THOUGHTS ON VIOLENCE

JUST SHARING THOUGHTS ON VIOLENCE Like most writers I read a lot – much of it is done for character and story research; but I also love visiting the worlds writers create – I read across many genres, in fiction and non-fiction. I enjoy examining character behavior – why a character does what they do; why she/he makes the choice to do one thing instead of another. I often ask myself why I select one choice over another. Through the years I've learned to think critically about behavior. I awoke in the middle of last night thinking, again, about the young black lives recently taken by police and the peaceful and violent protests that followed; my thoughts centered on the violent protest. Why did some people choose violence in response to police violence; and why did that violent behavior, more often than not, result in property damage and not the loss of life? I have taken a critical look at black on black violence and the violent destruction of one’s own neighborhood. I think there’s an identical root-cause inherent in both forms of violent behavior: when a person fails to see any connection between his/her life and the life of another human being it becomes relatively easy to take that life; when one has no investment, no sense of ownership, in the physical property around them it becomes relatively easy to destroy it. What if the violence inflicted on a neighbor or the damage done to physical property is only a conscious or unconscious substitute for the intended target or targets of that violence - is it possible that one’s neighbor or property just happens to be closer and therefore easier to reach? If that is the case, then in military terms both would be considered collateral damage. http://www.amazon.com/author/adolphusward http://www.adolphusward.net