Teaching Violence as a Virtue

Recently I was stopped at a red light behind a green Ford Bronco with time to read its bumper sticker: “My kid beat up your honor student.” I read it a second and third time and then worked to control my rage, my outrage. I’m sure the driver’s son has clear knowledge of how to make his dad proud, of what constitutes an admirable achievement, a display of praiseworthy character and commendable leadership. Forget reading, writing, arithmetic. Forget history and geography. Forget real athletic and artistic accomplishments. Pummel a “nerd”! Kick a dog! Applause, applause!

A teacher in Lancaster recently asked her class of 10-year-olds, “How many of you have guns in your house?” My friend’s granddaughter was the only one of 30 children who didn’t raise her hand. Feeling like an outsider, she went home and asked her parents to buy a gun. Virginia Military Institute invited and paid G. Gordon Liddy to be the honored speaker at its May 1999 commencement ceremony. The televised address identified Liddy as a “radio talk show host,” not as “ex-convict.” I believe speakers at graduation ceremonies of educational institutions are generally expected to deliver words that inspire the school’s graduates to lead exemplary and productive lives as informed and involved members of our society. Liddy’s speech was indeed memorable, at least to me; my teeth are still on edge. Never having recanted his efforts to subvert the U.S. Constitution during the Nixon era, he cynically lectured his audience on the need to develop “character and leadership.”

Liddy reminded the graduates that their years of education at VMI were devoted to “training you to kill people and blow up things.” He told them they, therefore, should not allow themselves to be used in a policing action in any arena. If they find themselves with a commander in chief not to their liking (President Carter in his anecdote), they should not leave the service. “Hang in there,” Liddy urged, because the next commander in chief may well be what they desire (President Reagan in Liddy’s example). Did he mean that members of the armed forces, in order to maintain job satisfaction, require a president who affords them multiple opportunities “to kill people and blow up things”?

At this time we, rationally, have expected families and schools, as well as religious institutions, to instill a sense of communal ethics and values in our children. What would parents in Littleton, Colo., in Jonesboro, Ark., in Springfield, Ore., in too many other towns in this country say about that bumper sticker, about Liddy’s VMI speech?

Like President Clinton and many others, I believe the media bear some responsibility for our young people becoming inured to the aftermath of violence. I also believe that the father driving that SUV and Liddy, and their fans (including those at VMI who invited Liddy to speak) bear major responsibility for the endorsement of violence against others as a worthy means of personal expression. If we accept brutality as a valid mode for settling our differences, for showing our superiority, for “making points,” we will further balkanize our society. That will do more to undermine our Constitution than Liddy and his band of thieves ever could accomplish. That is not the society I wish for my grandchildren.