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FOLLOW 9/11 BY TAKING PEACE |
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"An eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind." |
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The war has cost more
than the sum needed to pay off the debts |
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He said that by failing to prevent the impoverishment and humiliation of people around the world, we are engaging in passive violence, the result of which is physical violence. He said that we need to work for peace actively, not be satisfied with peace in our own hearts or private lives, but insist on taking peace out into the world everywhere we go. As this 5th anniversary of the 9/11 physical attacks on NYC and Washington and the mental attack on our nation draws to a close, the most important question each of us must ask is, "Has the US 'War on Terror' made us safer or not? Has it and is it bringing peace to the world?" Anyone who honestly believes the war on terror is
bringing peace is not simply seeing the world through rose colored glasses,
but seeing the world with blinders on. For most of the people receiving this newsletter - you have or had some connection to Stony Brook and in all probability still live in New York State. You have the opportunity to do as Gandhi said and insist on taking peace out into the world. 9/12 is the NY primary - Democratic and Republican primarily and scattered other parties here and there - where decisions will be made about who represents us. Will it be people who vote to preemptively attack another country? Will it be those who believe that continuing to kill more innocent Iraqis will bring peace? Or will it be people who believe the best way to bring peace and to make us safer is to stop our unprovoked war immediately? For those of you who are registered to vote in a
political party - you have the
opportunity to press a lever to insist on taking peace out into the world.
To make America once again a country to be proud of for the ideals it claims
to espouse, and which in Iraq it has so painfully failed to adhere to. If you are faculty - tell your students that anyone who leaves to go to vote is excused from your class. If you are staff with students working for you - tell
them they too are excused for the day to go and vote. If you have a car, offer to drive a student voter home - even if its a trek into the city. Or if you do not have a car but know a student is struggling financially, offer them a train ticket. The polls are open from 6 am to 9 pm. No matter what party you are registered for, there are candidates running in many races who are offering a chance to show America and the world that peace is what Americans really want, even if they were once foolish enough to believe the lies. "All we are saying ... is to give peace a chance..." - John Lennon Anger is like
electricity," Arun's grandfather Mahatma Gandhi said. It can cause
devastating destruction or it can light cities. Without anger, "we would not
be motivated to rise to any challenge. Anger is an energy that compels us to
define what is right and wrong, good and bad, just and unjust." Arun witnessed how his grandfather turned this personal wisdom into political action. Nonviolence is not about turning the other cheek; it's about turning enemies into friends. As always, leadership is key. It's easy to send bombers. That isn't courage. What takes courage, imagination and charisma is making so many friends that evildoers don't have a leg left to stand on. "Hatred needs fuel," Arun told me. As more people band together in friendship, the power of evil evaporates. Right now our leaders in Washington don't have the courage or the talent to engage in dialogue with anyone they find offensive. And, of course, neither do the members of radical Islamist movements. Without a framework for dialogue and recognition of our interdependence, Arun ponders: "Where will it end? We are allowing terrorists to set the agenda. How many people will have to die in order to 'win'"? Excerpts of Arun Gandhi
interview taken from Figures above are taken
from The Independent UK NYC Polling Places: http://vote.nyc.ny.us/pollingplaces.html Suffolk Candidates: http://www.lwv-suffolkcounty.org/2006-Primary.htm WHAT DOES NON-VIOLENCE REALLY MEAN? Since Sept. 11, people across the globe have been wondering whether nonviolence can be employed against terrorism or against those who advocate genocide. This recent curiosity exposes our ignorance of the philosophy of nonviolence. Nonviolence has become another mere tactic in the varied arsenal of conflict resolution. Therefore we have not made a concerted effort to learn about it. To prevent the smoldering ashes of past acts of violence from breaking out into huge fires — or avert those fires as-yet unlit — we need to become educated in nonviolence. My grandfather, Mahatma Gandhi, was the first practitioner of large-scale nonviolence, which he identified as not simply the absence of violence, but rather the presence of intentionally constructive attitudes, relationships, thoughts and actions. “Nonviolence is not a coat you can wear today and take off tomorrow,” he said. But, for a number of reasons, not many people have heard this message. Humanity’s negligent attitude toward resolving conflicts nonviolently raises a pertinent question: Can we, as members of the one human race, be so steeped in the culture of violence that it is impossible to use nonviolence effectively? Mahatma Gandhi said the only hope for humanity is to rip out the deep roots of the culture of violence and plant a new culture of nonviolence. This means we must learn to think, behave and act nonviolently at all times. The quixotic quest against “bad people” The conventional belief that crime, terrorism, genocide