It Wasn’t a Miracle and Violence Breeds Violence.
Before I begin this rant, let me start by saying that things I am going to say are opinions. I may present some facts that support my opinions here but these are just opinions. Thoughts that are open to debate. Points that I may have overlooked. It’s just rant, it isn’t law and my opinion is always subject to change based on any real factual data or evidence to the contrary.
This rant has been rolling around my head since yesterday. At first it was my thoughts on the mom who was beating her kid to kid get him away from the riots in Baltimore. I have work to do and no time to write this rant but while taking a break and catching up on Twitter a few moments ago I see an amazing story about a baby that has been found alive and rescued from the rubble caused by the Nepal earthquake. Someone had re-tweeted the story and I re-tweeted their re-tweet. Then, they Favorited my re-tweet, re-tweeted that and said, “It’s a miracle.” And that was it, I had to rant!
First up, I need to rant about this crap about calling everything a miracle that isn’t a miracle at all. Things that are so far from miracles that it lessons what I imagine a real miracle would be. I am not talking those using the phrase “it’s a miracle” as a figure of speech. I’m talking about those using it as a fact. About a year ago there was a woman in Hawaii that was being attacked by a shark. Another person that thought it would be a good idea to swim in the ocean in the morning. Always a bad idea because mornings and early evenings are shark feeding times. Either unaware or defiant this woman went for a swim and was attacked by a shark. But, I digress.
It just so happened that some guy, a minister from California was on the beach and with incredible bravery swam out to the women in an attempt to save her. I come across this story on my Facebook feed and I think it’s a wonderful story or heroics and bravery. I want to share it but then I see a ton of people in the comment section praising it as a “miracle.” I comment that it wasn’t a miracle in great depth and of course I get attacked, so much so that the news anchor reporting the story, starts to attack me. She eventually sends me a private message and we actually end up talking on the phone and to some small extent become friends.
Anyways, once again I am being confronted with this non-sense of something being called a miracle that isn’t a miracle. Here’s why it’s a not a miracle. Nothing miraculous really happened. Something very unlikely happened. Something close to amazing happened. But, a miracle? Not even close. If you just take a step back and think about it rationally for a moment. I know that’s a lot to ask for some people but they really should give it a try every now and then Just take that step back and you will see how this is so not a miracle.
First, there are hundreds or people on this search and rescue mission. Think about that for a few seconds. It’s a search and a rescue mission. This means that these people are actively looking for survivors of this tragic event. Their whole mission is to look for survivors and every time they find one it’s called a miracle? Are you kidding me? It’s not a miracle. Jesus walking on water, I can see
being called a miracle. Raising the dead, I could see as a miracle. Well trained search and rescue personal finding a survivor, not a miracle. Now, had the rocks and debris magically moved away from the covered baby and then the baby floated out of the debris and into the arms of a rescuer, I could see calling it a miracle. But, when you have hard working, trained professionals succeed at their job, it’s not a miracle. It says everything about the bravery and intestinal fortitude of those involved in the rescue and nothing of any kind that makes this a supernatural event.
We can debate all day whether or not some god led these rescuers to the baby or that some god kept the child alive but that would pretty much conflict with the whole concept of free will. Also, if you’re going to call this a miracle then what you’re saying is that your god intentionally allowed thousands to die horribly while choosing to save only a handful. It’s pretty shitty no matter how you look at it. So let’s not go there. Calling it a miracle is offensive and it diminishes what we are supposed to believe were real miracles from the past. Walking on water, raising the dead and so on.
Now let’s move on to the mother who somehow recognized her son on TV while he was wearing a mask and a hoodie and dropped what she was doing to run out and find him. She managed to bring him in before he continued on with his blatant stupidity and poor judgment. I honestly applaud her for what she did. I truly wish more parents would have taken that kind of initiative.
However, I cringed while watching this mother slap the shit out of her son. And, to be honest on some animalistic level it felt good watching her attacking him. The kid was being an idiot and she was just beating some sense him into him! I get the national attention this video got. I get that people are cheering this woman on. But, it in some ways it saddens me deeply because I wonder how many times in his past he has been slapped by her. Does his father slap him around and call it discipline as well? I am just so against slapping kids. I am not saying you can’t spank them. However, I truly believe it’s not an effective tool for disciplining your child but I am not going to go as far as to say that you should never spank them. A little slap on the ass on to get their attention I can understand. But, slapping the shit out of your kid I just can’t condone on any level.
