Hopewit

A light on a hill? The salt on your potatoes? (Photo by Maryvel Friesen) "The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It seems almost absurd to apply Martin Luther King’s words on the futility of violence to current affairs. For instance, could it be possible that bombing ISIS positions in Iraq and Syria is a strategy of futility? A game plan that is patently part of King's “

Shenk, N. Gerald. Hope Indeed : Remarkable Stories of Peacemakers. Intercourse, PA: Good Books, 2008 Peacemaker . It’s an odd word, in a way. A Shoemaker makes shoes. He gathers the necessary leather, rubber, thread, scissors, tacks, etc., and makes . . . a pair of shoes. “Making peace” is obviously not a manufacturing enterprise. If it were, we would know with certainty what “materials” to gather, would have the skills and knowledge to turn the materials into a product of value and when we were done, peace—like a shiny pair of new shoes—would be a reality and we would put down our tools and rest. No one would mistake the product for anything else. But if peace is something that can be imagined, pursued and realized—subjectively, at least—what does it look like? What is it that the peacemakers in Gerald Shenk’s collection of stories are attempting to “make?” In, for instance, “A Franciscan in the Frey,” did Fra Ivo visualize peace when he wal