After one of my talks about anarkhia and noncooperation, I turned to my friend and bodyguard.
“This must make you a little uncomfortable, when I say we don’t need a state to live our lives well, given what your Nazarene said about ‘render unto Caesar,’” I said.
John Hemlock looked puzzled, and then he burst out laughing. I have to say that John’s laugh is one of the most delightful sounds in the universe; he is one joyful man.
“Oh my man, you’ve been fooled by one of the all-time great misdirection plays,” he said, in what I believe was a football reference (I really should learn that game to understand my friend better). “‘Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what is God’s – Is that the quote you mean?”
“Yes,” I said. “He said pay your taxes and acknowledge the state’s authority.”
Another full-throated, full-body roar of laughter.
“Jesus said that when some political types were trying to trap him,” John said once he caught his breath. “They wanted to get him to say something subversive, so they asked him if it’s right for his followers to pay taxes. He knew they wanted to trip him up and catch him telling people to revolt. So he had them show him a coin, and sure enough Caesar’s picture was on it. And then he said – listen up now – ‘Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give to God what is God’s.’”
Then he spread his arms wide with a huge grin, as if the punch line was obvious.
“Don’t you get it? This is the guy who said sell all your belongings and follow me – follow God,” he laughed. “Give to God what is God’s – Everything is God’s! Caesar is just a pretty, shiny picture.
“You just keep talking about your anarkhia, Ray. My Nazarene is smiling and thinking, ‘Finally, someone gets what I was saying.’”
Entry 74
Showing posts with label John Hemlock. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John Hemlock. Show all posts
Monday, October 15, 2012
Monday, September 17, 2012
Entry 62. Messengers of nonviolence
“Guy comes to me, his liver’s shot, his wife left him, he’s broke, I think his dog might have died, too,” John Hemlock said to general laughter. “He says, ‘Why would God do this to me?’ The thing is, I said, God didn’t do anything to you, son, he’s only honoring the choices you made over the years. Your life is the product of the choices you make, moment by moment. You can hang on tight, or you can relax and turn the controls over to Jesus.”
Now, everyone knew where Johnny would be coming from, so those who chose to think about the religious themes took them seriously, and those who were not so sure took what he had to say that they could apply to their lives and left the rest to simmer. That’s what I mean when I say maybe Sirians are a special breed where this could work – most of us learned early to live and let live. We have no special need to convert other people to our way of thinking, as long as they don’t try to convert us to theirs. And in that way, John Hemlock is the perfect preacher for our planet. He does his share of converting but he doesn’t fuss for the lost souls who choose to stay lost – or those who get themselves found by other means.
My half of the talking didn’t touch on the supernatural, although once I added John’s “Love your neighbor as yourself” verbiage I guess it did have that undercurrent. I was not trying to win souls as much as minds when I said it: It simply makes sense looking at human nature that the way you treat others is reflected in the way they treat you.
“When you overthrow a violent regime violently, you only replace one violence with another,” I’d say. “If you want fundamental change, you must make fundamental changes in the way you approach the problem. A government or a society that solves its problems by killing or maiming its adversaries is not going to change minds – and changing minds is the only way to achieve the real goal: ending tyranny.”
The audiences had been growing, but they dropped off again after armed soldiers began to patrol the streets. One thing that can be said about violence is that it’s quicker, although not at all effective in the long run as we learned. Ramsey Sardonicus proved in Colorado that you can take a regime down in a hurry by ignoring it, but the people of Sirius 4 wanted to try taking the tyrants on their own terms first. The only time I resented that approach was when Lt. Joshua True tried turning my resistance to violence on its head.
Entry 63
Now, everyone knew where Johnny would be coming from, so those who chose to think about the religious themes took them seriously, and those who were not so sure took what he had to say that they could apply to their lives and left the rest to simmer. That’s what I mean when I say maybe Sirians are a special breed where this could work – most of us learned early to live and let live. We have no special need to convert other people to our way of thinking, as long as they don’t try to convert us to theirs. And in that way, John Hemlock is the perfect preacher for our planet. He does his share of converting but he doesn’t fuss for the lost souls who choose to stay lost – or those who get themselves found by other means.
