culture of violence

this semester i'm taking the most intriguing class called "diversity in the classroom." each week i come away with swirling thoughts as i think about my beliefs, what shaped those beliefs, and the beliefs of our society in relation to culture and diversity. sometimes i come away angry: angry of the lessons i was taught, whether purposely or inadvertently, about people of different cultures, colors, religions, and the like. what i am thankful for is an education that has helped to me to create my own beliefs and decipher for myself what is true and good.

last week we talked about something that i just can't shake out of my head. in our discussion of African American history, we started talking about the culture of violence. unfortunately, a culture of violence is a perpetual cycle that is very difficult to break. for example, if a child witnesses his father being lynched, he is going to harbor that anger and take it out on others, which will be witnessed by his child, which will be mirrored and copied, etc. it's a cyclical pattern that, without education and intense intervention, will not stop.

in this discussion, we talked briefly about the taliban. in today's world, i think we are all, myself included, quick to say, this group of people is evil. period. end of story. the greater question that we need to be asking is WHY these people do the evil things they do. people do not just go around bullying others out of context. when you look at the history of the taliban, you find that almost all of the members of the taliban grew up in orphanages and/or refugee camps. they witnessed their parents being murdered. they never experienced stability, and they never had the foundation of a home, family, and education that so many of us take for granted. they have witnessed atrocities that are beyond our comprehension. in an effort to belong to something, they belong to the taliban who, in their mind, is fighting against that which stripped them of their lives.

does understanding this history condone their behavior? no. absolutely not. does it give it context and, perhaps, explain why they are angry? absolutely. enter a perpetual culture of violence.

what worries me about entering afghanistan and overtaking the taliban is that it will cause the disheartening destruction that inspired the current taliban members to join. if we go in, kill off kids' parents, displace families, and exude destructive forces, are we not fighting fire with fire? as we look at history, we can see that demonstrating violence will only perpetuate the cycle of that which we want to end. does something need to be done? yes. but our tactics have to be thoughtful and intentional if we truly want the violence to end.

while i do not have a solution, i do know this, as so wonderfully said by albert einstein: peace cannot be kept by force. it can only be achieved by understanding.