I agree, to an extent. "Thou shalt not murder" the innocent. I am fairly certain that if any member of my immediate family was mortally threatened I would do everything in my power to prevent their harm. But I question myself if that means k**l the offender. And this is where I usually lose a lot of people. We all die. No one gets out of here alive. Then what is death? It as natural as Christmas shopping. Any moment, any where, any place death awaits. How do we want to live, not survive, becomes the question. Pardon me, just my opinion, but the quote by Orwell you referenced is utterly d********g to me. Blind pragmatism. Violence only begets violence. Violence always seems the proper response to injustice or wrongful deprivations of rights. It is not! Look at Gandhi and King. Non-violence is the only sane path.

Thank you. Hello. Hope my post did not anger you.

I am not political. Ordinarily. But this last p**********l e******n made me think abstaining might be a mistake. Let me explain.

After I came home from Viet Nam in '68, hailed a hero by family and friends that I did not deserve, having been forever safe in my job as crypto-clerk in Saigon from any harm, like a Club Med vacation, I got very depressed. I was being given credit for men who had risked their lives and been wounded or died. The free drinks I was given in every bar in my neighborhood, had me leave my neighborhood to drink until closing. I did not know how to explain or did not want to explain that I was no hero. Three months after I returned I was going to a job interview when I bumped into an anti-war protest in Lower Manhattan. It was an event so I followed along, stopping for a hotdog and a bottle of coke. Two blocks later I was looking for a trashcan to dispose of the coke bottle when a NYPD officer ordered me to put down the bottle, hand on his weapon. I was not afraid of being shot but rather being charged with littering. I protested his demand. He shouted more shrilly and took a shooter's stance, gun still holstered but close to coming out. Just then this angel emerged and took the bottle from my hand and put it on the sidewalk, grabbed me by the arm and led me away. My wife of forty-seven years, a Quaker.

I think the Quaker Center was on 23rd Street but can't remember. Anyway, after talking with her I took the training and became a non-violent Marshall for the Protest movement. It suited my Roman Catholic beliefs of a pacifist Jesus. Going back, I volunteered for the draft out of a college scholarship for track and field deferment. My heart was in deep conflict about the war as a hero athlete who could move students either way on the issue yet felt I needed to make a stand one way or the other by my beliefs in a more realistic way. Could not do that hiding in college. In my gut I was anti-war: "Thou shalt not k**l." Had to volunteer for selective service and be drafted to see if I could live my beliefs. And God took me out of harm's way entirely.

Will someone just please say hello or welcome?

I am not political. Ordinarily. But this last p**********l e******n made me think abstaining might be a mistake. Let me explain.

After I came home from Viet Nam in '68, hailed a hero by family and friends that I did not deserve, having been forever safe in my job as crypto-clerk in Saigon from any harm, like a Club Med vacation, I got very depressed. I was being given credit for men who had risked their lives and been wounded or died. The free drinks I was given in every bar in my neighborhood, had me leave my neighborhood to drink until closing. I did not know how to explain or did not want to explain that I was no hero. Three months after I returned I was going to a job interview when I bumped into an anti-war protest in Lower Manhattan. It was an event so I followed along, stopping for a hotdog and a bottle of coke. Two blocks later I was looking for a trashcan to dispose of the coke bottle when a NYPD officer ordered me to put down the bottle, hand on his weapon. I was not afraid of being shot but rather being charged with littering. I protested his demand. He shouted more shrilly and took a shooter's stance, gun still holstered but close to coming out. Just then this angel emerged and took the bottle from my hand and put it on the sidewalk, grabbed me by the arm and led me away. My wife of forty-seven years, a Quaker.

I think the Quaker Center was on 23rd Street but can't remember. Anyway, after talking with her I took the training and became a non-violent Marshall for the Protest movement. It suited my Roman Catholic beliefs of a pacifist Jesus. Going back, I volunteered for the draft out of a college scholarship for track and field deferment. My heart was in deep conflict about the war as a hero athlete who could move students either way on the issue yet felt I needed to make a stand one way or the other by my beliefs in a more realistic way. Could not do that hiding in college. In my gut I was anti-war: "Thou shalt not k**l." Had to volunteer for selective service and be drafted to see if I could live my beliefs. And God took me out of harm's way entirely.

Will someone just please say hello or welcome?

I cannot go with allowing the harm to others due to pacification. I seriously doubt Christ would go along with that program. In fact, I think Christ would expect any one to do what ever it takes to provide safety for others, including taking some scum dogs life to do so. Think of David and the slingshot for starters.....there are plenty examples in the Gospel for what a person should do. To just go k**l for no reason at all, no...not what Christ would want...but to be feeble and allow harm to come....nope! NOT on my watch!