Using Violence to Stop Violence

Re “Stop the Violence; Kids Are Watching” (Orange County commentary, Dec. 16):

If the ability to analyze issues and make crucial distinctions before drawing conclusions is the mark of an educated mind, then Adrienne Hurley needs to go back to Logic 101.

1. Hurley states that violence doesn’t solve anything. Really? European nations invaded or threatened by Hitler might want to disagree. And surely the survivors of the Holocaust would protest that holding hands with a fine gentleman such as Hitler and singing “Kumbaya” just wouldn’t have accomplished what warfare did.

2. Having taught university students at all levels, I would expect that freshmen and sophomores might not yet see the distinction between the deliberate murder of civilians on one hand and civilian casualties as the unintended consequences of war on the other. The very concept of “collateral damage” is new, and its use highlights the efforts (entirely by the U.S. and its allies, by the way) to use technology to minimize civilian casualties. Not only was the term unknown to people in past centuries, the very notion would have been considered crazy, it having been the norm in nearly all parts of the world (including pre-Columbian America) to slaughter nearly everyone, combatant and noncombatant alike, and take the rest as slaves.

3. Having been blind to critical distinctions, it is not hard to see why the left has for at least the last 50 years used the “moral equivalence” argument to both support the actions of their heroes and engage in self-flagellation. Thus, the relocation of 100,000 Japanese citizens and Japanese Americans from the West Coast is said to be no different from the Holocaust or from Stalin’s gulags.

4. Finally, there is no research known to me that links teenage violence to the conduct of the nation’s foreign policy.

Sophomores are excused for being sophomoric; university professors should be held to a higher standard. Indeed, they used to be at UC Irvine. Apparently, they no longer are.

Bill Savage

Orange

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Looking back on many of the major wars in our American history, I can’t seem to find where we have used nonviolence to solve our problems. I was just watching the movie “Pearl Harbor,” and as soon as the Japanese bombed us with their surprise attack, what did we do? We turned right around and fought back. Violence is not the key to becoming victorious because all it does is strengthen the hatred between our enemies.

Yes, after the Sept. 11 attack, we came together as a country in a time of crisis, but how is this considered true patriotism when it took a tragedy to bring us closer? Yes, we might have come together because of the love of our country, but the main reason is out of hate for those terrorists who have tried to rip us apart. Due to this hatred, we once more used violence to try to solve the problem of terrorism.

I agree with Hurley that we need to portray positive actions to our teens and children today. In a few years these very children will be the head of our country. They possibly could look back on those who lead our country today and ask, “What would they have done--fight back or find ways around conflicts?” Let’s teach our children that there are other ways to solve problems. If you think there is no way to solve conflicts without using violence, then please remember Gandhi, who said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

Michaela Buccola

Dana Point

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Hurley’s message to the kids is not a good one, even though she thinks it is. She says that violence doesn’t solve problems. She is oh so wrong.

What we are currently doing to fight the evil terrorists is going a long way to solve a problem, and it is through violence. Sometimes fighting back is necessary because nothing else will work.

No, Ms. Hurley, we need to teach kids to be good, decent human beings who are raised to believe that we are all the children of God. They need to know that sometimes violence is called for because it is the only way to fight and stop evil.

Keep helping abused kids, Ms. Hurley. You are to be commended for that. But please teach better lessons about morality. Pacifism is not moral.

Mark Cohen

Huntington Beach