Fifty years ago, I enrolled in a Quaker university. There, I was taught that war — and the killing of people in general — is Not A Good Thing. I was also taught that each of us is responsible for helping to bring peace to the world.
When I got out of school, I went off to figure out how I, personally, could do something about this killing business.
It was the late 1950s. The United States and the Soviet Union had been rattling nuclear sabers at each other for almost a decade. Everyone knew that sooner or later — by error or on purpose — the two countries were going to fire their missiles. I remember having nuclear nightmares: dreams of bombs going off, children dying, nothing left but ashes and radioactive dust.