My half of the talking didn’t touch on the supernatural, although once I added John’s “Love your neighbor as yourself” verbiage I guess it did have that undercurrent. I was not trying to win souls as much as minds when I said it: It simply makes sense looking at human nature that the way you treat others is reflected in the way they treat you.
“When you overthrow a violent regime violently, you only replace one violence with another,” I’d say. “If you want fundamental change, you must make fundamental changes in the way you approach the problem. A government or a society that solves its problems by killing or maiming its adversaries is not going to change minds – and changing minds is the only way to achieve the real goal: ending tyranny.”
The audiences had been growing, but they dropped off again after armed soldiers began to patrol the streets. One thing that can be said about violence is that it’s quicker, although not at all effective in the long run as we learned. Ramsey Sardonicus proved in Colorado that you can take a regime down in a hurry by ignoring it, but the people of Sirius 4 wanted to try taking the tyrants on their own terms first. The only time I resented that approach was when Lt. Joshua True tried turning my resistance to violence on its head.
Entry 63
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Entry 61. Hot coals of forgiveness
John Hemlock, more perhaps than any other living soul, understood that removing violence as an option didn’t mean surrendering.
“I get that you’re angry, I get that you want to lash out,” Johnny would tell our audiences. “But you got to get past that, you have to forgive your enemies – that’s the one path to true peace. I don’t mean what they used to call a kumbya peace, a false peace, I mean when you don’t stay up at night with a tummy ache because you hate your enemies so much.”
“What if they’ve killed your brother?” the skeptical would ask, and before the question could even echo off the wall, John would bark back: “Every man is your brother. It’s a family dispute.”
But then that huge face would soften into a whimsical smile. “If you’re having trouble with the forgiveness part, think of this: If you return hate and violence with love and generosity, it’ll drive them nuts. It’ll make them crazy if they think they can’t make you angry. It’ll be as good as dumping hot coals on their head, their brains will explode.” That would usually get people laughing a little, and then he’d add: “The really sweet part is that if you do that often enough and long enough, there really will come a day when they can’t make you angry. It’ll be second nature for you to give love and generosity to everyone, even the people who think they’re your enemies. You’re not treating them with love because it drives them crazy, you’re treating them with love because you love them. At first forgiveness doesn’t change anything except what’s inside you – but if you can stick it out and forgive and forgive and respond with love every time, eventually no one will even want to be your enemy in the first place.”
We made a good one-two punch, John and I, if I may make an analogy that involves a fighting image. He would come on and talk about loving your neighbors in a practical but theoretical sense, and I would extend the theory to the realities of the present day. I knew if we could convince people that nonviolence is the core of a stable but dynamic way of life, we could change the world.
That was why Buffalo’s choice to wage the war in the old-fashioned way – killing Earthians – shook me to the core: Because nonviolence is my core. If I couldn’t convince the woman closest to me that my tenets of common wealth would lead us to a better place, literally a common wealth, how would I convince anyone? I knew the question was silly, I knew my ideas were catching on with people, but I wanted more than anything for her to embrace the concept.
“You’re the one who says we’re each and every one of us unique, and that means we’re not going to see everything the same,” John reminded me. “She’ll come around in her own way, her own time. You guys are soulmates. Half of a soul can’t go one way and the other half completely the other forever.”
“I’m talking about realizing that even Earthians are our neighbors, and she’s off to kill them. That’s pretty much opposite directions,” I said.
“She’ll come around,” he repeated. “You both have this passion for freedom. You’re both absolutely real and unique – like everyone else is, that’s what you say, right? The passion’s taking you different ways now, but you’re going to end up on the same page, I know that. You need to be together, there’s like an aura that surrounds the two of you when you’re together.”
“An aura.”
“Don’t you give me that look, Raymond, I’m telling you I see an aura. It lights you both up. You’re what you call ‘made for each other.’”
“That won’t help much if she gets herself killed,” I said ruefully.