and all such acts of violence against humanity are only committed by “bad people” is absurd. “Good people” also have done these things in the name of preserving their own, in the name of casting out “evil.” This has been used as justification for all sorts of horrific acts in Nazi Germany, Serbia, Rwanda and the Darfur region of Sudan. The justice systems in the majority of the world’s societies are based on the concept of punishment. Building prisons has become one of the most lucrative propositions in the United States — politicians tell us not to worry, that they will lock up the criminals and throw away the keys. Because of this mindset of casting out the “bad,” we choose to ignore the reasons that people are driven to lives of crime and violence. We do this because the truth — that every person perpetuates pain consciously or unconsciously — is unpleasant and unpalatable. From “the good of many” to “the good of all” The triumph of capitalism and materialism has convinced many that it is the best system for society to progress economically, irrespective of what one-sided development does to the human psyche. It is the American dream to work hard and speed toward financial success. But there is no explanation why millions work their fingers to the bone and only a sliver of the population achieves luxury. Capitalism and materialism thrive on selfishness and greed, and success from this perspective only comes to those who can exploit their fellow human beings — be it through passively violent methods of globalization, environmental racism and economic disenfranchisement, or through physically violent methods of genocide, war and slavery. It is this attitude, we must realize, that is the root of the culture of violence. Colonialism, the longest-standing form of widespread exploitation, has made it possible for a fraction of the world to become affluent and advanced, to exploit and to preserve their ill-gotten gains. When my grandfather witnessed the evils of this system, he decided the only way humanity could be saved was to “live simply, so that others may simply live.” He created the word sarvodaya, which means “the good of all,” to serve against the prevailing concept of “the good of the majority.” It is no democracy if 51 percent are allowed to lord power and resources over 49 percent of the people. Like a house on fire Like Plato, my grandfather believed that society was similar to the human body, where the pain in one part is felt by the whole body. Unless we build the same sensitivity toward all people, we cannot create a system wherein good of any kind can prevail. When we lack sensitivity, the neglected part of our societal body deteriorates into crime and hatred, which affects all people, no matter how isolated. Let us take the recent case of genocide in Rwanda. During the colonial rule, Belgium played the Hutus against the Tutsis so a small group of foreigners could gain control over the entire country. The Hutus represent more than 70 percent of the population, while the Tutsis and others made up the rest. The divisions between these two particular groups were not genetic or specifically political — the ruling force of the Belgian government created the separation based solely on skin tint, nose breadth and other insignificant features. The world is like a house on fire. The fire department is summoned, but they come with two tanks — one filled with water and the other with gas. They use the water — compassion, truth, love — to put out the fire, and the gas — fear, punishment, resentment — to divert the flames. The fire will continue to spread, and the end result will be that while some of the house may remain standing, all of it will feel the fire’s heat, and most of it will be reduced to ashes. Numbness toward suffering We are becoming more and more unresponsive to the pain we see around us. The African continent, the most exploited and oppressed of all, is effectively written off by most of the developed world as incorrigible. We sat and watched when Rwandans were being hacked with machetes, and now we sit and watch as the people of Darfur are heaped upon bonfires. As a consequence of the selfishness bred within us by the culture of violence, it has become acceptable for us to preserve our lush lifestyles while those who live at a different pace perish. We ignore the reality that if part of the world catches fire, the rest of the world goes with it. The best of military institutions and the worst weapons of mass destruction will not ensure our security. What will preserve humanity is not the military strength that we are capable of deploying but the moral strength that we are too ready to suppress in the name of personal comfort. By bettering relationships with the rest of the world — based on what is good for everyone, not just what is good for the United States — we can avoid future genocides and holocausts. We can curb the hatred of others toward us before it springs up in an angrier conflagration that burns the face of the Earth. Do we wish to accept nonviolence wholly as a way of life or do we choose to use it as just another meaningless tactic? The culture of violence, as we have seen, thrives on hate, force, and greed, whereas the culture of non-violence brings forth the most sacred of principles — compassion, love, respect, understanding and acceptance. Will we choose to feed the flames? The choice is difficult, but it is the most necessary decision any individual can make. Arun Gandhi the fifth
grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, is founder and president of the M. K. Gandhi
Institute for Nonviolence in Memphis, Tenn., which promotes conflict
resolution and peace initiatives through its public outreach, education,
research and publications. |
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