From Knoxville, thoughts on love and evil

John Bohstedt, a onetime Bostonian who now lives in Knoxville and describes himself as a "proud member" of the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, has sent me a couple of e-mails to express his irritation at elements of the media coverage of the shooting there last weekend, which killed two people. Bohstedt took issue with the Globe's use of the words "reeling" and "rattled" to describe UUs. I think he is slightly missing the point of my story, which was describing the reaction of UUs in Massachusetts and elsewhere to the shootings in Knoxville, and not how the worshipers in Knoxville reacted at the moment the gunman opened fire, but still, some interesting thoughts from Bohstedt, an emeritus professor of history at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Some excerpts:

"An eyewitness who was protecting her children a few feet from the gunman said it was remarkable how everyone was doing exactly what they needed to do -- subduing the gunman, calling 911, tending to the victims, and evacuating the sanctuary...The reason I am saying all this is -- Media have done much to make us a fearful people -- to emphasize the danger in the world. Real life is often NOT like that, and in this case - evil was overcome efficiently by LOVE. One eyewitness said: There are a lot more good guys in the world, but the bad guys get all the press...

Above all, please do not let bi-coastal myopia cloud your judgments -- for every crazed wacko with a gun, there are thousands of civilized, rational, and loving people in East Tennessee who have produced a remarkable culture. (I myself am an Iowan by birth, moved here from Boston 29 years ago, still afflicted with Red Sox fever, getting better recently.) In closing, I have been studying the behavior of crowds for decades, in old documents and in our UT football stadium, and more often than not 'there is METHOD in the 'madness' of crowds' -- the METHOD of our TVUUC church is organized Love."

(Photo by AP, showing members of the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church hugging in their parking lot Monday, the day after the shooting.)