I am currently on a two-month stint of being on the grand jury. This has been an educational experience. I wasn’t surprised to learn we have a meth problem in town, as some of my fellow jurors were. I knew that already. Nor was I surprised that there are too many men in town who have been taught no better way to solve a problem than with their fists or whatever weapon is at hand. I have ridden the bus with those men more than once. Nor that there are women in town with such low self-esteem that they will stay with abusive partners, not understanding that they have worth in and of themselves, not even comprehending that there is an alternative, such as education to give them a better future. When I worked for the county, I worked with more than one woman like that.
What surprised me was my fellow jurors, typically middle class people, often mock the people who get caught doing not very intelligent things. They think the answer to the violence in society is for every citizen to be armed. I see no compassion, no mercy, not even any sorrow for the people whose cases are presented to us. I feel like I have been living a sheltered life in the church, where we celebrate the worth of each person. The officials who tell us about these cases are officers of the law and those from the district attorney’s office. In them I see cynicism, and I wonder what it would be like to be in a job where people lie and give excuses so much that you no longer even consider they might be telling the truth. How much violence do you have to see to become numb to it?
What does this have to do with peace? There is no peace in the world the offenders and officers and lawyers inhabit. What would it mean to do active peacemaking in that world?
When I hear a case where drug or alcohol abuse has exploded into violence; when I hear of domestic partners falling out, often before the children; when I hear the anger that spews forth from an offender in vicious language, I wonder if that person could have been taught better, could have been made part of a caring community, could have been reached by a church getting involved in their lives.
I’m not trying to lay a guilt trip on anyone. My own meeting is involved in helping with food insecurity, another big problem in our community. We operate a food pantry and have a community garden and serve a meal to the poor monthly. This is our calling, and it is also a form of peacemaking because if people aren’t desperate for basic necessities, there will be less violence. It is also a place where each person who comes is treated with dignity. Hopefully, other churches are working in other areas of peacemaking in our town.
By the time cases get to the grand jury, it is the end of a process. All we can do at that point is treat the symptoms and deal with the fallout. But the real help should have come long before. Peacemaking is more than demonstrating against war. It is more than contacting our elected officials to protest an increase in military spending. It is more than feeling sick when we read of the violence in our towns and cities. Peacemaking needs to start in our own neighborhoods or perhaps in a nearby neighborhood where people aren’t as fortunate. Peacemaking needs to start with me.
Queries:
Am I aware of the problems in my neighborhood, town, or city?
Does my meeting teach the worth of each individual? How does that carry into my daily life?
How am I called to do active peacemaking in my neighborhood, town, or city?
by Karen L. Oberst, Klamath Falls Friends
Karen L. Oberst is a member of the NWYM Board of Communication. Her book But I Tell You is available from BarclayPress.com. Her website is www.faith-writer.com.
“This is our calling, and it is also a form of peacemaking because if people aren’t desperate for basic necessities, there will be less violence.
Thank you so much for your article, and your self relfection. Our call to peacemaking is huge and complex. However, I think the above quote misses much of that complexity. While I agree that helping folks in the name of Christ is a part of peacemaking, violence is not a simple matter of basic necessities being met. Note the violence in London about this time. The looting, destruction, and other violence being committed has little to do with basic necessities and instead is built by a culture.
Not that your article disagrees with this, but I think it is worth noting that peacemaking is a process of cultural change. One I fear we are loosing.