I want to thank Meteor Blades for his reminder that DailyKos does not tolerate calls for violence, even when emotions are running high, as they doubtless have been this whole week.
[Note: A commenter pointed out that I forgot to give credit for the image I’m using. It is the official logo of The War Resisters’ League (and the WRL International) which was founded in 1923. I am a member, although never as active in WRL as with the other groups I mentioned below. However, the symbol is quite important to me since it is linked in my mind to my own break with violence when I left the military. I’m sorry that I failed to mention the great work of the War Resisters’ League in the original version of this post.]
My father was a Vietnam Vet and, briefly, a police officer., He gave it up to become a male nurse so that he could bring healing into the world. I enlisted in the U.S. army at 18 (1980), but half-way through my hitch, I became a convinced pacifist and conscientious objector. Upon leaving the military, I became a peace activist with organizations like the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Witness for Peace, The Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America, and Nonviolence International. While in the army, I was never anywhere near a war zone and only ever held a firearm when on the practice range. As a peace activist, I went unarmed with others into war zones (Nicaraugua, Palestine, Afghanistan, Guatemala, El Salvador) and I had a front row seat in the 1990s when nationwide gang truces were negotiated.
I know many pacifists who lost their faith in nonviolence with 9/11, including some Mennonites and Quakers who quit their faith and enlisted to fight for their country. My reaction was different. It seemed obvious to me that this simply contributed to the spiral of violence. I was renewed in my vow of nonviolence and active peacemaking because that is the answer to the madness that I’ve found. I find that this is the same reaction I have to the homegrown terrorism, the ISIS inspired terrorism, the police killings, and the killings of police. I not only want stronger gun laws (which I do), and civilian review boards of police, and work to de-militarize police departments, and work to stamp out racism (Black Lives MATTER, damn it!), but I want to continue to work against the culture of violence. Out nation glorifies violence in so many levels—and then is surprised when these outrages and tragedies occur. Malcolm X said that violence was as American as apple pie and he was right—but it needn’t be.
There is a long counter-history in this nation of peacemongers, nonviolent activists, and pacifists. We can embrace them, with all of their flaws and shortcomings and blindspots, as our heroes and role modelrs. We can choose to never use weapons—if you own one turn it in. Do without. We can choose to live without fear of the other, or fear of ourselves, with a willingness to die for justice, but never to kill.
It is slow, hard, work. But it is the only ultimate cure for this madness.
