THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 7, 1995 TAG: 9505060278
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: IN THE CITIES
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
Shock waves from the Oklahoma City bombing are rippling into new metaphors for how our civic leaders talk about urban problems.
The imagery of the blast, the rubbles of concrete and the mangled victims have become symbols for urban violence, collapsing communities and inner-city murder:
``What happens when a community begins to disintegrate and fall apart is Oklahoma (City),'' Andy Morikawa, president of World SHARE, told a gathering of food-program volunteers last week.
``Just as tragic as that situation is in Oklahoma, somebody's got to step in and say, `We have to stop destroying our youth right here,' '' Bill Thomas, an economist and activist, told a forum on summer job programs. ``It's like a building blown up with 200 or more young black men every year.''
``Today, it takes something awful - the Desert Storm (war), the Oklahoma bombing, a natural disaster - to achieve a . . . sense of commonality,'' Norfolk Mayor Paul D. Fraim told a conference on grass-roots regionalism. ``Social and economic change has left Americans less bound together by common ideas.''
The destruction in Oklahoma City has been a reference in sermons.
``I used it in a sermon on `Terrorism Meets Messianic Mercy,' '' said the Rev. Gene Larkin, pastor of the McKendree United Methodist Church in Norfolk. ``The Oklahoma tragedy reminds us of our sense of how fragile the community is and how strong the common good can be when we all get together.''
Larkin said he plans to continue referring to the bombing. He sees themes concerning fear, alienation, human vulnerability, delusion and distrust but also on the need ``to come together and try to understand the basic human needs at all levels of our society.''
``We need a metaphor that transcends tragedy,'' Larkin said. ``The issue is not to just understand the suffering or to find meaning in the pain but to end the pain.
``It really does take churches, civic leagues, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts coming together to work for the common good. And working for the common good is the best this nation has to offer.''
This way, Oklahoma City and the response from volunteers nationwide are metaphors for bravery and unselfishness, said Frances J. Hassencahl, forensics director at Old Dominion University.
Events like the Oklahoma City bombing are rare, but their use as symbolism in public speaking dates to the orators of ancient Greece and Rome. ``Their rhetoricians talked about the use of metaphor and relating to common experiences,'' Hassencahl said. ``It's called `the use of proximity,' things that are near and dear to people's hearts, or at least near and dear to their attention.''
The time-honored technique has been deployed after other large-scale news events, including the Watergate and Whitewater presidential scandals, she said.
But as events turn into symbols in our fast-changing society, other long-revered metaphors - especially from the Bible or plays of William Shakespeare - begin to disappear from speech, she said.
``When I teach people how to compose a speech, they don't use those things anymore,'' Hassencahl said. ``They use the popular culture of our time.''
How long do the new symbols remain in our metaphorical speech?
Some, like the 1969 moonwalk of astronaut Neil Armstrong, achieve whatever longevity modern society allows. We continue to hear phrases like ``If they can put a man on the moon, they can solve poverty . . . '' (Or, name your favorite issue.)
Oklahoma City? Hassencahl predicts a long rhetorical life because of its many universal themes.
``It's something that touches your feelings and your intellect. When it gets you both in the heart and in the head, you're more likely to remember it,'' she said. ``They are not going to remember numbers or figures or facts. People remember stories. And this is a story.'' by CNB