Children must learn that violence is not answer to problems: Messages of Faith

Plain Dealer guest columnist By Plain Dealer guest columnist The Plain Dealer
on May 10, 2013 at 8:00 PM
lograsso.JPGSister Beverly Anne LoGrasso

Last summer, my 10-year-old godchild and I went to see "Ice Age." Almost every seat in the theater was available. He led me up to the top row of the balcony. When I asked him why he chose these seats, he replied: "Didn't you hear about Colorado?"

His question -- a reference to the mass shooting at a Colorado movie theater --haunts me. I am alarmed, saddened and frustrated to find an adequate response that comforts him and me and, especially, incorporates safety into his worldview as a young man who is an American citizen.

A friend who is the mother of a son pointed out to me that my godchild's response was protective of both himself and me, a healthy sign of developing male self-identity. At the same time, she recounted how she struggled with her own son in his maturing process to help him sort out his feelings of anger so that he could do constructive problem-solving.

In addition to the Aurora, Colo., shooting in 2012, we have seen the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., the Boston marathon bombing and other tragedies.

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry holds that a possible effect of saturated TV/video/media violence is a gradual acceptance of violence as a way to solve problems. What are our children learning about problem-solving when the first resort they see on a regular basis in the world around them is the use of a gun?

If we are to give our children a future that holds a reason to hope, we have to come together to do a better job teaching them to use their intelligence and imagination in positive and constructive ways to solve personal problems and build safer communities.

United States citizens using God-given creative ingenuity to address seemingly insurmountable problems is not new: We can easily call to mind Ohioans Orville and Wilbur Wright, Thomas Edison and, of course, Americans Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

Beyond our shores, two young American Peace Corps members in Guatemala organized a project that transforms trash into building material: Empty soda bottles, chip bags and candy wrappers were placed between chicken wire and covered with cement to create walls for a two-room schoolhouse for 300 students. Beside their American citizenship, what these men have in common as role models is their ability to harness their God-given imaginations in ways that make daily life more helpful for many people. None of the problems they solved involved the use of a gun.

Their example can inspire us to move beyond a "hopeless and helpless" attitude in response to the violence around us.

When we can help each other in families, schools and on the athletic field by taking the time and having the patience to actively help children, teens and adults sort out their anger and fear to find concrete solutions, we may begin to restore to our children the "freedom from fear" promised by President Roosevelt in 1941.

If you believe that God, by whatever name you call God, is a creator and not a destroyer; this belief holds powerful potential. When we choose to use our God-given reasoned, reflective, imaginative problem-solving abilities to address the anger, untreated mental illness, and fear rampant in our communities, we more truly mirror the God who made us and who is counting on us.

Sister Beverly Anne LoGrasso is an Ursuline sister.