Lesson there to learn

Violence begets violence. History teaches many lessons to those who choose to listen, though none as consistently, nor with such brutality, as this one.

Empires are raised on the blood of slain men, only to be later razed by the sons and daughters of those men. Who then, of course, raise their own empire, and thus continue the cycle.

Slavery is an inherently violent act against those enslaved, and in our country, has led to the Civil War, the Ku Klux Klan, and race riots. One might say that police brutality against minorities is the grand descendant of that original act of violence.

In L.A., a gang avenges the murder of one of its members with a drive-by. In Israel, a Palestinian car bomb kills a dozen Israelis. The Israelis respond with the massacre of 50 Palestinians.

World War I began with the assassination of a single man. The chief antagonist of the war, Germany, was punished so ruthlessly for its transgressions that its citizens were willing to fall in line with a demagogue promising vengeance. Six million Jews were exterminated.

And so we have men sitting on death row, awaiting their fate. Men whose crimes against their fellow man are so despicable that they scream out for justice: An eye for an eye is the often-heard cry. These men have killed without remorse, and so they must be killed.

Government sanctioned vengeance, renamed justice. The message received by anyone who chooses to listen is that blood is the only liquid that can quench the fire of the angry heart. The approval to respond to a violent act with another violent act is tacit, but clear.

The problem with “an eye for an eye” is that eventually everyone goes blind. THOMAS DOVE Jacksonville