[mburbank]

Luckily so far my kids hve not gotten punched in the mouth. I however took fair share of punches, and I'll tell you what my folks told me.

Make sure the school knows. Make sure my parents know. There are systems in place that work to deal with violence. They often don't work well, but they are better than violence.

Actually, my Dad told me to bite my attacker until I tasted blood. I didn't do it, though.

I'm not a complete pacifist. I believe there are times when force is the only thing left. BUT. These times are very, very, very rare, and they always represent multiple failures along the way, multiple lost opportunities. The use of force is always tragic, should never be celebrated and massive effort should be expended during times of peace to ensure force becomes more and more obsolete. War is hopeless, damaging and corrupting the soul of the victor quitely but viciously as it physically damages the enemy and sowing seeds of future war as it goes.

Pacafism is hard, and has costs. There i suffering involved. It takes courage. Jesus did not say 'Turn the other cheek unless your opeonent left a mark the first time, in which case trip him, get on his chest and beat the shit out of him.' He didn't even say 'hit your opponent back exactly as hard as he hit you'. That eye for an eye shit is the code of the Hamurabi, and Jesus was trying to get rid of it. It should be noted, the code of the Hamurabi was quite liberal for it's time, trying to replace the reigning doctrine of a life for an eye, and the lives of their family as well. Sadly, this is what our current doctrine of massive retaliation with overwhelming force will take us back to.

We are the strongest nation on earth. If we cannot absorb the suffering required by turning the other cheek, who will?