Against Violent Extremism: The Story of AVE

Considering the level of violence in our world today, it's easy to succumb to feelings of anxiety, apathy, depression, or hopelessness.

This is especially so because the military-industrial complex, war profiteers, hate-mongers, fear-promoters, bigots, the NRA, and various extremists have become increasingly successful in promoting those reactions.

Violence and other extreme solutions can be the result of such despair, prejudice, and desire to regain a sense of security.

More than 60 years ago, the first atomic weapons were dropped on Japan. Today about 200,000 Hibakusha--survivors of those attacks--live as reminders of the nuclear horror that devastated the country.

Among the multitude of lives thrown into turmoil by the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, a few Hibakusha were exposed to radiation for a second time.

We have now passed the 2,000th U.S. fatality in Afghanistan, but that war is winding down and we are bringing the troops home to a safer environment.

Or so we are supposed to think.

The U.S. today is seeing a huge spike in gun sales stoked by fear of mass shooters and the possibility of more restrictive gun laws. The NRA has never been more active.