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Kevin LaBarge
Violence & Nonviolence
Final Paper
12/13/13
Where I Stand: The Story of Violence and Nonviolence in my Life
As part of my high school graduation requirements I had to complete fifty hours of
community service. My junior year I volunteered at an impoverished school in the Austin
neighborhood of Chicago called St. Angelas. At St. Angelas, I planned P.E. classes for and
tutored grade school aged kids. The experience that I had at St. Angelas was not only my first
experience with volunteering, but to be honest it was also my first real taste of connecting with
people who had a different background and life experience than I did. During the time that I
spent at St. Angelas I made connections with a number of the students. I do not mean to
stereotype but I do not lie when I say that all of them were black and poor, which is the exact of
opposite of who I am and who I normally associate with. Some of the kids were as young as
eight or nine while others were only a few years younger than me. Regardless of their age they
all made an impact on me. Austin is known as a pretty rough neighborhood and I expected the
kids to be the same but I was completely wrong. They were friendly and always excited to see
me, and they made me feel like the things that I did for them were incredibly important. It is
because of those kids that I realized I wanted to devote my life to helping others.
Originally this desire to help others manifested itself in me wanting to become a
psychologist. That dream was short lived however when I realized that I did not want to go
through medical school. I then decided that I would follow in my brothers footsteps by joining
the military. I planned, just as he had done, to go through the R.O.T.C. program in college and

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come out the other side a Lieutenant in the United States Military. I have always admired not
only my brother, but all service men and women because to me what their service meant is the
willingness to sacrifice their own lives for the betterment of others. At that time, I honestly
thought that that was the best way that I could others. My mother, however, did not see the
situation the same way that I did. She refused to let me apply for R.O.T.C. scholarships because
she did not want both of her sons in the Army.
With yet another plan foiled I was dejected to say the least. I did not know where I
wanted to go to college and did not know how I could make a career out of helping and serving
others. That is when my oldest sister, Beth, suggested to me that I strongly consider Providence
College, just as any good alumnus should do. Her motives were not purely driven by the love
she had for her alma mater. She wanted me to think about PC because she knew how much I
wanted to help others and she knew that PC had a Public and Community Service major that
would allow me to do that. In the end I knew my sister was right so I decided to take my talents
to Providence.
As a freshman I was gung-ho about the idea of coming to PC and making a difference in
the community. In my service reflection I talked about how all of that changed however when I
did not have the courage to reach out to the community. Since then my interests have changed. I
decided to switch to a Global Studies major not because I am no longer interested in activism or
making a difference, but because I realized that I am very passionate about the global
community.
Between my PSP days and now I have also made other changes in my thinking about how
to best help and serve others. I have accepted the idea that nonviolence is the best and only real

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type of effective conflict resolution. A question that one might ask at this point in my narrative
is, What made you change your thinking from wanting to join the Army to believing in
nonviolent conflict resolution? A good question indeed that might be, and one which I will
explore briefly. The simple answer is that I saw a movie, a movie called Bloody Sunday. The
movie recreates the tragedy of Bloody Sunday in Derry, Northern Ireland when twenty-six
peaceful protesters where shot by British Paratroopers. Thirteen of them died. What that movie
did was show me the power that nonviolence could have and the uselessness that violence has. I
was so committed to nonviolence that the study abroad program that I planned to do was
centered on nonviolent conflict resolution in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, and
because I was planning on studying in that program I decided to take this class to prepare myself.
Unfortunately, my plans changed once again because before this semester I learned that the
nonviolence study abroad program was not going to work out. Regardless of how disappointed I
was about that, I was still excited to take this class.
Coming into Violence & Nonviolence all I really knew about nonviolence was what
Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had done. They had organized a certain community to
protest nonviolently against oppression and were successful. I expected that we would touch on
these two giants of nonviolence sometime during the semester, but what I thought we would
focus on the most was the nonviolent movements that were a part of the Arab Spring. Although
we did touch on them slightly, the class curriculum was much different than I had expected it to
be. It was not linear and it really gave me no definitive answers, but that does not mean I learned
nothing from it
What I did not expect was to learn so much about what violence is, how it is learned, and
why it is so prevalent in our society. Maybe I should have expected to learn about violence itself

