Lenten Meditation (Day 16)

It is always easier to promote war than peace, easier to end the peace than end the war, because peace is fragile and war is durable. Once the first shots are fired, those who oppose the war are simply branded as traitors. All debate ends once the first shots are fired, so firing shots is always an effective way to end the debate. The silence may not last for long…but there is always an enforced silence when debate and criticism are banished…
(Nonviolence: Twenty-Five Lessons from the History of a Dangerous Idea.  Mark Kurlansky.  Mew York: The Modern Library.  2006.  Page 76)