I have to admit that I have never understood violence. In high school, I was not one of those people who picked fights. As a matter of fact, I have never been in a fist fight (unless you count a couple of scuffles with brothers; but, they were never full blown fights). I don’t understand wars, either. I think it is horrible that people have to go to die in war. I understand the need and desire for freedom. I just wish there were some other way to win it.
I believe in justice for everybody. I just don’t believe that violence should be used to prove the point that justice is important. I speak, specifically, to the demonstrations recently in cities throughout our country because of the death of a person at the hands of a police officer.
What good does it do to loot, to destroy, and to burn in order to make a statement? Martin Luther King, Jr. has often been cited as one of the major demonstrators. He always made it really clear to his followers. They were to engage in peaceful protest. If they were there to cause trouble or to commit infractions of the law such as looting or rioting, they were to leave his group immediately. He would not tolerate it and he would not have them.
We have too many people who use injustices committed against others as a crusade call to commit their own injustice against people and the system. This kind of reasoning and action has got to stop for the sake of humanity as well as our society.
Cities should not have to be put on curfews because people decide to commit crime on a large scale. All people should be allowed to live in peace and freedom. When crimes are committed by criminal or law enforcement, arrests should be made and prosecutions should be initiated. But large-scale rioting, looting, and burning? That should never be tolerated.
This all shows that we are still a very immature people and that we have a long way to go. I pray that we get there someday before we destroy each other.