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considering it is in the title of the course Violence & Nonviolence but for whatever reason I
was surprised by how much we discussed the matter. I think it is because I had never really
questioned violence before. To me, it just seemed to be a normal part of the life. Regardless of
whether I thought it was good or bad it just seemed normal and natural. One of the first classes
however we discussed Lonnie Athens Stages of Violentization. Athens argues that violence is
not natural to humans but rather learned through five stages: brutalization, belligerency,
violent performances, and virulency. The brutalization stage is the beginning of the
process which introduces one to violence through harming someone that they care about and
forcing them to decide whether that person is worth retaliation. The process continues through
belligerency, the stage in which one decides that violence is worth it in certain situations where
the circumstances allow for it. One then begins to commit violent performances and each time
they need to be provoked less and less. The final stage to complete violentization is
virulency. Finally one begins to commit acts of violence without care and with little thought
and concern for consequences.
Athens theory made sense to me but what really made it concrete in my mind was how
well it could be applied to Geoffrey Canadas Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun. In his book, Canada
describes how it was and how it is now to grow up in Harlem. He talked about being introduced
to violence at a young age by people who he cared about and trusted. He was cast into the cycle
and it progressed as he got older. The older you were, the more violent you were expected to be.
The progression of fist, stick, knife, and finally gun is no accident in the title of his book.
Although they may have had different names to Canada those were the exact same stages of
violence that Athens theorized about tailored to his life.

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These stages of violence are not only relevant on the personal level but they also make
sense applied to the community as a whole. Although violence is very intense on a personal
level it is just as powerful when it is applied to an entire community. Just as with individuals
communities go through stages of violentization and eventually reach a critical point where they
become so violent that it is almost impossible for them to come back. A community that comes
to mind that seems as though it may be in that situation is the community around Providence
College. Some parts of the community are so far engraved in a system of violence that there
seems to be no coming back.
Both Athens and Canada are of the belief that the more an individual or a community
becomes invested in the violentization process the harder it is to get out. It is difficult to learn
violence but it is even harder to unlearn it. Once an individual a community has reached the
point of being able to be violent with little contemplation it is almost impossible to go back. The
reason is because violence is power. Power is the ability to get someone to do what they
wouldnt normally do otherwise. Violence can be used as an effective tool to achieve that goal.
So how does one unlearn violence? Or even, how does one learn how to have power without
being violent? The answer is to learn how to practice nonviolence and how effective it can be.
I think my favorite part about this class was the interview of someone who practices
nonviolence that we had to do. It meant so much to me because I had never met anyone before
who had devoted their life to the practice and teaching of nonviolence and it really showed me
how effective it can be. I interviewed Martha Yager, a pacifist Quaker who works for American
Friends Service Committee (AFSC). One of the things that Martha does for the AFSC is teach
about nonviolence and how effective it can be, and whether she meant to be a teacher the day
that we met or not she taught me a great deal about the power and effectiveness that nonviolent

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direct action can have. The two quotes from Martha that meant the most to me were that
pacifism should be seen as nonviolent direct action, and nonviolence works and it is a lot
more fun and creative than violence. People like Martha are important in changing individuals
outlooks on violence. She can teach children nonviolence before they become involved in a
system of violence or she can bring people back from that point of almost no return.
In terms of the community Rec Night provides a similar service. Rec Night allows
members of the Providence community, specifically the gang community, an opportunity to see
how life can be lived without violence. They are able to be with their peers in a nonviolent
environment and there are also resources there for them that would allow them to further explore
nonviolence if they so choose.
Another aspect of violence that I did not expect to learn about is domestic violence.
Freshman year my entire class had to go to domestic violence presentation. At the time I didnt
think anything of it because I wasnt in a relationship. When I heard Glorias presentation
however, I was all ears because I was in a relationship. I always felt as though I was respectful
boyfriend and I wanted to see if I really was by her standards. What I liked most about her
presentation was the Equality Wheel. She spent almost the entire presentation talking about all
the different types of domestic violence, the Power and Control Wheel, and how bad of a cycle
it can be. Hearing about the violent reality of domestic violence was depressing but when she
got to the Equality Wheel there seemed to be a glimmer of hope. Instead of being about
violence focusses on how people in relationships can be equals. One of the things that we talked
about in class several times was that people may practice violence because they dont know of an
effective alternative, and to me the wheel of equality is a clear and effective alternative to
domestic violence.

