Week of June 6th

LA: Free write due Tuesday. Spelling quiz Thursday or Friday. Work on editing Research paper this week.

READING: Finish CMC, do in-class worksheets. Test Friday.

No online discussion this week. However, so many people brought up Osama bin Laden when discussing justuce that I thought I would re-post this article. It is ten years old, but in light of recent events it still seems relevant.

Do we seek vengeance or justice?
By Karen S. Peterson, USA TODAY
09/19/2001

When President Bush suggested Monday that he wanted suspected terrorist leader Osama bin Laden "dead or alive," his words had the ring of revenge. But practically in the same breath, he added: "All I want, and America wants, is to see (the terrorists) brought to justice." His sentiments reflect the ambivalence of the country itself as it reels from last week's horrific events, see-sawing between the dictates of prudence and passion, justice and vengeance.

We want to hurt those who hurt us, to punish viciously those who so viciously attacked our citizens, our national symbols and our sense of security.

Logic tells us that coolheaded justice is the wiser path. Vengeance may only create a martyr and provide more recruits for a man the president says is responsible for "evil in the extreme."

"Beware of the 'high noon' rhetoric," cautions Jeffrey Smalldon, a forensic psychologist in Columbus, Ohio. "You don't want to stir the pot that is already roiling with emotions."

But still — the pull of vengeance is strong. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. It is the stuff of human nature. "The notion of revenge is built into our DNA," says Stuart Fischoff, a media psychologist at California State University-Los Angeles. "We are hellbent on revenge, and at the same time repelled by it. It is powerful. It appeals to a universal sentiment."

The concepts of justice and revenge can be close partners, two sides of the same sword, both of which can draw blood. "Revenge implies something impulsive," says Joseph Ferrari, an associate professor of psychology at DePaul University in Chicago. "Justice implies thoughtfulness, something that is not spontaneous. As a nation, we want to seek justice."

Smalldon defines revenge as a "primitive human response to any violation of our sense that the world is a just place. We have a deeply rooted assumption, based in human experience, that for every action there should be an equal reaction."

But there is a price to pay. "When we respond to a perceived wrongdoing, we ratchet up the level of conflict. We reply in kind, and then some," he says.

The need for revenge is linked to that most primeval fear: that more horror awaits America. Rage, fear and vengeance are all threads in one tapestry, says trauma specialist Charles Figley of Florida State University.

Concentrating on anger helps deal with fear, he says. "One of the reasons our politicians are scurrying around declaring we will bring the perpetrators to justice is action enables us to work through our fear" that some other dreadful event may occur.

And anger lets us off easy. "It focuses the mind," Figley says. "We can focus on simple solutions when we are angry."

Handling the human need for revenge vs. justice is a challenge.

There is no easy line between the two, says the Rev. Joseph Pierce, associate pastor of St. Ann's Catholic Church in Washington, D.C. "But if we focus on revenge, we will be lost in the cycle of war and violence, much like what is going on in Middle Eastern countries now."

The country and its leaders should step back, Smalldon says. "The first step is to get some distance. A very strong, visceral response should not be allowed to carry the day."

Leaders should not go for the quick hit, he says, "for what is immediately cathartic, unless that is connected to our long-range objectives." The main problem with a response based on revenge is "oftentimes, it does not serve what you want to do."

Few expect either revenge or justice will be exacted quickly.

"We should not go in there and just start bombing anybody," says Jerry Carrafa Jr., 40, of Atlanta. "But whether it is next week or next month or in two months, something needs to take place. I don't think this is over with. There will be other attacks here, even if it is not for another year. They will attack again if we do nothing."

Waiting is tough on the national psyche. Stephen Couch, a professor of sociology at Penn State University, cautions that the uncertainty, the wait before America seeks justice, is "very difficult to live with. Uncertainty is even more difficult than living with bad news."

But Americans say they have the patience to endure a long war that will try their souls. And they are willing to wait for it to begin. In a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll, 62% say we should strike only those involved in last week's attack, even if it takes months.

Still, the tentacles of vengeance are winding around the nation's mind. "America is boiling with revenge, the blood is hot, families are hurting, and so are we," says Bishop Hopeton W. Mair Sr., of New Mount Olivet Apostolic Church in Seat Pleasant, Md.

But "revenge is a two-edged sword that has no handle," he says, "and therefore, the person who uses it will also hurt himself. Only God knows how to use it."