Kansas City, we have too much rage in our lives. Here’s to an enduring peace in 2023 | Opinion

We wish peace for our community in 2023.

Asking for peace at the start of a new year is so commonplace it risks banality, of course. Very few of us wish for war. Everyone wants peace — the question is how to achieve it, and keep it, without surrendering to evil.

The world wishes for peace in Ukraine, but not at the cost of subjecting the Ukrainian people to Russian imperialism. Women in Iran continue their brave and brilliant campaign to bring basic human rights, and women’s rights, to their country. We stand in awe of their courage.

Chinese citizens are stirring against their oppression.

In those nations, and others, common citizens seek freedom, and are willing to pay the cost, even in blood. We support them. We wish, for them, the peace that yields liberty.

But the hope for peace doesn’t start at the water’s edge, or at the nation’s borders. Peace must be found here, too. On our streets. In our homes and schools and businesses. And in our lives. We must first seek peace in Kansas City each day in 2023, in any way we can.

As of Friday, 168 people in Kansas City had died from homicide in 2022. That’s the second highest total on record. It’s close to one murder every other day. When you add in nearby cities, the metropolitan area saw more than 255 killings.

There are partial explanations for the bloodshed. Missouri lawmakers refuse to give the city permission to try and reduce the gunfire on the streets, leaving thousands of weapons in the hands of residents, many of them young. It’s unfathomable.

Too many Kansas Citians live in substandard homes on low wages, with little hope of advancement. Racism and poverty are stubborn opponents. Unemployment, struggling schools, split families and poor health conditions are contributors to the violence epidemic.

Hundreds of Kansas Citians work every day to address these pathologies, with some success. Their work can never end — in fact, in 2023, it must be doubled, then doubled again.

At the same time, external realities aren’t the only reason for the lack of peace on our streets. Of the 168 homicides in Kansas City in 2022, the police department says, 44 were prompted by an argument.

An argument. Is there any disagreement, any dispute, worth taking a life? The sad answer seems too clear.

This is where the search for peace must begin. We must all work harder to understand that violence shouldn’t be used to address common disputes. While conflicts and disagreements are inevitable in any place where humans gather, mayhem is not.

This idea extends beyond shootings and murder. We argue too much, just for the sake of argument. We use threats too much. Words sting, and are not soon forgotten. Social media makes things worse: No comments, no positions seem beyond bitter, personal responses.

To what end? Are we better because we’re constantly yelling at each other? Are we any closer to being a nation where everyone contributes, and is rewarded in return? Or is the opposite true: Are our disputes so angry, and solved so violently, that progress seems impossible?

In too many ways, Americans have made rage a central part of their lives. It is tragic, counterproductive and unhealthy. Somehow it needs to end. The alternatives are too ghastly to contemplate.

So consider this a goal in 2023: to bring peace to our own homes, our workplaces, our streets and neighborhoods. Let’s resolve to settle our disputes without resorting to name-calling and anger. Let’s learn the power of walking away.

Let’s find peace in our lives, and in the lives of others, by working for justice and inclusion in all things. That’s our wish for true peace in our time.