Here’s why, violence has been prove to breed violence. Parents that use violence to discipline their children usually have children that grow up and do the same. There are more effective ways to discipline your child. And, these riots might just be an example of why we really need to stop using violence as a tool to modify behavior. Violence is often used by those that have never learned how to resolve issues without it.
Take for example these riots. I completely empathize with the outrage that has led some of these people to act out with violence. When you were never taught how to do deal with your anger and then are faced with what must be a daily slap in the face by the media, law enforcement and local government, I get it. I get the anger and frustrations. But, the violence doesn’t solve anything.
To prove this, look on almost any conservative website and read the comments. The protestors as well as those taking part in the riots are being called animals, racial slurs and so on. In the eyes of these horribly shallow people they only see race and it further fuels their belief that most black people are just looking for a reason to act up, riot and more. They are devastating their own community and only hurting themselves and the ones they love. The people involved in the riot are damaging all the work the peaceful protesters have been doing by taking the spotlight away from the protests. I actually read a comment where some idiot said, “And, this is why the police beat them.”
One of the reasons people still speak of people like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. to this day is because their very non-violent ways of protesting. For Martin Luther King, Jr. racists had considered black people to be more like animals than people. His infinite patience and understand in the face of great injustice changed the hearts of millions upon millions. The more violent the police became, the more violent the racists became the more Martin Luther King, Jr. stayed true to what he preached and the world saw it was in many cases the cops resorting to violence and in every case it was the racist resorting to violence and name calling. The world saw the true spirit of the Civil Rights Movement. It was about human beings being denied the most basic of human rights. I understand there were rights back then too. But, by far the vast majority of rallies and protests were peaceful and non-violent, even when law enforcement and racists became violent. It almost always law enforcement and the racists that started the violence.
Now, once again, there are riots and once again, nothing good will come from it. But, all of this makes me wonder if it all starts in the home. I can only imagine if I found my son taking part in an activity like that. If I were in that mothers shoes, how I would react? I would have done a lot of things she did but I wouldn’t have beat him. I wouldn’t have had to. I would have told him to get his ass home and he would have. No matter how pissed off I would have been, I just wouldn’t have resorted to violence when it wasn’t needed. I am guessing, that mother didn’t know how to channel her anger. I am guessing she was pissed off and embarrassed and slapping the shit out of the kid was only way she knew how to express her emotions in that moment aside from also verbally berating him.
I parents supporting others for beating their child all the time. You can call it disciplining all you want, but slapping a child or beating them with a stick isn’t disciplining them, it’s abuse and we really need to except this because until we do, when we get pushed to our breaking points, violence will always be our primary response and its just got to stop. This isn’t a black or white issue. It’s a human nature issue. People from all races beat their kids and almost every one of those kids learns violence as a response to situations that make them angry. We’ve got to stop it.
There are just too many people outraged by what appears to be an epidemic of out of control and racists cops and they are understandingly so outraged that it continual leads to violence for them. They try to protest peacefully but one things leads to another and their emotions get the better of them. It just takes a few and then mob mentality takes over and that few becomes the many. We are all subject to it and it’s hard to not fall victim to it. But, I truly believe if we teach everyone the tools needed to control our anger we can literally save the lives of a great many people and prevent countless injuries, acts of vandalism and so on.
Violence should only be acceptable when their is no other option available. Self-defense comes to mind. But, nowhere in that video of the mom beating her kid did I see her needing to defend herself. I didn’t see that kid raise a hand to her. I didn’t see him even refusing to listen to her. What I saw was her anger and frustration get the best of her and she reacted to it in probably the only way she knew how and that was with violence. And, if you take that to the next level, her son was doing the very same thing before she arrived. His anger and frustration had gotten the best of him and he reacted in manor that was more than likely learned from his parents.
Just maybe if we can learn to respond to hate, anger and fear with more effective tools we could end violence altogether? But, I doubt that will happen anytime soon. I am pretty sure that if a lot of people actually read this rant, I would be attacked by many who feel they need to respond with name calling and violence. And, in a fun kind of way, they would prove my point for me.