“Hey, seems to me you’re both committed to dying for this cause if that’s what it takes,” John Hemlock said with a big smile. “Buffalo will take care of herself, and I’m here to take care of you.”
Entry 62
“I get that you’re angry, I get that you want to lash out,” Johnny would tell our audiences. “But you got to get past that, you have to forgive your enemies – that’s the one path to true peace. I don’t mean what they used to call a kumbya peace, a false peace, I mean when you don’t stay up at night with a tummy ache because you hate your enemies so much.”
“What if they’ve killed your brother?” the skeptical would ask, and before the question could even echo off the wall, John would bark back: “Every man is your brother. It’s a family dispute.”
But then that huge face would soften into a whimsical smile. “If you’re having trouble with the forgiveness part, think of this: If you return hate and violence with love and generosity, it’ll drive them nuts. It’ll make them crazy if they think they can’t make you angry. It’ll be as good as dumping hot coals on their head, their brains will explode.” That would usually get people laughing a little, and then he’d add: “The really sweet part is that if you do that often enough and long enough, there really will come a day when they can’t make you angry. It’ll be second nature for you to give love and generosity to everyone, even the people who think they’re your enemies. You’re not treating them with love because it drives them crazy, you’re treating them with love because you love them. At first forgiveness doesn’t change anything except what’s inside you – but if you can stick it out and forgive and forgive and respond with love every time, eventually no one will even want to be your enemy in the first place.”
We made a good one-two punch, John and I, if I may make an analogy that involves a fighting image. He would come on and talk about loving your neighbors in a practical but theoretical sense, and I would extend the theory to the realities of the present day. I knew if we could convince people that nonviolence is the core of a stable but dynamic way of life, we could change the world.
That was why Buffalo’s choice to wage the war in the old-fashioned way – killing Earthians – shook me to the core: Because nonviolence is my core. If I couldn’t convince the woman closest to me that my tenets of common wealth would lead us to a better place, literally a common wealth, how would I convince anyone? I knew the question was silly, I knew my ideas were catching on with people, but I wanted more than anything for her to embrace the concept.
“You’re the one who says we’re each and every one of us unique, and that means we’re not going to see everything the same,” John reminded me. “She’ll come around in her own way, her own time. You guys are soulmates. Half of a soul can’t go one way and the other half completely the other forever.”
“I’m talking about realizing that even Earthians are our neighbors, and she’s off to kill them. That’s pretty much opposite directions,” I said.
“She’ll come around,” he repeated. “You both have this passion for freedom. You’re both absolutely real and unique – like everyone else is, that’s what you say, right? The passion’s taking you different ways now, but you’re going to end up on the same page, I know that. You need to be together, there’s like an aura that surrounds the two of you when you’re together.”
“An aura.”
“Don’t you give me that look, Raymond, I’m telling you I see an aura. It lights you both up. You’re what you call ‘made for each other.’”
“That won’t help much if she gets herself killed,” I said ruefully.
“Hey, seems to me you’re both committed to dying for this cause if that’s what it takes,” John Hemlock said with a big smile. “Buffalo will take care of herself, and I’m here to take care of you.”
Entry 62
Monday, August 13, 2012
Entry 54. The assassin comes calling
Mahatma Gandhi, who freed his nation with nonviolent civil disobedience, died Jan. 30, 1948, shortly after being shot in the chest while walking onto the prayer grounds at his home in New Delhi.
A few days before his death, the 78-year-old Gandhi said, “Should I die by the bullet of a madman, I have to do so with a smile. There must be no anger in me. God must be in my heart and on my lips, and you must promise me one thing: Should such a thing happen, do not shed a tear. I have done my deeds for humanity not requested by any human and I cannot stop on request of anybody. I am like God wanted me and I do as he advises me to do. Let him do with me as he pleases. If he wants to, he may kill me. I believe that I do as he orders.”
Martin Luther King, who used Gandhi as a model in his efforts to free his people, died April 4, 1968, shortly after being shot as he stood on the balcony of a hotel in Memphis.
