[Silouan] Violence or NOT?

From the Class of Nonviolence

Here is a snip...

• Fred: OK. So you're a pacifist. What would you do if someone were, say, attacking your grandmother?
  Joan: Attacking my poor old grandmother?
  Fred: Yeah, you're in a room with your grandmother and there's a guy about to attack her and you're standing there. What would you do?
  Joan: I'd yell, "Three cheers for Grandma!" and leave the room."

  Fred: No, seriously. Say he had a gun and he was about to shoot her. Would you shoot him first?
  Joan: Do I have a gun?
  Fred: Yes
  Joan: No. I'm a pacifist, I don't have a gun.
  Fred: Well, I say you do.
  Joan: All right. Am I a good shot?
  Fred: Yes.
  Joan: I'd shoot the gun out of his hand.
  Fred: No, then you're not a good shot.
  Joan: I'd be afraid to shoot. Might kill Grandma.

  Fred: Come on, OK, look. We'll take another example. Say, you're driving a truck. You're on a narrow road with a sheer cliff on your side. There's a little girl sitting in the middle of the road. You're going too fast to stop. What would you do?
  Joan: I don't know. What would you do?

Read all the rest before continuing here.

I have a question for Joan. What would you* do if it was culturally acceptable to murder babies before they were born?
Would you* march against it?
Would you* picket against it?
Would you* stage a sit-in?
Would you* boycott?
Would you* lobby?
Is abortion within your* definition of violence?
If not, then you are flippant with life and resting upon the 'luck' of being one of those who were born.
Because, as far as I can tell, ABORTION is as much as a reality as WAR. Both are senseless, shameful, VIOLENT, and fueled by selfishness I cannot begin to describe.
Now let's move on the the elderly.

[After all we're supposed to be eschewing
hypotheticals and considering real-life evils]

What would you* do if they were systematically denied life sustaining medicine/treatment by their "care-givers"?
What would you* do if they were forgotten by their self-indulgence offspring to rot in sub-standard "homes"?
Do you* care that life at its beginning and end are being reduced to decisions of convenience while people try to save the rest of the world from violence, oppression, and hate-crimes?
I am afraid this attitude makes us miss our intended goals to help people and work for the GREATER GOOD. If I were left with only this mantra my best efforts to reach out will have missed a hundred people before my elbows straightened. Ideologue. Blind. Moat-in-eye.
God forgive us both and save us both from blindness.

*Ultimately it matters less what we believe individually...but what does the Church teach...and do...and what are examples of it?
Education, homeless shelters, orphanages, hospitals, reformatories [prisons], soup kitchens, pro-life advocacy, adoption, ad infinitum.

Biretta tip to Silouan.