Violence. Yes, it has a place and sometimes, because this world is imperfect, it's unavoidable.

That in no way means that I'm all for killing and burning and destroying.

But there is evil out there. And it will destroy people of goodness. Gandhi and King were both struck down by a bullet.

The creation of Dachau, Auschwitz, Treblinka, Bergen-Belsen and the rest; the Gulag; the Killing Fields; Rwanda; Darfor; Bosnia; Wounded Knee -- you can recite the places as well as I -- demonstrate the persistence of evil.

Sometimes you have to take up arms against evil or you will lose your humanity.

I read that a noted philosopher (I can't remember who) was asked to describe civilization. He said that it was a wonderful city, full of museums and art and towering churches and great libraries that sat on the bank of a river, down the middle of which constantly flowed a tiny trickle of blood -- and that sometimes the river overflowed its banks.

It's a description I like. Me, I try to sandbag the flood.