"Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him." Martin Luther King Junior As I reflect on this quote I am reminded of why I have looked to Martin Luther King Junior as a role model for so long, from the time Nonna introduced me to his biography when I was a little girl of nine, I knew that this man had been special and as I grew in faith, I realized too that in many ways he was trying to achieve what Christ wanted us to achieve. I wonder though how often I have let the interanal violence of the spirit enter my life, I may not have hit a man, but I very well could have hurt him by the way I reacted or didn't react in a way appropriate, and maybe I had that person questioning my very faith. Just last week I ran into my cousins grandparents, and I find myself wishing I had said more, when I was offended by some rude comments they made, racist comments, when they said things about others, because of the color of their skin, I just looked for a way out, I have yet to figure out how a trip into Wal Mart, could end in me wanting to pull my hair out, but I do not know, I do wonder if by not reacting in a more verbal way I was in some sense condoing the behavior though. I do not believe in judging a person by the color of their skin, anymore than I believe in judging a person who is in a wheelchair, or who is sick, I have known Christians, who have actually decided it was their proper place to judge someone because they got sick, they weren't faithful enough, they didn't give enough, isn't that in itself a form of internal violence?