Who Is the "American Hero" for Today?
Zoe Scrivener, Gun Violence Prevention Intern
During the spring semester of my junior year of college, I studied abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark. There were, of course, many differences between Copenhagen and my college town of Madison, Wisconsin – differences in language, food, architecture, … I noticed more swans, fewer cars, more cobblestone streets. As I marveled at these differences, the Danes around me were far more interested in the big one: we have guns in America. Although police officers and soldiers sometimes do carry guns in Scandinavia, it is extremely uncommon to meet a citizen who owns one that isn’t explicitly for sport. Quite often the first thing a Dane would ask me upon hearing that I’m American would be: “Do you own a gun?”
At first, it seemed silly. I imagined that they thought of all Americans as cowboys on the Western frontier, waving our hats and guns in the breeze. I would laugh at the question and say, “No, I don’t own a gun.”
But I think, now, that I should have considered their curiosity with more weight. The Danes I encountered were pointing out a dark truth about my country: that its identity is inextricably tied to its obsession with firearms.
In July of 2011, Norway experienced a mass act of violence unlike the nation had ever seen before – a far-right extremist detonated a bomb in Oslo and committed a mass shooting on the island of Utøya, where there was a political summer camp for young adults and teenagers. Seventy-seven people in total were killed – an undoubtable tragedy, but one that called the people of Norway to action. The country reacted by radically changing its gun laws, and there have been almost no mass shootings in Norway since.
Unfortunately, we Americans have not agreed so easily about how to deal with our own mass shootings. So, I understand why Danes asked me these questions about our gun culture – because I have a lot of questions as well. Why have we tied ourselves so closely to guns? Why can’t we agree on a solution to put an end to the mass shootings that rule our lives? Why have we put the gun on the pedestal, even, sometimes, on the altar?
I think a large part of answering these questions is 1) looking into our past, but also 2) looking into why we glorify the past.
I think of who we try to embody when we look towards the past. First, the Founding Fathers, who have long been revered as the champions of American values, people we should want to make proud. The patriots undoubtedly acted with bravery in their pursuits, but does that mean they deserve to be models for today’s world? The America we live in is very different than the one they declared almost 250 years ago. The second is exactly how the Danes jokingly imagined me – the American cowboy. Americans today look at the cowboy as the pinnacle of American attitudes – gun-slinging, individualistic, masculine. But, Pamela Haag writes in her Gunning Down America, the Western cowboy existed mainly in literature rather than the real world. “The myth flourishes in the space between what happened and what we wish had happened,” she says. Is our gaze too heavily on the past, and settled on a past that does not even exist in our current world? Is our American identity really tied so strongly to a world disconnected from reality?
The image of the rough, rustic cowboy or the armed, revolutionary militia is a part of American history, but is that the ideal we want to carry with us – this stagnant, caricatured image of protection that is accompanied by violence? Does the American hero still look like that? I think the image of the hero is about to change. I see it in the gentleness with which we care for each other, the bravery with which we stand up for those around us, the humility we show by putting ourselves in another’s shoes. I see reasons to hope, like the creation of Wisconsin’s new statewide Office of Violence Prevention. Or in the way my community supported each other in the wake of the Abundant Life Christian School shooting. The American hero, to me, is filled with passion more so than aggression, with understanding more than defensiveness, with empathy more than violence. The American hero acts more like Jesus, arms outstretched, protector of the children, flipping the tables of the money-changers, turning the other cheek as both an act of defiance and non-violence. How can we be more like that kind of hero?
The first weekend in June (June 6th-8th), is Wear Orange Weekend. Across the country, Americans will be taking this time to honor victims and survivors of gun violence and find community with those who are working to end these tragedies. In the coming months, I will be preparing a “Wear Orange Weekend” packet so that communities throughout the state of Wisconsin can participate in walks, education events, free gun lock handouts, and more. Be on the lookout for this packet and you can connect with me at intern@wichurches.org.
Last week, on January 14, Governor Tony Evers created a new statewide office, the Office of Violence Prevention, dedicated to preventing gun violence by working with law enforcement agencies, nonprofits, school districts, and gun shop owners. Governor Evers also allocated $10 million dollars to support the work.
Photos include: Governor Evers signing the executive order. Darryl Morrin of Forward Latino/80% Coalition, Rev. Jennifer Nordstrom of First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee, and Rev. Breanna Illéné at the event, and a photo of the cross made by Rev. Jeff Wild out of a dismantled firearm worn by Rev. Scott Marrese-Wheeler. Photo credits: Rev. Scott Marrese-Wheeler.
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