Piece on Earth
In the iconic 1952 Western, High Noon, Gary Cooper plays Will Kane, who is about to leave his job as sheriff to ride off into the sunset with his new wife, Amy, a Quaker and pacifist portrayed by Grace Kelly. Of course, fate intervenes, and Will is forced to stay and confront the notorious Miller Gang, whose leader Frank has been released from jail seeking revenge against Kane, the man who put him in. When Will seeks help from the townspeople, they turn him down for various reasons, good and bad, including his former deputy, Harvey, played by Lloyd Bridges, who resents that Will did not recommend him for his old job.
Well, we all know the ending, as Will shoots down the gang one by one, the only surprise being that Amy returns from leaving on the noon train and shoots one of the Millers from behind as he is about to take down Will. High Noon has been viewed as containing certain subtle political messages, most commonly as representing the liberal sensibilities of its makers, who saw Will as the brave individual willing to stand alone against McCarthyism. Others interpreted it as a moral justification for war and Kane as the one person who stands on his principles even in the face of liberal passivity.
Regardless of the true message of the film, this week we witnessed the opposite scenario as at least six congregants in a Texas church were willing to use their legally-possessed handguns to stop a potential killer in his tracks after he had already murdered two others in the church. They were able to do so because of a recent Texas law that removed places of worship from the list of “gun-free zones” to allow worshipers to play the “good guys” who can take down the “bad guys” intent on violating the sanctity of churches, synagogues and mosques for mostly hateful reasons.
There is no doubt that we are seeing more and more instances of such attacks in supposedly sacred places, from the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh to the killing of 51 at a mosque in New Zealand to the Sutherland Springs, Texas mass shooting at the First Baptist Church. Not to mention the cold-blooded assassination of nine participants in a Bible study at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
You can assert that these killers are mentally ill and more needs to be done to improve psychiatric treatment in this country, but there is a common thread that cannot be denied: all of these events emanated from hatred. Hatred of Jews, blacks, Muslims, anybody who is the Other. Second Amendment zealots, our President included, will tell you that the law in Texas worked exactly as intended: more guns in the hands of the good guys mean greater safety. They are wrong. The mass proliferation of weapons in this country have not made us more secure. They have only allowed those who hate easy access to the means to demonstrate their cowardice. And increasing the risk that more innocent victims will die because of “friendly fire” at the hands of undertrained “security volunteers.”
I can’t do much about the proliferation of hatred that is fostered by some as a patriotic ideal in these divided times, but in the coming year I intend to pray for more sensible gun laws in this country. At a church where I am certain that the congregant next to me is not packing. There is a reason that the First Amendment comes before the Second.
