I usually avoid getting involved in these mud-slinging fests on political threads, but I feel compelled to jump into this one. I too have more anti-Vietnam war protests and lungs-full of tear gas in my past than most.

However, Guest, if you consider yourself a proponent of nonviolence, I invite you to look at the arrows you are slinging on this thread. The greatest proponents of nonviolence in our time, from Mohandas Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to legions of unnamed conscientious objectors and peace workers ALL advocate examining the violence in one's own heart as a necessary precursor to taking nonviolent action. Action includes speech.

Some of the finest men I know have gone to war or otherwise served in the military. They had their reasons. Those who went to Vietnam had a bad time over there and sometimes even a worse time when they returned home. Why continue to attempt to wound them?