Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
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millennial hope S 179<br />
with fewer highways and more bike trails, fewer malls and better<br />
schools, less television and more parks, fewer smokestacks and<br />
more windmills, fewer gangs and more attentive parents, fewer jobs<br />
outsourced <strong>to</strong> inhuman sweat shops overseas and more permanent,<br />
well-paying, green jobs in <strong>the</strong> local economy. That would, indeed,<br />
be not nirvana but a “kinder and gentler society,” and that leads <strong>to</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong> fourth transition.<br />
On Oc<strong>to</strong>ber 2, 2006, a lone gunman entered an Amish schoolhouse<br />
near <strong>the</strong> village <strong>of</strong> Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, and opened<br />
fi re, killing fi ve girls and severely wounding fi ve o<strong>the</strong>rs. In <strong>the</strong><br />
aftermath, what was surprising was not that yet ano<strong>the</strong>r wellarmed<br />
gunman had snapped and gone on a killing spree, but ra<strong>the</strong>r<br />
<strong>the</strong> Amish response. Instead <strong>of</strong> anger, recrimination, and lawsuits,<br />
within hours <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> shootings <strong>the</strong> Amish reached out <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> killer’s<br />
family, <strong>of</strong>fering forgiveness, mercy, and help (Kraybill, Nolt, and<br />
Weaver-Zercher, 2007, p. 43). Instead <strong>of</strong> hatred and revenge, <strong>the</strong><br />
response was <strong>to</strong> <strong>of</strong>fer <strong>the</strong> killer’s widow and children friendship<br />
and support. At one open-casket funeral, <strong>the</strong> grandfa<strong>the</strong>r <strong>of</strong> one <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong> victims admonished <strong>the</strong> younger children not <strong>to</strong> “think evil <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong> man who did this” (p. 45). At <strong>the</strong> killer’s funeral, “About thirtyfi<br />
ve or forty Amish came <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> burial. They shook [<strong>the</strong> family’s]<br />
hands and cried. They embraced Amy [<strong>the</strong> killer’s widow] and <strong>the</strong><br />
children. There were no grudges, no hard feelings, only forgiveness”<br />
(p. 46). The acts <strong>of</strong> forgiveness were “nei<strong>the</strong>r calculated nor<br />
random,” but ra<strong>the</strong>r “emerged from who <strong>the</strong>y were long before”<br />
(p. xii). The Amish take <strong>the</strong> admonition <strong>to</strong> avoid violence and<br />
forgive <strong>the</strong>ir transgressors seriously. Amish forgiveness, none<strong>the</strong>less,<br />
raises many perplexing questions. Should we forgive those<br />
who in cold blood harm o<strong>the</strong>rs? Should forgiveness extend <strong>to</strong><br />
those who commit particularly heinous crimes? Should forgiveness<br />
extend <strong>to</strong> persons who show no remorse for <strong>the</strong>ir actions?<br />
Should Simon Wiesenthal (1997) have forgiven <strong>the</strong> young, dying<br />
Nazi s<strong>to</strong>rm trooper who begged for his forgiveness? To raise such<br />
questions is <strong>to</strong> go in<strong>to</strong> a realm in which reason doesn’t help much.