In a message dated 9/21/2000 6:27:37 AM, afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
<< Why do you guys choose to live in such a dangerous place and deal with it
by making it more dangerous?
Andrew >>
Andrew, you deserve a less flippant answer than my last one.
It isn't "such a dangerous place." But like *every other area of the world,*
it has the potential to become a dangerous place at a moment's notice because
people live here. "Deal with it by making it more dangerous" is of course a
matter of personal opinion concerning the right (or lack thereof) of
self-defense.
Two cliches with profound implications come to mind (oxymoron?).
1. It takes TWO determined people to make a peace, but only ONE determined
person to make a war.
2. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do
nothing.
I am a man of peace. I wholehearted subscribe to the "Make love, not war"
philosophy.
;o) I've never had to shoot anyone (thank God), in spite of tours of duty
during both the Korean and the Vietnam campaigns and stints of duty with one
military and two civilian police units. ("Campaigns." What a nice sterile
term for such gruesome conflicts.) My favorite way of shooting someone is
with my OM and I try to do it as often as I can. But as much as I enjoy my
OMs, I am enough of a realist to admit that not one picture taken with them
in any area of violence has ever stopped or prevented any of those acts of
violence. (Obligatory OM content.) Nor has anyone ever successfully defended
himself or herself from violence by submitting to it or requesting to be
excused from it. I don't want to be an aggressor. Even more, I don't want
myself or my family or my neighbors to become victims. If words would protect
us, I'd carry a dictionary.
My rationale....
Robert
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