Remarks to the Speak-In
Teach-Out on Oct 28, 2002 -- www.PeaceAware.com
Department of Criminal Justice
New Mexico State University
I was there while an unknown shooter was killing people
daily
I was there when the drama of the apprehension of two men
alleged to be the snipers unfolded
Members of the suburban communities surrounding D.C. were
united in their fear, sadness, and disbelief over this violence and threat of
violence in their lives
This image of violence as interpersonal and random is
pervasive in the larger society in the U.S.
Interpersonal violence is the non-natural deaths and
injuries caused by specific behavioral actions of individuals against
individuals
Interpersonal violence especially as it becomes a
mediated event is often understood/portrayed as deviation from the otherwise
smooth and safe workings of our society
Ripples waves on otherwise tranquil waters.
There is much talk on T.V. these last few days of things
returning to calm and safe normalcy in the larger D.C. area.
Violence that is woven into the fabric of our society
structural violence is silent. It IS the tranquil waters the status quo-
to which we see ourselves as returning in the aftermath of the sniper killings.
Structural violence is increased rates of death and
disability suffered by those with the least power and resource in society.
According to Johan Galtung, one of the founders of peace
studies,
In a static society, personal violence will be registered, whereas structural violence may be seen as about as natural as the air around us.
The net result of interpersonal violence and structural
violence is often the same. One is violence that hits human beings as a direct
result of actions of others, and one is violence that hits them indirectly
because repressive structures are upheld by the concerted action of human
beings.
An important difference is that structural violence causes
much more suffering and many more deaths than interpersonal violence.
State-sanctioned violence is one form of structural
violence that doesnt make the news as violence.
There are forms of coercion and force that are owned and
controlled by the state.
The exercise of state force against its own citizens in the
form of incarceration or execution is popularly viewed as a response to
violence rather than a form of violence in itself. The calming of the waters
justice as the restoration of alleged social harmony.
Waging economic and literal war is the international or
global version of this. War is popularly viewed as a response to violence
or the threat of violence.
What this teach in represents to me, in part, is the
opportunity to encourage one another to speak about structural violence and
state-sanctioned violence including economic sanctions and war as
violence.
It is a way of amplifying and interrupting the silence of
structural violence and rejecting the ideas pervasive in our conceptions of
violence.
Rejecting the ideas:
- that when poor people and people of color suffer and die from poverty that this is not violent.
-that when children in Iraq die because of illnesses that are easily cured with medicine denied to them that this is not violent.
-that when snipers employed by the state are sent to kill citizens of other countries that this is not violent.
War is violence. A simple idea whose time has come.
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