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Another glimmer of hope in the cycle of violence that we discussed in class is
forgiveness. The film that we watched on forgiveness is one on of the most powerful things I
experienced in this class. The entire film centered on the idea of forgiveness, why it necessary,
and who it is necessary for. The two things that it focused on that stood out the most to me were
the examples of the Irish children being taught understanding, forgiveness, and nonviolence at a
young age and the man who forgave the teenager who killed his son. The example of the Irish
children stood out to me because having seen the training that they do, it makes sense to me that
all children should do that. That would change the system because children would grow up
going through the stages of nonviolentization rather than violentization. The other example Im
sure was just as powerful for everyone else. A man forgave a teenager for killing his son and
then became best friends with his grandfather. They now travel around the country teaching kids
about the power of forgiveness. When asked how he was able to forgive and why he now
teaches forgiveness the man answered that being angry would have not solved anything. It
would have not honored the memory of his son and it would not have made positive influence in
the world like he makes now.
The psychological effect that violence has on humans is something that I think about very
often. Having a brother in the Army during a time of war I think regularly about what combat
might possibly do to his psyche. Although I dont like to make generalizations I think it is safe
to say that most Americans, informed ones anyways, know that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is
a very real problem for returning veterans. In What It Is Like To Go To War Marlantes says,
The warrior of the future, however, will have to break away from the conditioned numbness,
opening up to all the pain, and at the same time recognize the danger of opening up to violent
transcendence (61). To me, this quote gets at the heart of what PTSD is. PTSD is the pain

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and violent transcendence of war or any other extremely violent situation taking its toll on the
human mind. Although I do not have answer for how to prevent or full treat PTSD, I am glad
that we took the time to talk about and learn about the help that that military offers to soldiers
and veterans suffering from the condition because it could have a real impact on my brothers
life and therefore on those who care about him as well.
One of the types of violence that I was glad we talked about was violence against the
earth. In my Global Studies 101 class Jim came in and talked to us about systems thinking. The
biggest thing that I took away from his lecture was that humans have adapted to think that the
earth is theirs and that they have control over everything that living on it. They think that they
are separate and independent from all other living things. He explained however that this is not
true. Humans depend on the earth and all other living organisms to survive and without them we
would become extinct. This way of thinking was something completely new to me and it caught
my attention. Since then I have tried to become more aware of my eco footprint, or the impact
that I have on the earth and its inhabitants. Because of this, when we discussed A Sand County
Almanac and Leopolds Land Ethic I really felt as though it was speaking to me. The idea that
community is not just humans but the earth and all other plant and animal life is something that
really resonates with me. Having been to the northern woods of both Michigan and Wisconsin
where he was writing from also made it easy for me to sympathize with Leopold. Hearing Jim
and Katrina speak once again about systems thinking also bolstered my view on the subject. The
idea that we are all in this together meaning the earth, plants, animals, and humans is definitely
one of the things that I believe most strongly in my life. Although I am happy with the path that
I am on, I often think about living as a farmer, someone who knows and loves the land and
animals that he has because he is depended on them and therefore understands their importance.

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After writing this paper it is interesting to see how different this class was then I expected
it to be. I expected it to focus primarily on nonviolence and nonviolent strategies, and although
we did discuss big moments in the history of nonviolent action such as Gandhi, Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr., and the Arab Spring I learned so much more about violence than I ever have.
About violence as power, systemic violence, how violence is learned rather than natural, PTSD,
violence against the earth, individual violence, community violence, and the list goes on and on.
It is difficult to create a concise summary for this class because we touched upon so many
different things in sometimes a seemingly random order, but it is not difficult for me to
understand and express what I took away from this class and how it how it has had an impact on
my nonviolent philosophy. It has taught me that in order to really be able to practice nonviolent
direct action the way that I want to it is necessary that I first understand what violence is and
how the system of violence needs to be changed in order for nonviolence to become the most
accepted form of conflict resolution. This class has provided me with a framework of those ideas
so that I can now further my understanding about the relationship between violence and
nonviolence, and hopefully one day center my life and career around using nonviolence as an
accepted and effective form of conflict resolution to serve and help others.