it going to be a positive aspect of our social contract.
The Hebrew and Christian scriptures begin with the power of the word. “In the time of beginnings,” the book of Genesis tells us, the Creator spoke, “Let there be,” and the world – light, life, earth, sun and moon and stars – came into being. The scripture offers an explanation of how things came into being. It also suggests, I believe, we, too, create the world in which we find ourselves by what we say and what we express.
We speak in many ways. We say, for instance, “It’s a beautiful day.” By saying this, we acknowledge the day is beautiful, and we also create for us, and others, a day that is beautiful. Others hear us say the day is beautiful, and they begin to feel good about the day. This is so even if the day didn’t start out for them as all that beautiful.
The opposite is also true. We say, “Oh, what a gray, dreary day,” and though saying this may reflect our feelings, it does little to make the day worth living. By our words, we often create the kind of day we will live through.
There are other ways to speak and create the world in which we live. At a recent movie, numerous trailers were shown previewing coming attractions. A large percentage of these trailers were of the high tech action genre. Guns were blasting and bullets flying. Cars crashing and flames engulfed the screen. I found myself caught-up in the action. My heart began to beat faster and I found myself on the edge of my seat. I began to experience an adrenalin rush and high.
My mind and metabolism was not accustomed to this onslaught so my reaction was to recoil from the images and the feelings they caused to arise within me. I could see, though, others in the theater enjoyed the experience. I could see that they welcomed the metabolic changes they were experiencing. The trailers were, it seemed to me, perfectly designed to appeal to those who were addicted to the action. Images are words in a different form and they have power. We can become addicted to them and crave the high they offer.
On talk radio and on TV’s Fox and MSNBC networks a different kind addiction is created and sustained. The rhetoric of outraged anger is presented day after day. It feeds upon our fears and suspicions and causes people’s blood to boil. Adrenalin surges through our bodies and a kind of mob mentality forms.
People become addicted to the their feelings of anger and tune in to have this feeling renewed. We become a society defined by our anger, suspicion, fear and mistrust. In this atmosphere, it would be folly to think violence wouldn’t break out on occasion.
What we say, how we say it and the images we let loose upon the world are living things. In the Christian Scripture’s Gospel of John the author picks up on the Word as expressed in Genesis’ creation story.
John says that, “The Word became flesh and lived among us.” This is, of course, a reference to the person of Jesus. It also reveals another truth: what we say takes on a life of its own. It becomes flesh and blood. Hateful anger spoken can turn to hateful acts of violence. It behooves us, then, to be careful about what we say. It suggests we should be discriminating about what we will allow ourselves to hear and see, and what we will allow our children to hear and see.
We must, as a kind of antidote to the vitriolic atmosphere we experience daily, choose to regularly speak and express words and images of beauty and peace. We must invite into our souls words and images of love and compassionate respect. A gun strapped to our side will not make our world less violent. Only when there are enough people bearing words and images of harmony will our nation become less violent. Words do matter, so let us choose the words we hear and the words we say wisely.
