MONDAY, MAY 9TH, 2022 SPIRAL OF VIOLENCE

 MONDAY, MAY 9TH, 2022 SPIRAL OF VIOLENCE

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Let’s start with an Elvis Presley song - “In The Ghetto”

On a cold and gray Chicago morn

A poor little baby child is born

In the ghetto  (In the ghetto)

And his mama cries

'Cause if there's one thing that she don't need

It's another hungry mouth to feed

In the ghetto (In the ghetto)

People, don't you understand

A child needs a helping hand

Or he'll grow to be an angry young man some day

Take a look at you and me

Are we too blind to see

Do we simply turn our heads

And look the other way?

Well, the world turns

And a hungry little boy with a runny nose

Plays in the street as the cold wind blows

In the ghetto (In the ghetto)

And his hunger burns

So he starts to roam the streets at night

And he learns how to steal and he learns how to fight

In the ghetto  (In the ghetto)

Then one night in desperation

The young man breaks away

He buys a gun, he steals a car

Tries to run, but he don't get far

And his mama cries

As a crowd gathers 'round an angry young man

Facedown on the street with a gun in his hand

In the ghetto (In the ghetto)

And as her young man dies (In the ghetto)

On a cold and gray Chicago mornin'

Another little baby child is born

In the ghetto  (In the ghetto)

And his mama cries

In the ghetto (In the ghetto)

(In the ghetto)

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In Elvis’s song, the mother is thinking, “Cause if there's one thing that she don't need

It's another hungry mouth to feed”

The boy grows up - in the ghetto.

The lyrics add: People, don't you understand, A child needs a helping hand, Or he'll grow to be an angry young man someday

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And, of course, the boy grows up - as an angry young man (in the ghetto).  He learns to steal, he learns how to fight. 

And, if you hadn’t deduced the ending, yes, the boy in the ghetto tries to break out - and gets killed on the streets of Chicago. (I've heard that violence has been rampant in Chicago in the last year).

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This could go into the abortion discussion, but I’m not going there.  I’m writing this week about the ‘Spiral of Violence”.

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I’ve been reading a little book called “The Spiral of Violence” 

This comes from a Brazilian archbishop called Helder Camara in 1971. 

He’d come out with things like - why is it that “When I give food to the poor they call me a saint. But, when I ask why the poor have no food they call me a communist”?

 

Archbishop Camara wrote: That violence builds up at three levels in society. 

Primary violence is the everyday effect of structurally ingrained social injustice. This generates secondary violence - the revolt of the oppressed. 

And that in turn provokes tertiary violence - repression by the powerful to secure their privileged position. And so the spiral of violence tightens.

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More tomorrow!!!

LOVE WINS!!

Karen

Monday, May 9th