The night before he died, King concluded his last speech by saying, “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!”
Ramsey Sardonicus was shot by a sniper during the inaugural ball marking his second term as president of the free nation of Colorado; he was 41 years old. Jesus was crucified at age 33. Real life is not so gentle with those of us who seek to lead nonviolent revolution.
It gave me little comfort to know Henry David Thoreau died at home in bed, seeing as Thoreau first contracted tuberculosis when he was 18 years old in 1835 and spent the next 27 years suffering from it on and off before the damn bug finally killed him at age 44. I figured I had a four-out-of-five chance of dying a violent death and a four-out-of-five chance of dying before I hit 45.
And since Thoreau was not an especially public figure until years after he died, I figured the main reason old Henry David wasn’t shot was because he wasn’t famous enough to kill. It was only a matter of time, I figured, before some nutbag came calling at the door. I only hoped I had a chance to talk to the guy before he pulled the trigger.
So, yes, it’s true that when Frederick Miles Masterson stepped in front of me that day as John Hemlock and I strolled along my familiar beach on Lake Ptolemy, I raised my eyebrows and told the stranger with a smile and just the slightest gasp of recognition, “Oh! It’s you.”
Oh, dear, I think I’ve gotten ahead of myself again.
Entry 55
A few days before his death, the 78-year-old Gandhi said, “Should I die by the bullet of a madman, I have to do so with a smile. There must be no anger in me. God must be in my heart and on my lips, and you must promise me one thing: Should such a thing happen, do not shed a tear. I have done my deeds for humanity not requested by any human and I cannot stop on request of anybody. I am like God wanted me and I do as he advises me to do. Let him do with me as he pleases. If he wants to, he may kill me. I believe that I do as he orders.”
Martin Luther King, who used Gandhi as a model in his efforts to free his people, died April 4, 1968, shortly after being shot as he stood on the balcony of a hotel in Memphis.
The night before he died, King concluded his last speech by saying, “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!”
Ramsey Sardonicus was shot by a sniper during the inaugural ball marking his second term as president of the free nation of Colorado; he was 41 years old. Jesus was crucified at age 33. Real life is not so gentle with those of us who seek to lead nonviolent revolution.
It gave me little comfort to know Henry David Thoreau died at home in bed, seeing as Thoreau first contracted tuberculosis when he was 18 years old in 1835 and spent the next 27 years suffering from it on and off before the damn bug finally killed him at age 44. I figured I had a four-out-of-five chance of dying a violent death and a four-out-of-five chance of dying before I hit 45.
And since Thoreau was not an especially public figure until years after he died, I figured the main reason old Henry David wasn’t shot was because he wasn’t famous enough to kill. It was only a matter of time, I figured, before some nutbag came calling at the door. I only hoped I had a chance to talk to the guy before he pulled the trigger.
So, yes, it’s true that when Frederick Miles Masterson stepped in front of me that day as John Hemlock and I strolled along my familiar beach on Lake Ptolemy, I raised my eyebrows and told the stranger with a smile and just the slightest gasp of recognition, “Oh! It’s you.”
Oh, dear, I think I’ve gotten ahead of myself again.
Entry 55
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Entry 38. The Nazarene
John Hemlock had a somewhat non-evangelistic approach to evangelical Christianity: He wasn’t as concerned about convincing you to accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior as he was about recommending the resulting lifestyle.
And by lifestyle, he didn’t mean the traditional taboos like not getting drunk or not cheating on your spouse or not using colorful language – he was more focused on the idea of “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
John also completely ignored the stuff about “I am the way and the truth and the light – no one can come to the Father except through me.”
“Hey look, this what works for me; you can go ahead and try any other way of getting to the Father if you’d like, or no way at all if that’s your choice,” Hemlock said. “I’m just tellin’ ya that this seems to be the only one that really works in my life. And the most important thing is dealing with each other with an attitude of love.”
His best example of that attitude was the life of Jesus – a guy who was held up as the savior who was going to lead the revolution that freed his hometown of Nazareth and the surrounding countryside from an empire based 1,400 miles away. They wanted him to be some sort of military hero, but he had something else in mind: “Love your neighbor.”
