Trying to Obtain Peace Via Violent Means is Simply Illogical.

I got the usual, "Becky, dearie, I know your preference is to live in a world of abundant rainbows and unicorns..." which is the verbal equivalent to a pat on the head. My libertarian friend and I and some guy I don't know who is Libertarian Friend's friend were having a friendly agrument on Facebook about the rioting in London and the United States Second Amendment.

Someone suggested the streets would be more peaceful if law-abiding citizens were able to carry concealed arms. My response was this: "Peace cannot be achieved through a power struggle. Someone will always feel unfairly treated. Peace is achieved only by harmonious relationships, whether intimate or international. Peace comes when you choose not to carry a gun, and when a fellow human robs you, you buy them a cup of coffee and let them tell you the story of their life." I was referring to Julio Diaz, one of my heroes.

Then I got the same ole same ole response when I get righteously indignant: Becky you believe in fairy tales.

Actually, my preference is not to live in a world of abundant rainbows and unicorns, but I would like to leave this world a better place when I'm gone.

If people shrug off rioters as animals incapable of human civility and empathy, in need of violent weapons to destroy their enemy, then sure, you're right, guns in every sane law abiding citizen's hands is the way to go.

But as we see from many examples in life, people like Julio Diaz, The Dalai Lama, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, Anne Frank, Jesus of Nazareth, just to name some famous ones--there are so many more peace heroes known by their friends and family but whose names are lost in history--people can rise to their highest altruistic selves and not dwell in the desperate anguish that many of these London rioters have seen in their daily lives. I'm not condoning the rioters' behavior. Fighting opression with violence only works in the short run but not as a long term solution to social and financial problems that enhance a human's potential to act at our most primal, scared, self-defensive mode, to turn to crime and violence, to lash out.

Trying to obtain peace via violent means is simply illogical.