[Vision2020] In defense of beating people up...

Wed, 05 Mar 2003 16:56:30 -0800

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How white their steel, how bright their eyes!&nbsp; I love each laughing knave,<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
Cry high and bid him welcome to the banquet of the brave.<o:p></o:p>
Yea, I will bless them as they bend and love them where they lie,<o:p></o:p>
When on their skulls the sword I swing falls shattering from the sky.<o:p></o:p>
The hour when death is like a light and blood is like a rose,—<o:p></o:p>
You never loved your friends, my friends, as I shall love my foes.
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; —G. K. Chesterton, from The Last Hero
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But like a cloud of morning<o:p></o:p>
To eastward easily,<o:p></o:p>
Tall Eldred broke the sea of spears<o:p></o:p>
As a tall ship breaks the sea.<o:p></o:p>
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His face like a sanguine sunset,<o:p></o:p>
His shoulder a <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:country-region><st1:place>Wessex</st1:place></st1:country-region> down,<o:p></o:p>
His hand like a windy hammer-stroke;<o:p></o:p>
Men could not count the crests he broke,<o:p></o:p>
So fast the crests went down.<o:p></o:p>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; —G. K. Chesterton, from The Ballad of the White Horse<o:p></o:p>
<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>
And from Cain there sprang<o:p></o:p>
misbegotten spirits, among them Grendel,<o:p></o:p>
the banished and accursed , due to come to grips<o:p></o:p>
with that watcher in Heorot waiting to do battle.<o:p></o:p>
The monster wrenched and wrestled with him<o:p></o:p>
but Beowulf was mindful of his mighty strength,<o:p></o:p>
the wondrous gifts God had showered on him:<o:p></o:p>
He relied for help on the Lord of All,<o:p></o:p>
on His care and favour.&nbsp; So he overcame the foe,<o:p></o:p>
brought down the hell-brute.&nbsp; Broken and bowed,<o:p></o:p>
outcast from all sweetness, the enemy of mankind<o:p></o:p>
made for his death-den.<o:p></o:p>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; —Anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet, from Beowulf<o:p></o:p>
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Having read the recent letters from Mr. Moffett and Mrs. Huskey, I am under the firm impression that they must have read all the wrong books growing up.&nbsp; Perhaps if more of their time was spent in the enjoyment of <st1:place>Treasure Island</st1:place>, The Wind in the Willows, Ivanhoe, Robinson Crusoe, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, or anything by Howard Pyle, they would be able to talk some sense about children and violence.&nbsp; Even Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Brian Jacques could teach them better.&nbsp; Violence is a necessary part of all good children's literature; battle is the archetypal medium in which courage, honor, and nobility are forged.&nbsp; “I wo!
 nder what they do teach them at these schools,” said the Professor in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe—and I must confess myself equally perplexed.
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I am not a member of the Bonhom Boxing Club, but as many of those who are happen to be good friends or acquaintances of mine, it think I can safely say that the point is to teach boys to fight, because fist fighting is “OK,” provided there is a just and honorable cause.&nbsp; And it is fun for boys, because God made 'em that way.&nbsp; &nbsp;But you can’t learn to fight without fighting, and you can’t fight without the risk of getting hurt.&nbsp; So what?&nbsp; A boy won’t die of a black eye, and if you think two boys with headgear and gloves could do any more damage than that, you should brush up on your physics.
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How likely do you think it that a Christian schoolboy with loving parents and a history of regular church attendance will develop a disposition of psychotic violence because he is given an education in fighting that has been a staple of boys’ lives since the time of the ancient Greeks and before?&nbsp; And what is this of needing a national organization to supervise it all?&nbsp; Must every boyhood activity be supervised by a committee, just so the “concerned” parents whose children don’t participate can feel a comfortable bureaucratic control over the children that do?&nbsp; I don’t think any of the BBC members are considering a career in professional boxing (most I know tend toward education or the ministry); they just want to have fun and learn how to hit each other well.&nbsp; Bully for them.
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So come off your high horse and go read The Faerie Queene while thwacking at furniture with a stick.&nbsp; It will do your soul good.<o:p></o:p> 
<DIV>Jeremy Downey</DIV>
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