When the empire came to arrest Jesus, his buddies grabbed their swords and went after the officers – lopped off an ear or two – but he told them to stop and went quietly.
Then he went through a kangaroo court and was executed brutally, all the while talking about forgiveness. There’s some disagreement about what happened after the execution (John insists in literally believing the resurrection story – “otherwise he’s just some historical guy and not still alive, which of course he is”), but there’s no question that he started a movement that’s still going strong two and a half millennia later.
Had he led a military coup and forced his way to freedom, he would have just been another long-forgotten imaginary revolutionist. By concentrating on an internal revolution, Jesus made a lasting change.
“A lot of people have been killed over the years in the name of Christ,” I said to John Hemlock one day.
“Oh, don’t get me started,” he laughed. “The guy laid down a pretty tough foundation when he said ‘Love your enemies.’ A lot of people decided he couldn’t have been serious about that. But he was. And if the guy in front of you is not some damn Earthian who’d just as soon kill ya – if he’s an individual just as deserving of your love as the guy in the mirror – that kind of changes your attitude.”
That internal attitude struck me as a much better – and effective – way to regulate my behavior than an external government. I began to believe a peaceful everyday life could exist without the amorphous, threatening entity we call The State, if we were just willing to try treating each other with love and respect. “Love your neighbor as yourself” became the first of my three Tenets of Common Wealth and the basis of the “real” revolution on Sirius 4.
Entry 39. Give more than you receive
And by lifestyle, he didn’t mean the traditional taboos like not getting drunk or not cheating on your spouse or not using colorful language – he was more focused on the idea of “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
John also completely ignored the stuff about “I am the way and the truth and the light – no one can come to the Father except through me.”
“Hey look, this what works for me; you can go ahead and try any other way of getting to the Father if you’d like, or no way at all if that’s your choice,” Hemlock said. “I’m just tellin’ ya that this seems to be the only one that really works in my life. And the most important thing is dealing with each other with an attitude of love.”
His best example of that attitude was the life of Jesus – a guy who was held up as the savior who was going to lead the revolution that freed his hometown of Nazareth and the surrounding countryside from an empire based 1,400 miles away. They wanted him to be some sort of military hero, but he had something else in mind: “Love your neighbor.”
When the empire came to arrest Jesus, his buddies grabbed their swords and went after the officers – lopped off an ear or two – but he told them to stop and went quietly.
Then he went through a kangaroo court and was executed brutally, all the while talking about forgiveness. There’s some disagreement about what happened after the execution (John insists in literally believing the resurrection story – “otherwise he’s just some historical guy and not still alive, which of course he is”), but there’s no question that he started a movement that’s still going strong two and a half millennia later.
Had he led a military coup and forced his way to freedom, he would have just been another long-forgotten imaginary revolutionist. By concentrating on an internal revolution, Jesus made a lasting change.
“A lot of people have been killed over the years in the name of Christ,” I said to John Hemlock one day.
“Oh, don’t get me started,” he laughed. “The guy laid down a pretty tough foundation when he said ‘Love your enemies.’ A lot of people decided he couldn’t have been serious about that. But he was. And if the guy in front of you is not some damn Earthian who’d just as soon kill ya – if he’s an individual just as deserving of your love as the guy in the mirror – that kind of changes your attitude.”
That internal attitude struck me as a much better – and effective – way to regulate my behavior than an external government. I began to believe a peaceful everyday life could exist without the amorphous, threatening entity we call The State, if we were just willing to try treating each other with love and respect. “Love your neighbor as yourself” became the first of my three Tenets of Common Wealth and the basis of the “real” revolution on Sirius 4.
Entry 39. Give more than you receive
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Entry 22. Giant, gentle hands
John Hemlock’s hands were not the first thing you noticed. That would be his eyes, the soft expression on his face that contrasted with the hard set of his huge body.
The second thing you noticed, if he spoke to you – and he would speak to you – was the gentle, raspy tone of his voice. Almost a babylike tone, except for the rasp.
