Ann, it's an interesting topic: what constitutes initiating violence against another? With this wording I'm excluding violence that a person uses to defend themselves or their loved ones. So again, what constitutes initiating violence or harm against another? Does it encompass only physical harm? Can psychological harm be included? I think as people deal with cyberbullying, these kind of issues will receive more attention.
What also comes to mind is the whole issue of secondary cigarette smoke. Many places outlaw that now. Maybe because there's proof that it harms others physically. Same with loud noises, for example, around hospitals often there's a law against loud noises. Ann, I think your ideas about this are very compassionate and evolved. I also think it opens up the possibility of abuse and censorship. I doubt that everyone will agree on what constitutes initiating violence against another that does not include actual physical harm. But I think as humans evolve, we'll find some way to treat people compassionately and deal with their wrong doing in a way that protects society while treating the wrong doer justly but humanely. On Monday, January 6, 2014 8:19 PM, "awoelfleba...@yahoo.com" <awoelfleba...@yahoo.com> wrote: But, the thing is, in his "fight" to protest and in turn his hope to have gay marriages banned or made unlawful heis doing a kind of violence. The form his violence is taking is to judge and ultimately condemn the validity and the power of love and the desire to commit, in the form of marriage, between two human beings of the same gender. The nature of his protest is not killing or maiming people but the end result would be to deny a percentage of the adult population the opportunity to show and enact their devotion to one another in the form of marriage, something heterosexuals get to do all the time. This is, in my view, a twisted sort of injustice and therefore as bad as physical violence or terrorism.
