I’ve been upset regarding the violence on our campus and at Virginia Tech. Because I like to put events into a larger context, I started connecting the suicides and the tragedy at Virginia Tech to the global state of violence. How can we expect people to act peacefully while the media and state sends out continuous messages that praise what Jordan O’Connell insightfully referred to as narcissistic war?

Art Ranney encompassed my opinion when he wrote a column last week. Ranney implied that with language and conversation that is conducive to understanding, hype, shock-jock media that feeds fear and violence will decay and become replaced with thoughtful and meaningful discourse.

So how does this relate to suicide and murder? “If we’re serious about finding a resolution to this bloodshed, it behooves us to contemplate the nature of both our own and our government’s interactions with others, principally with those we don’t especially like,” as Jordan O’Connell said.

Human compassion is the answer to resolving this epidemic of violence. Compassion includes resisting social barriers to reach out to others who may not have many friends, treating all people with respect even if they’ve made mistakes, and giving people second chances. It means embracing and advocating for a foreign policy that supports economic sustainability and societal needs, not military and violence.

As a society and as a global power, it is time that we make peace a priority. Let’s put a Secretary of Peace in the Cabinet. Let’s give the Department of Peace the same funding we give the Department of War. See how long it would take for well- paid, dedicated people to identify that the solution for violence and terrorism is justice, not with a closed fist of violence, but with an open hand of opportunity.

Everyone, no matter where she’s born or who he is, wants the same thing: a financially stable life, personal well-being and to live without fear. By establishing peace as a social and global priority, we all have the power to achieve that.
Without society telling us that violence is the answer, and even going so far as addressing depression and mental illness as real problems and funding them, perhaps we can avoid the kind of violence we’ve seen in Platteville and Virginia Tech the past few weeks.