No, you would not notice his hands at first, but when he took your hand in a gentle-but-firm clasp of greeting, then you would notice them – when his hand enveloped yours, when he placed his other hand over yours to emphasize his pleasure in meeting another human being he had never encountered before.
They were huge hands, rough from a lifetime of work and hard play, which for John Hemlock were one and the same.
Johnny Hemlock was born on Earth, and he was a large young man, and that attracted the attention of athletic coaches. To race through his early years, he found himself in a vast metropolis along one of Earth’s largest lakes, a city called Green Bay, where for nearly 300 years the major attraction had been an ancient sport that involved large men moving a ball across a field of grass while other large men tried to impede your progress in violent collisions.
He was one of the best athletes this city that celebrated athleticism had ever seen. And one of its gentlest souls. He had been chosen for a life of ferocious blows and clashes, but his instinct was for serenity, and his life’s ambition was to travel the galaxy sharing his love for Jesus.
Our meeting was anything but tranquil. In fact it came on the evening when one of my most cherished theories faced its first trial by fire.
“In a kill or be killed situation, there must be a third way,” I always said. When that situation arose, John Hemlock was the third way.
I was delivering a lecture about nonviolence, noncooperation and the future of Sirius 4. The crowd seemed very attentive and receptive to the message until a man stood up in the second row, worked his way to the aisle, stepped forward and raised a gun toward me. I had a clear view down the barrel and knew that in a moment my life would be over.
An impossibly large figure, moving impossibly fast, burst into my field of vision and collided with the would-be murderer with a force that lifted him off the ground and sent his weapon sailing harmlessly out of his reach – if he would have been able to reach for anything or concentrate on anything except retrieving the wind that had been knocked out of his gasping lungs.
And after he saved my life, John Hemlock reached out an impossibly large hand and grinned softly.
“I’m very pleased to meet you, professor.”
Entry 23
The second thing you noticed, if he spoke to you – and he would speak to you – was the gentle, raspy tone of his voice. Almost a babylike tone, except for the rasp.
No, you would not notice his hands at first, but when he took your hand in a gentle-but-firm clasp of greeting, then you would notice them – when his hand enveloped yours, when he placed his other hand over yours to emphasize his pleasure in meeting another human being he had never encountered before.
They were huge hands, rough from a lifetime of work and hard play, which for John Hemlock were one and the same.
Johnny Hemlock was born on Earth, and he was a large young man, and that attracted the attention of athletic coaches. To race through his early years, he found himself in a vast metropolis along one of Earth’s largest lakes, a city called Green Bay, where for nearly 300 years the major attraction had been an ancient sport that involved large men moving a ball across a field of grass while other large men tried to impede your progress in violent collisions.
He was one of the best athletes this city that celebrated athleticism had ever seen. And one of its gentlest souls. He had been chosen for a life of ferocious blows and clashes, but his instinct was for serenity, and his life’s ambition was to travel the galaxy sharing his love for Jesus.
Our meeting was anything but tranquil. In fact it came on the evening when one of my most cherished theories faced its first trial by fire.
“In a kill or be killed situation, there must be a third way,” I always said. When that situation arose, John Hemlock was the third way.
I was delivering a lecture about nonviolence, noncooperation and the future of Sirius 4. The crowd seemed very attentive and receptive to the message until a man stood up in the second row, worked his way to the aisle, stepped forward and raised a gun toward me. I had a clear view down the barrel and knew that in a moment my life would be over.
An impossibly large figure, moving impossibly fast, burst into my field of vision and collided with the would-be murderer with a force that lifted him off the ground and sent his weapon sailing harmlessly out of his reach – if he would have been able to reach for anything or concentrate on anything except retrieving the wind that had been knocked out of his gasping lungs.
And after he saved my life, John Hemlock reached out an impossibly large hand and grinned softly.
“I’m very pleased to meet you, professor.”
