Why Violence?

I have found that nothing leaves me passionate the way non-violence does, the discussion over the need of violence and its practical uses. I see no need, no good in the use of force; I see harm, injury, and murder, even in defense, as nothing more than evil and retributive.
We are not animals, we know better than wolves and lions about the greater damages our outbursts cause; we are aware that being quick to anger, able to cause harm may not hurt our bodies, but do damage our souls (if such things can exist.)
Violence has never set right with me, always being a great cause of distress: knowing of how people hurt one another, especially physically, and even witnessing it myself. I always found myself instinctively heartbroken by such aberrations, which never made sense to me. Why would causing harm ever be good? It made no sense to me in the form of punishment, even when used as a way of "preventing" further wrong-doings. To me, I felt that forgiveness and rehabilitation always made more sense; beliving that men are generally well meaning, if selfish, but that men are not trying to do evil - if anything, they are only as children: short-sighted in seeing how their self-interest can cause a greater harm to those around them.
I've often felt moved by the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, as well as those of Ghandi and Tolstoy. They have all professed love over violence, asking their followers to do no harm - even against those who may harm them. Tolstoy often cited the Quakers, who as Christian men took the teachings of Jesus to be quite clear. Matthew 5:39, "But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also."  To the Quakers, to Tolstoy, and to Gandhi (moved by Tolstoy,) agreed with these sentiments. To not cause harm to one who acts evilly, but forgive them, love them, and bless them.
I find comfort in these men, who have come before me in a time when violence was even more justified. I take their words as solace, as I resist the same things they did: war, vengeance, capital punishment, corporal punishment, mass incarceration, and terror. How have we not learned by now, when we are always claiming progress and a new dawn for modernity? Have we made progress, because I do not see it. I see the same excuses for our actions, when there are no reasons as to why using force is good.