Karamba:

I understand your point; most Gambians are nearing their thresholds for the
tolerance of this regime and thus they might possibly be willing to take up
arms should anything go awry with the elections in October.

But no matter how you slice, dice, chew or regurgitate the subject of the
repercussion widespread violence could cause in our country, this
indisputable fact remains; Our country would end up in the same quagmire that
our region is embroiled in.

Thus the fundamental question of whether the removal of Jammeh is worth the
horrible consequences which would result from the violent alternative?  I
personally do not think so.

IMHO, we should continue the struggle, but we should go about this the right
way.  Everyone has part to play.  Newspapers, like the Independent and
Foroyaa, are doing their jobs.  The L is playing a part.  The decent lawyers
back home are doing the same.  So are the various community action groups as
well as Gambian organizations abroad.

I was once a Malcolm X fanatic as a result of listening his famous speech,
the ballot or the bullet, when I was perhaps about 10 years old. Just
recently, I have started to lean more towards the philosophies of Gandhi and
King.  These great men believed that a struggle can be carried out and won in
a nonviolent manner.  Their struggles did succeed and thus we can use their
well tested methods as somewhat of a standard for how we plan to go about
ours.

Brother, I shudder to think of the terrible consequences which will befall
our country should there be any sort of extended conflict.  For this reason,
if provided the opportunity, I would counsel our leaders and people not to
even consider or mention the violent alternative.

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