My Response to Andy

> You have just received a comment for the following
> weblog: http://www.zenlala.com

> The title of the entry is:
> Response to Vigilante
>
> There are many (including the other Sara) who say that using violence to
> deal with violence is a self-perpetrating circle and no answer to one group
> inflicting suffering on another, more helpless one.
> I wish genocide did not exist, but it does and it is a crime against all
> humanity and when it occurs
> it must be stopped, at any cost.
>
>

…you ended with “at any cost”, so let me pick up there, again…

… sadly, when you are dealing with people with machetes, guns, rape and unbalanced minds, the only way to protect oneself is with something that can stop those people from attacking you, killing you, maiming and raping you and your fellow human beings.

words will not work.

prayer will not always work. (think of all the rwandans burned alive in their very own church, praying for help. think of all the jews in concentration camps tortured and killed as they cried out to god. think of the american indians (the native people) forced to march hundreds of miles in the snow, starving and dropping like flies, connected to this very earth they cherished but that had become mud from tears and dirt colliding.)

the reality is that a circle must be formed to protect the innocent. the circle must be calm, rational people who do not irritate or antagonize those insane intruders, but stand tall and at the ready to help those within the circle, until those in the circle can grow in strength and numbers, able to protect themselves.

you know what is the worst part of war? it is that children start becoming imitators of the world around them.

when a child is indoctrinated into the thinking of being a mass murderer, it is painstakingly slow to unwind their mind, to rehabilitate them, if you
are able to remove them from the setting in which they reside.

we must take action…when a child is taught prejudice because it is all they see and hear.
we must take action…when a child acts out from imitating those around themselves.
otherwise, when a child becomes a monster, how do we remove the monster and restore the child’s innocence?

the Lords Resistance Army in Uganda is full of kidnapped and brainwashed children, forced to kill and rape other children. they are lead down a horrific path to insanity, where no one and nothing makes sense, until they grow to “trust” their captors, and do whatever they say for fear of being attacked and killed themselves.

how do you stop an army of children? do you walk in with flowers and words? do you say, “this is inappropriate, stop now!!!” while they are
taking a machete to your daughter’s hands?

i am not for war. i am not for violence.
and i DO believe in god, i DO believe in the power of prayer.

but i know that there are times when we must be the eyes, ears, body and heart of god, we must have the courage to be the ones willing to step in and take the piercing arrow to protect those who are unable to protect themselves. we must be the answered prayer.

and though it may seem futile, writing letters, making phone calls, marching in demonstrations, sending missionaries, teachers, artists, therapists, musicians, doctors,engineers and others who can help build infrastructure and give people a calling, a purpose…it can change
the way people think. these ARE the means by which we must proliferate HOPE because where despair is allowed to grow, it will tangle the minds of those bored and desperate who will eventually lash out and band with others who are of a like mind.

(still, should we send these people into a violent area without any means of protection?…this is the true calling of a soldier. not to start a war, but to end it. not to invade, but to protect….)

we must ALL work towards being pro-active in preventive ways to encourage ALL people to have a purpose.

we must ALL help one another with shelter, food, medicine, schooling. whether you are working in urban or rural settings, someone needs you to be a part of their life.

the one true path to ending violence is to sow knowledge, understanding and opportunity for each human in each community…to allow each person to feel that their existence here on this planet surely matters…for each person to know they have gifts to share, a purpose for being…and all this must occur BEFORE the trigger of violence cascades into tentacles of iron around those very hearts.