And Violence Begets Violence

This is a post that I did not think I would ever write, because it is quite personal and although I do not mind sharing parts of me with other people, this is a part I would rather not have shared. But I will share it now, in view of hearing calls for 'let's start a war with Iran' or 'let's bomb North Korea or 'blow Japan out of the water'. The reason for these various calls have to do with perceived or real threats to our safety or security or for other reasons, such as barbaric treatment of people or animals in their care. Whatever, the reason is, violence can NEVER be the answer.

Sure, if someone attacks you you have the right to defend yourself, but never ever be the one who starts the violence.

My absolute distate for violence is a result of my early upbringing. I am the off-spring of a mother who was in a Japanese concentration camp for four years, from age 11-15. I know in graphic detail what was done to my mother and other girls and women in those camps, it makes the British t.v. series 'Tenko' look like a holiday camp. After the war my mother moved back with her family to Holland, where nobody at that time was interested in what had happened to them, because the people who had lived in Holland during that time had themselves suffered a lot at the hands of the German occupiers.

I remember a childhood of beatings and walking home from school wondering if I would go home to 'loving mummy' or we would have to play 'Jap camp' again today. I will not bore you with the details, they are not interesting and add nothing to this story.

I want to say that violence done to one generation has lasting results not just for that generation but for the following one as well. And I guess, had I not decided never to have children, I might have visited that violence on the next generation too.

I just wish that when people say 'let's start a war' or 'let's blow them to kingdom come' they would remember that violence never ends well, and that all it does is beget more and more violence.