America is a violent nation, proven through its high violent crime rate, and its proclivity to utilize firearms, seemingly at the slightest of provocations. The sure answer to violence is never going to be more violence, in return, whether labeled as justifiable or not; but has to be something that rises above that “eye for an eye” construct, which typically, means deliberately and consciously walking away from embracing violence as a legitimate response, and replacing such with something of substance, such as compassion, empathy, understanding, caring, and brotherly love..
It is not necessarily an easy thing to “turn the other cheek” and probably for a significant amount of people, it will never be an easy thing; but “tit for tat,” is the type of mindset, that places humankind in a perpetual no-win situation, which is why despite all of the human progress accomplished through industrialization and science in recent centuries, we still suffer from an endemic amount of violence. In order then to graduate to the next step, we have to, therefore, be willing to adapt new methods, of which, those that are able to best resist evil, are quite obviously all those that do not take up the attributes of evil.
To have a tendency to violence, is for a significant amount of people, rather easy – for, it often feels almost natural for those people, when dealing with a situation that thus triggers their lashing out response at others, to thus then respond through their hateful words, fists, or guns. This thus signifies that to become non-violent for many, is not only a learned response, but something that requires patience as well as training, along with a dogged determination and perseverance, in order to accomplish such, successfully. That is why, we find that even those with the best of intentions to be nonviolent, can’t just be “thrown to the wolves;” because without having been properly examined and proven thereby to have passed such examination through suitable smaller tests, one does not really know whether someone is going to be able to stick to the master plan, or will under fire or pressure, give way. After all, it could be said, that nothing is more satisfying for someone that is aggressively violent, then to face someone else that seems impassive and calm, but ultimately breakdowns and strikes forcefully back at them, thus providing the excuse for that who instigated such, to justify their consequent violent actions so taken.
Many of us, are our own worse enemy, in the sense of first of all, not bothering to think through our actions thoroughly beforehand, as to the rightness or wrongness of our cause; along with not taking into proper account that other people have the right to express themselves, in a way and manner, that we may not be in accord with. So too, for those that desire to be non-violent, there has to be the self-discipline to always keep in tune with the program, and not then to get somehow caught up in the chaos and mess, being instigated to and around them. Indeed, it takes a bigger person, to walk away from trouble, to not respond to that which is provoking, and to not retaliate whereas a smaller person would; for it must be said, that that which is most worthwhile is worth standing shoulder to shoulder for, come what may.