Violence

A woman is walking down a street in Crown Heights, Brooklyn and is savagely beaten by three adult males.  They steal her cell phone, her money and leave her laying on the street with a broken nose.  There is a video from ABC news of New York.

http://7online.com/uncategorized/raw-video-woman-assaulted-robbed-in-crown-heights/358023/

That's the website for the video.  Be warned it is raw, heart wrenching and inflammatory.  Inflammatory for me because after seeing the video my first impulse was revenge of the most horrific kind.  Capital punishment by physical beating was my first thought.  The fact that I will be, through my tax dollars, buying these guys lunch for years to come seemed insane.  As crazy as the fact that I have been buying lunch for Charles Manson since 1971.
 
The level of violence in the world has repercussions for all of us in ways we can never fully grasp.  Street violence is the most visceral.  It is the most frightening, the most difficult to accept and to understand.  The violence of nature, a tsunami in thailand is heart wrenching and explainable.  The violence in the Middle East is frightening but historically explained and there is always hope it will end.  [There have been no overt physical assaults on Israel from Egypt since the Camp David accord.]
 
I'm a liberal, literate, well-educated, relatively well-informed cosmopolitan resident of a great metropolis.  First and foremost you [well, actually you will have to speak for yourself] I will never become inured to violence.  There are shocking instances: the video of the assault in Crown Heights, war in the middle east, and natural violence like a tornado.  I just shocked myself when I wrote natural violence, but it's true. Violence is in nature, in our culture, our movies, our TV, our sports, on our streets and our homes.

Violence will always be a part of Nature.  Will it always be a part of human nature.

I'll never forget going to the movies with an army buddy.  We became friends in basic training at Fort Gordon, Georgia.  He was the company clerk and was from Georgia.  We were watching a typical good guys versus bad guys movie of the mid 60's, probably a western.  When the good guys got the upper hand and forcibly seized control, my friend lost control.  He jumped up in his seat and cheered.  He screamed: "Kill 'em".
He was a black man.  He was in his early 20s and was born and raised in Georgia.  This was 1966.  Was his response as natural as a tornado? As explainable as the wars in the Middle East?  Is violence preventable?

The attackers of the woman walking down the street in Crown Heights were Black men and the woman appears to be white. Is that assault a product of the violence against blacks in 1950's Georgia?  What is the root of the kind of violence that leads adults to such unprovoked, horrific, physical assaults on strangers?  I mean both the violence that night in Crown Heights and the violence in Georgia in the 1950's.

From the U.S. Department of Justice:
51.9% of woman
66.4% of men
report being assaulted as a child by an adult caretaker.

Think of Adrian Peterson, the Viking football running back who beat his son with a "switch" and admits to having a "whooping" room in his home.  The story with photos of the injuries is on line.

Again from the U.S. Department of Justice:
21.6% of women report
being raped before the age of 12

32.4%
were raped between 12 and 17

1.3 million adult women &
835,000 adult men
report being assaulted by an intimate partner.

Human violence is a learned behavior.  We know this, but  because of our own experience with violence we know its power.  And so we, I mean I, maybe you, respond to violence with violence.      
      

Return

It has been quite awhile since I've signed in and did some blogging.  First and foremost I am back "at it" because Sarah said she missed it.  Which was incredibly encouraging.  Thank you, Sarah.
There have been other interesting reactions to the blog.  Some think it's a diary of what I am doing.  Others think it's more photography than anything else.  If you add in some of the history of the city that I have been including then I would say, yes. It is all of those things.

While considering a return to the blog I thought I would focus on one area that included all the things that interest me.  I think my visits to the churches of New York will be an excellent focus: great history, great photos ops, and it's what I do.  Yeah I go to church and love it.  They are truly sanctuaries in this city and as the city gets more and more congested, loud and aggressive, sanctuary is a godsend.

 
Grace Church is located on Broadway between 10th and 11th Streets and is one of my favorite places to go for some peace and quiet.
It was originally incorporated in 1808 at Broadway and Rector Streets.  As the city grew northward it moved to it's present location in 1843.
The architect is James Renwick. He was 24 years old and had only built one other edifice and that was the Croton reservoir. Though he had never seen a Gothic Cathedral it was his commission to build one.  James Renwick went on to build the Smithsonian Institution, Vassar College and St. Patrick's Cathedral.
The church has always had an affluent congregation and one of them, Catherine Lorillard Wolfe provided the funds for the construction of the Chantry [Chapel] and the rectory.
In 1894 a boys choir was formed and buildings were bought on 4th Ave. to provide a school for them.  Grace Church School now owns a number of buildings on 4th Ave. and they have started a High School.  They are forming the High School one grade at a time.  2014 will begin the First Junior grade.  Tuition at the school is $39,200.

Sanctuary is free and the organ afternoon meditations are free.

   http://music.gracechurchnyc.org/current-music-list/

That is the organ for the church and the website showing their music calendar, both are exceptional.