Folkbabe,
I DID walk in on my ex-wife having an affair. I simply walked away. That required no violence since I was not threatened. Funny thing is when somthing like that happens instead of rage, I was filled with fear, and elation. I was glad to see her go, but afraid of what my future would hold. I was rightly afraid after being "RAPED" by the family court system.
Sectre: Man is NOT the only animal who rapes. On my small farm here, I have about 60 chickens. If you have ever seen how the Roosters chase the hens, and corner them, or witness the chicken pro-creation process, you wouldn't call it anything but rape
I believe folkbabe is half right. Non-violent, non-cooperation holds the best future to assert change. This is why the Constitution was set up to insure trial by jury (jury nullification), and the taxation system was based on a head tax imposed on the states, not the people. The power for funding the Government rested with the states and the people. The civil war placed the first cracks in that philosophy, and the Income tax coupled with automatic payroll deduction totally destroyed most American's ability to rule over their government. So now we are left impotent to practice non-violent, non-cooperation. The genious of the ORIGINAL constitution was in its simplicity, and how it divided up powers so well.
My opinion on the Black community isn't that drugs and crack caused the breakup. Drugs and crack and violence are symtoms of the root problem. It is a self medication problem from what I've observed. Shameful how it has got that bad. I also observe the breakup of the Black nuclear family happening just a little after the initiation of Johnson's "Great Society" and the beginnings of the Welfare State. We could bicker over the causes, but we can do nothing to fix it. The Black community will have to fix itself. The first place to start is by rebuilding their families. If nothing else, the persecution they suffered over the decades served to forge them into strong families. Once the general persecution ended, and the Government started paying women to have babies without fathers, it all went to hell quick. (Please note that these are just personal observations. I am not a sociologist.) The white community isn't too far behind the blacks in family degredation.
I think there are simple truths that are there for all to see. One of them is that the OPTIMAL setting for a child is in a two-parent, heterosexual, committed relationship ie: marraige. The next I would think would be a two parent homosexual committed relationship, and then followed by a single parent with no committed relationship. Again, just my observations.
As for non-violence, as long as you can bear the burden that your philosophy demands of you, then great. But at some point, non-violence becomes cowardice. Ghandi had the courage unmatched by most modern men. He was willing to be beaten with sticks, and shot at to prove his point. He did not back down though, and he displayed courage. A few Viet Nam draft dodgers appeared to be doing it for the right reasons. They too had courage. But for those who fled the country to avoid the consequences of their actions, they were cowards. We should've never let them back in. There is truly a fine line between courage and cowardice; in both war and peace.
A violent criminal is practicing cowardice in most cases. To meet a personal, violent attack without resistance is nothing short of a sin. You are practicing cowardice in the highest degree.
A forceful responce to violent cowards tends to reduce the amount of times you will be forced to use force simply for the fact that you no longer are an easy target for somebody who wants to prey on you.
Amen.
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Find out just what the people will submit to and you've found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows or with both.
The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.
Frederick Douglass, Aug 4 1857