Showing posts with label call for not responding to violent rhetoric with violent actions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label call for not responding to violent rhetoric with violent actions. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

The Madness of America; New York Times, 6/6/16

Charles M. Blow, New York Times; The Madness of America:
"...[T]here is a line one dares not cross, and that is the one of responding to violent rhetoric with violent actions.
As I have said before, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said it best in his 1967 book “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?,” and he is worthy of quoting here at length:
The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that...
In a democracy, the vote is the voice. The best way to reduce the threat Trump poses is to register and motivate people who share your view of the threat...
Trump and his millions of minions have replaced what they call “political correctness” with “ambient viciousness.”
This won’t “make America great again,” because the “again” they imagine harkens back to America’s darkness. We are the new America — more diverse, more inclusive, more than our ancestors could ever have imagined."