4000 +

A good round number 4000. Could be anything. It could be the number of new cars sold this month or the number of jobs created by a new economic development program. How about the number of people graduating from some local universities or colleges. Yes it could be anything. But here's what it is, something Americans don't really think about or discuss too often. 4000 + is the number of people killed by drones since the US started using them in our current battles in Afghanistan and Pakistan. I wasn't aware of the number myself until I heard it reported on the news the other day. That 4000 + includes people our government is fighting as well as many innocent bystanders. Our government's policy on drones has to be dissected and discussed. In the end, there needs to be transparency in the policy that's followed. Right now, that's not the case. A very small group of civilians and military leaders sit in rooms daily and decide who will be attacked by drones. Who will be killed? It's a very different kind of war. Some would argue that it is much more civil and much more humane since guilty (?) parties are identified and pinpointed with accuracy.

With that targeting and accuracy, real or imagined, comes greater responsibility and accountability. Mistakes can be costly in more ways then one.

Yes mistakes can be costly and we can easily become what we hate and fight against. Mistakes can be costly and we can create many more people who hate us and what we seem to stand for.

Although the number can represent many things, it represents 4000 + people killed with new technology. I'm just beginning to get my head around this and I don't like it much. Honestly, it won't be long before more countries and powers begin to use this new technology. I suspect we won't think much of that.

Letter From Birmingham City Jail - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today, April 16, 2013 is the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s writing of his critically important "Letter from a Birmingham City Jail". It was written in 1963 as King sat in jail and solitary confinement, angry and struggling with establishment clergy who were questioning his involvement not only in civil disobedience but his involvement in social justice and the civil rights movement itself. An angry young man, an outside agitator, a black man who didn't really know his place were just some of the things his fellow clergy were calling him. They were questioning his actions and his leadership.

Struggles about nonviolence and social justice are always intensified when we face and see violence all around us. When we hear people spewing hatred for things and people they usually don't understand. It seems appropriate to take some time to reflect on Dr. King's letter of 50 years ago where he discusses violence and nonviolence, justice and injustice as well as people's attitudes about right and wrong.

I, along with other friends over the years, have found myself called an "outside agitator" and worse. Sometimes the name calling is done to embarrass. Sometimes it is done to discourage people from listening to what you have to say. In the worst cases it is done out of pure hatred for an individual and his or her ideas.

We are living in a time of more hatred and more name calling. It may be about gun violence and trying to control it. It may be about immigration or other countries or political beliefs.

Yesterday a terrible tragedy took place in Boston during that city's famous Marathon. That kind of violence always leads me back to reflections on nonviolence. Click Here to see Dr. King's letter.