"Tonight, I ask people to reject violence and words that harm, and turn to words that heal -- prayer, patient dialogue, and sympathy for the friends and family of the fallen".
Those of us working on behalf of victims of domestic abuse applaud the stand that Harvey Araton has taken with respect to athletes and domestic violence ("Players' Words and Actions Lead to Disturbing Double Standard," March 19).
It has been a week of intense violence, nasty words, and quiet backroom negotiation in the Middle East, as the antagonists in the conflict have tried to find their diplomatic footing after last week's upheaval.
When a nation's moral compass is malfunctioning, when the level of its public discourse is abysmal, its lawlessness made manifest as violence in words and deeds, people can even pretend that a group of thugs that terrorise immigrants in poverty-stricken suburbs are a plausible political entity, and elect it in parliament.
Somehow -- within these small children -- irritation mutated into rage, anger melted into violence, and words became fists.
Despite these select monstrous individuals, I reiterate my belief that the majority of the people in this country collectively are ready to combat violence with words, or votes, or peaceful protests, or a solution we've yet to articulate, but we need directions.
A picture filled with rapid fire wit, dark, hilarious humor, vicious violence, curse words galore, surrealism, intense emotion, unpredictable action, redemption, faith and a deeply touching soul (not to mention a dwarf -- a dwarf who snorts lots and lots of cocaine), In Bruges never runs off the rails, but remains nicely contained in, of course, Bruges.
When King came on stage he played a set that featured "The Thrill is Gone" and "Worry", which broke down to an anti-domestic violence spoken-word piece.
Right now, the only term he sees in that lexicon is "violence," a word that was often linked to video games in the wake of the Columbine High School shootings.
He also repeated the American position that the Tigers, who were excluded from the Washington meeting because the United States has declared them a terrorist organization, must give up violence in word and action.
