Letter to be printed in newspapers
The Oregon college shooting is the 45th school shooting in the US for this year alone, and the 142nd since the attack at Sandy Hook elementary school in 2012.
President Obama said “Our thoughts and prayers are not enough” before asking, once again, for voters to demand changes to the nation’s gun laws while he continues to bomb 7 countries.
I would say, thoughts and prayers, and changes to US gun laws are not enough either. The US needs to end it’s addiction to violence, including war. You can’t keep invading country after country, dropping bombs, initiating regime changes, transforming local police into para-military units gunning down people in our streets, and not expect such violence to be repeated in our schools, churches, etc. The chickens are coming home to roost. Violence is as American as apple pie.
As individuals, communities, and nations, we need to embrace nonviolence. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said decades ago in very prophetic words: “It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence.”
Jim Albertini Malu ‘Aina Center For Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box 489 Ola’a (Kurtistown) Hawai’i 96760 Phone 808-966-7622 Email ja@malu-aina.org www.malu-aina.org
