I apologise to all for the overly patronising tone of my last mailing. It niggled at me all last night. A problem of composing on line with not enough time for reflection.
As for the the extreme situation posed about my little girl being raped, and my only option being to kill the rapist. What do I have available to kill him with? My teeth? My shirt ripped up and quickly made into a garotte? How long will it take him to die and why will he not yield before death if I loosen my grip on him, just a little?
I am trying to understand how I do it, and with what. Please help me understand. Is it happening in my kitchen and I have a row of knives to hand, and know exactly where to press the blade into the flesh? And he has not noticed these knives, of course.
Or to put it another way, if you want to bandy these absurd situations about, give us the examples that illustrate. How many almost rapists of little girls were killed in the act by fathers in the last five years?
As opposed to the number of little girls killed in wars in the world in the last five years.
Get real. I did not say I would not kill, I said I would rather be called names than kill. I would rather be treated with the contempt some of the contributors to this thread have treated me with - multiplied a thousand fold - than kill. I am unsure if I could kill even given motive, opportunity and the right weapon to hand, but human nature being what is I expect there are situations where it could happen. If I had a gun in my belt the chances would increase of course, but that is illegal in this country.
I would rather be a coward and called a coward, anyway, than be a big macho guy who fights till he wins. He who fights and runs away, lives. Once we are dead we are of little use to anyone. [Apologies to those for whom the afterlife is important.] In the Second World War I could not I think have been a conscientious objector, the war needed to be fought, but I would have ben a non-combatant supporting those who felt able to kill.
Which reminds me of the gay First World War conscientious objector who was asked what he would do if he saw a German soldier raping his sister. His reply was, "I would endeavour to interpose myself between them."