Violence or nonviolence

By Harvey Benson

Harmony, MN

No.  As part of MLK week I believe it is time to recall his words when he said, “The choice today is not between violence and nonviolence.  It is either nonviolence or nonexistence.” Please reflect upon these words.  What has happened in the decades since he uttered these words? Have we moved closer to his thoughts?

Most definitely not.  Since that time wars have continued and military budgets have increased.

The U.N. has declared nuclear weapons illegal.  Most nations signed, but those nations with nuclear weapons just snubbed their noses and increased their nuclear arsenals. 

Here in the USA we have developed the B-21 Raider bomber.  It was designed by Nothrup-Grummen to be the latest plane to be able to deliver nuclear bombs anywhere in the world better than any before.  By the way today they cost $750 million and the military plans on buying 100 of them.

Kurt Waldheim, Sec. General of the U.N. (1986-1992) said, “Once a weapon is developed, it will be used.”

Could you see a homeless person saying, “I have no home and I am almost freezing to death, but I am happy all that money is being spent to keep me safe instead of a home for me.”  Or a hungry person (and there are millions of them, some in Fillmore County) saying, “I am hungry but I am safe.  Thank goodness this country knows how to spend its money.”

Just now, this past fall, and continuing for the next six months, a little sailboat named, The Golden Rule is navigating the Mississippi River and will go around Florida and up the east coast.  This boat is now owned by The Veterans for Peace.  It was formerly a Quaker ship sailing into atomic bomb testing in the Pacific.  The Golden Rule stops at towns along the way proclaiming their message.  I saw it when it stopped in La Crosse.

Some decades ago, General of the Army, Omar Bradly said, “We have grasped the mystery of the atom but rejected the sermon on the mount.

Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.  We know more about war than we do about peace: more about killing than we do about living.

When Noah was finally safe after the flood the Lord said to him, “Fire next time.”  That sounds ominous to me.