Cowardice, Courage, and the Importance of Nonviolence

In the aftermath of the bombings and the search for the killers, I keep returning to the idea that if your concern is justice, you must maintain a steadfast commitment to nonviolence. If violence is on the table, even good intentions can become a driver of great evil. And the use of violence will instantly delegitimize your cause. Now, the older brother seemed like a bad person, someone who used jihadist ideology to excuse himself for being such a jerk and "loser," as his uncle put out. But I wouldn't be surprised if he used arguments of justice, at least in part, to convert the younger brother, who all described as a good-hearted person. This is tragic. Nevertheless, the younger one must take full responsibility for his cold-blooded, heinous actions.

True courage means being public about your concerns and peaceful in your actions. I often think of the heroes of the Civil Rights movement, who challenged unjust laws openly and were jailed because of it. In so doing they put all the hard questions right on the table, and moral sentiment moved in their direction.

The brothers were cowards, and failed miserably to achieve anything but senseless destruction and the bolstered resolve of those they sought to intimidate.