Entry 23
Monday, June 18, 2012
Entry 12. They all ended up dead
I was between my sophomore and junior years in college, and my childhood friend Badiah Sinclair had already begun to make his name as one of the youngest people ever to be elected to the legislature. He had won on the strength of his persuasive passion for an independent Sirius 4, and his faction succeeded in getting a meeting with the governor and a representative of Earth to negotiate the possibilities.
As college friends do, a group of us were debating the issues of the day while well stocked with beer. And as college students, we were filled not just with brewskis but with ourselves, confident that we were the most insightful observers of the human condition ever to connect two dots.
The independence talks were the main news of the day, and we naturally all had opinions about it. Ralph Emerson was sure they would fail and glad of it – he thought we were still too small a colony to survive as a unified people. Nate Maples was for independence but convinced it could not be won without a war. I was knee-deep in my studies of nonviolence and believed lasting freedom could be won without bloodshed. Ed Raven didn’t believe much of anything; he got his pleasure in finding the flaws to shoot down everyone’s beliefs.
“What, you never heard of Liechtenstein? or Andorra? They did OK,” Ed teased Ralph in one of his weaker efforts.
“Those are little countries on Earth, moron,” Ralph replied. “I’m talking about a whole planet with barely more than a half-million million people trying to stand on their own against the universe.”
“Why does it have to be ‘against’ the universe?” I jumped in. “Civilization advances faster and farther when we’re not blowing each other up or slicing and dicing people.”
“You really think Earth is going to give up Sirius 4 without a fight?” Nate said. “We have the natural resources to sustain ourselves, including every scarce and precious commodity that Earth is afraid will run out soon. They’re not going to let go unless we cut off their grabby little hands and make it deadly to challenge us.”
“I thought I wasn’t free because I had no gloves, so I beat up a guy who had no hands,” Ed intoned as if he was quoting some famous proverb. Clearly the beer was winning its war against his brain cells.
“Violence just begets violence,” I said. “The best way to win a battle is by using your mind and soul, not your fists. Look at people like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jesus, Ramsey Sardonicus –”
“They all got a lot of people killed,” Nate snapped back. “Oh, and one more little problem, Mr. Let’s Have Peace – they all ended up DEAD. All those people who said ‘I want to talk this out, I’m unarmed’? Somebody said ‘Good!’ and blew them away.”
For some reason everyone else found that hysterical. Even I had to laugh, although I don’t know why – must have been the brew.
“But they all won, Nate. Don’t you see that? Gandhi and Sardonicus won lasting independence for their countries, King got equality for his people, Jesus founded a whole religion –”
“More people have been killed in Jesus’ name than just about anyone in history,” Ralph said. I had no real answer for that one; I hadn’t met John Hemlock yet.
“Hey, it’s brilliant if you want to try winning wars without hurting anyone,” Nate said with a conciliatory tone. “I’m just saying don’t be surprised if somebody decides to blow you away for it.”
It was kind of a grim thought. Like Moses and the promised land, the leaders who led their people to a nonviolent solution often didn’t live to see their goal achieved.
“I guess that’s the price I’d have to pay,” I said as confidently as I could. I admit I wasn’t eager to march into martyrdom, but there was one positive about the idea. “It would be worth it.”
Entry 13. After class
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Entry 7
It was the moment I first realized we had a chance to make this happen. It was the moment when it struck me what exactly John Hemlock was trying to tell me. Truth be known, my first reaction was shock.
“I’m not asking you to die for me, Johnny,” I said to him. “I would never ask you to die for me.”
He looked down at me with those soft brown eyes that clashed with his massive body.
“I know, Ray,” he rasped quietly. “But I’m offering.”
Shock, at first. Then an enormous humility. And, after a few more moments, a hope as deep as I've ever known.
Entry 8. Time line
“I’m not asking you to die for me, Johnny,” I said to him. “I would never ask you to die for me.”
He looked down at me with those soft brown eyes that clashed with his massive body.
“I know, Ray,” he rasped quietly. “But I’m offering.”
Shock, at first. Then an enormous humility. And, after a few more moments, a hope as deep as I've ever known.
Entry 8. Time line
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