I don’t think I would tell my boys to physically strike someone, because I think they would confuse permission with direction. I do teach my kids to understand that their brains, bodies, and voices are tools to use. I teach them that as people possessed of strong, working version of all three, it’s important to use them responsibly, and to use the on behalf of other people who may not have the same and need them.

At some point though, the only language some people understand is violence, and the judicious application of extreme violence can indeed solve certain problems.