Violence is not the Answer
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What happened this last weekend in Charlottesville, VA was a shock to most. What might be more disturbing though is that we all should have, and some did months ago, seen this coming. For those unaware of what happened over the weekend here is a very quick summary. There was a protest in Charlottesville, VA this weekend by Nazis, KKK and other white supremacist groups over the removal of a monument to the famed Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Counter protesters, which included Antifa, BLM and BAMN were also present over the weekend and on Saturday many fights broke out with one person taking it upon themselves to run people over with their car which ended up taking a live. This was simply embarrassing to see as not just an American but as a human being. The hate that was on display is troubling, the violence though is what was most alarming.
It’s the violence that is making the situation worse and worse. What we have seen this year in terms of hate and violence has been increasing when these groups meet. To make the situation worse people that support both “sides” are now calling for more and more violence! This week we have seen more people calling for this violence as if this is the solution to the problem. More violence as we have already seen brings with it a more violent response. How are people still seeing this as a viable solution to this hate? An emotional response to an illogical and hateful view is not how you solve this issue. This is not how we heal, this is not how we become better overall. We do not move past this with more violence. Violence is not the answer, it never was and more of it is not what we need! What has this violence over the weekend done? It has given justification to all those groups that it is now not only an acceptable action but it has also attracted more people to these groups. These groups that have chosen violence now as an acceptable action to take when dealing with other human beings are now going to grow stronger in numbers. Again, violence is not the answer.
If we want this rage and anger to cool down we need a new approach, a tried and true method of love and education. By punching a Nazi or what have, you all that does is give that little extra push to someone that was thinking about following the movement to now needing to follow it. You have proven to the outsider that the group is being oppressed. For those that are reading this and don’t see what is being said let us look from another perspective. If you were previously on the fence about black people in American being oppressed, did the police actions against BLM in some places convince you that black people truly were being oppressed or not? You cannot battle hate with hate. By assaulting someone all that has been accomplished is a build up of more hate. With love we can change minds. No illusions here that you will change the mind of a communist or a neo-nazi but we might be able to change the mind of those looking towards these hate groups for guidance. We might be able to take the legs out from beneath these groups with love. When these groups are built upon hate and all that is applied in their direction is more hate all that is done is more building of the group.
The violence needs to end, there is no other way to say this. The hate may still be there but when you disarm that hate with love we will all see the violence simmer down. Right now we are in troubled waters as I have seen people being called the worst of names for suggesting that a solution built on love and not hate be the one we should seek. When an emotional response is applied to an illogical situation we will not see progress. Logic can take the winds out of the sails of the illogical, sure not always, but emotion will never triumph over the illogical and neither will violence. We will make it through these tough times, we have to.
This post may have totally taken some of you off guard, it may have challenged the way you have been feeling this past week. I hope that if that is the case and you have read this far you have might consider love over hate. It’s a beautiful thing.
Thank you reading and please don’t forget to like and share!
Keep that coffee warm for us.
LWS
