Monday 31 March 2008

I found this to be an alarming piece by Gandhi. By alarming, I suppose it is because I am not quite able to get my mind around it.



To me it is a self-evident truth that if freedom is to be shared equally by all - even physically the weakest, the lame... - they must be able to contribute an equal share in its defense. How that can be possible when reliance is place on armaments, my plebeian mind fails to understand. I therefore swear and shall continue to swear by non-violence, i.e., by satyagraha. or soul force. In it physical incapacity is no handicap, and even a frail woman or a child can pit herself or himself on equal terms against a giant armed with the most powerful weapons.



Obviously, the weakest and the lame cannot do much against an oppressive power. And yet, their witness to something greater than this evil is the greatest power of life. No, a weakest cannot defeat the greater power. That is not the issue here. Rather, the witness for something other than oppression can be lifted up by the weakest and at that point, the "giant armed with the most powerful weapons" stands before a power that has, simply by stating its position, made the worth of the weakest one something that must be dealt with by the giant. At that point (of great risk), the weakest makes a stand that can be the end of him/her. But then again, the giant also risks by the actions s/he takes. Think back to the people walking over the Edmund Pettis bridge in Selma, Alabama ready to be met by the force of the giant of inequality during the civil rights movement in the U.S. Within the brutality of that meeting, the giant fell at the hands of those who asserted their worth even though they were considered the least...and less than that.



Connection: The ability to say "yes" or to say "no" is something that can come from any of our lives. That stand, can be one of great risk and yet it is one that simply needs the force of one's being making a statement for life.



Come, Holy Power of Peace, and call forth from all of us the power of your love that overcomes even the cold, stone tomb to bring new life to expression. Amen.