We must choose it in the home, where we seek to speak non-violently to our children. We must choose it in the schools where we teach respect from teacher to student, from student to teacher and from student to student. We must choose it in our communities when we decide how to maintain law and justice. We must choose it in our prisons when we seek to teach offenders how to live peaceably with society. We must choose it in our governments when we seek solutions to common problems instead of recrimination and self aggrandizement.
Anger begets anger.
Violence begets violence. If we learn to react with violence as children, we will react with violence as adults. We must sever the chains of violence that bind us. Instead, we must seek creative ways to relate to each other. We must learn to honor the good and valuable in each person, and in each nation, even when it seems covered in darkness.