INTERNATIONAL
PASTORAL
CARE
NETWORK
FOR
SOCIAL
RESPONSIBILITY
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INTERNATIONAL
PASTORAL
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NEWSLETTER
MONTHLY UPDATE
June, 2003
by G. Michael Cordner, Th.D.
THOUGHTS ON THE MEDIA AND VIOLENCE
Today in a moment allowing space and quiet I came across an interesting article in the Williston Whistle. Many small towns in Vermont haw their weekly newspaper which keeps everyone up to date and aware. This particular article described a project in which local high school students are engaged. The project involves their creation of a community they regard as ideal. Students are very creative but also their thoughts are very profound and provocative. The communities created had many facets in common with one another-employment, recreation, child-care, and even justice and how they dealt with miscreants. They were also common in that no where in these communities was their any VIOLENCE. No wife-beating, no neighborhood squabbles, no arming oneself against one's neighbors. Truly ideal communities in their make-up and provisions. Even more attention grabbing was what students said about their creations. They recognized their ideal aspects. But they also said maybe, just maybe, one step at a time, little steps, they were realizable. They could happen.
The International Pastoral Care Network for Social Responsibility is engaged in a task similar to that of the students. Not just the creation of an ideal world, free of violence as an ideal, but the actual realization of that dream. We take steps toward its realization when we confront and respond to violence wherever and whenever it occurs. Between persons. Between communities. Between nations. In the ideal world we are creating neither persons nor nations call other persons or nations enemies. We do not lash out against those with whom we disagree. We do not arm ourselves so as to be better able to protect ourselves against violence aimed at us.
Am I being foolish? Too idealistic? Too naive? I must start somewhere, with the hope and assurance that others are also starting. In IPCNSR we have brought together ourselves and our dreams to make peace a reality. It starts with me. With each of us. And grows from there.
