James Loney

James Loney is in town tonight.  He spoke on violence begetting more violence at a high school this afternoon, and tonight he's speaking at a local church about the war in Afghanistan and alternative ways to make progress in that country.  He has every right to speak of such things, being that he was kidnapped in that country and held captive for 118 days back in 2005. 

I thought about going, I could have gone, perhaps I should have gone.  But... I didn't particularly want to go by myself and I didn't really know about it in time to invite anyone along.  Mike from Regina couldn't get his teleporter to mesh with his warp drive or something like that; Emmerson wouldn't go due to a lack of them serving beer; and Dave, well, he was too whiny, or tired, I don't really remember which. :P  Besides, I actually saw him speak at a Christian social justice festival in Kitchener just months after his release from captivity in 2005 - so I kinda already have a handle on his take of things.

The article in today's paper sums up his thoughts:

What if 30,000 to 40,000 Canadians willing to sacrifice their lives as soldiers were armed with non-violent tactics and objectives, Loney asked.
They'd be equipped with transportation and logistics of a military operation to bring in doctors, build wells and work with artists and educators in partnership to support what's already going on there, he said.
"Have we tried that? No, we've never tried that. So when we've tried it, we've spent $1.2 trillion a year on it, for 10 years, then maybe I will concede, oh, it couldn't work."

 Loney is Christian, and works for Christian Peacemakers, and his ideas do indeed mirror that of Jesus.  Going against the grain, doing things differently, thinking outside the box, walking a mile in another person's shoes, loving your neighbour, turning the other cheek, helping the downtrodden...  Ultimately, being a rebel in your desire to care for humanity, instead of following the crowd in hatred and violence.

2000 years we've been trying to learn these lessons.  It seems that as individuals we can figure out that when you punch a friend, he's going to punch you back and that it's way easier to just get along.  So why can't nations and countries figure this out?