There are two images which I just can't shake. One is that of people falling
out and jumping out of the World Trade Center, some holding hands. People who
were thrown out of the building by the initial impact and those who must have
made a choice to die in their own way rather than remain in the burning towers.
The firefighter who was killed by someone who jumped.
The other image is really a collage of images - the stories of the victims which
have been appearing in newspapers and on the television. Ordinary people - loving
fathers and husbands, mothers and wives; the man who was a tireless worker in
his church, the man who was a calypso aficionado, the window washer, a sister
and a brother who both worked in Windows on the World, a woman who lost her
husband and her brother, the firefighter - story after story of ordinary people
killed in an extraordinary way.
I am deeply disturbed by these images. But I am equally disturbed by our leaders
who seem to believe that the answer to violence is violence. For I truly believe
that violence is a downward spiral leading to nowhere. Over and over again in
the world we have seen evidence of this. Martin Luther King, Jr. is often quoted
as saying that the philosophy of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth will
just leave us all blind and toothless.
In the midst of the mourning, some Americans are beginning to understand Dr.
King's warning in a new way. This week, still numb with grief, the wife of a
victim of the World Trade Center attack joined others in speaking out against
the violence. Judy Keane spoke to a prayer vigil of 5,000 in Connecticut and
later said, "The World Trade Center attack was in retaliation for something
else and that was the retaliation for something else. Are we going to continue
this in perpetuity? We have to say at some point, okay, let's find another way
of doing this." Similarly, Congresswoman Barbara Lee was the only member
of Congress to vote against President Bush's resolution of war, citing her fear
that giving the President and the military carte blanche will only result in
more innocent people being killed.
Martin Luther King studied nonviolence, as taught by Mahatma Gandhi. So this
week, I went to the Internet to see what the M.K. Gandhi Institute was saying
about the tragedy and what they felt our response should be. There were several
important points that were made by Arun Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi.
First, he pointed out that nonviolence is not a strategy which can be used only
in times of peace and which can be discarded or ignored during a crisis. "Nonviolence
is about building positive relationships with all human beings," he said.
It is also about not judging people as we perceive them to be, "that is,
a murderer is not born a murderer; a terrorist is not born a terrorist. People
become murderers, robbers and terrorists because of circumstances and experiences
in life." He warned that killing terrorists is not going to rid the world
of terrorism because, "For every one we kill or confine we create another
hundred to take their place."
Secondly, he pointed out that the consequences of a military response to the
awful terrorism we experienced are frightening. Many thousands of innocent people
will die as a result of them, both in the countries we attack and here as they
retaliate once more in kind. "What will we gain by destroying half the
world?" he asks, adding the question of whether we really want other countries
to respect us only for our strength, in the way that school children respect
a bully.
Thirdly, Mr. Gandhi calls on us to appreciate that we are in a position to play
a powerful role in helping the "other half" of the world attain a
better standard of life by committing ourselves and our dollars to a constructive
economic program for the world rather than in a destructive and costly military
action. That begins to get to the heart of the question of why the U.S. is hated
by so many in other nations. It's not as simple as President Bush might want
us to believe.
In a sermon at The Riverside Church in New York exactly one year before his
assassination, Dr. King called on our nation to find a new way - an alternative
to war and violence. He said, "This call for a worldwide fellowship that
lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality
a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all mankind. We can no
longer afford to worship the God of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation.
The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. History
is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this
self-defeating path of hate."
We face a different kind of war today. It is a war for hearts, not against a
nation. Hearts are won by love, not by hate. But Dr. King's words still ring
true. "We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent
co-annihilation. We must move past indecision to action. If we do not act, we
shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time
reserved for those who posses power without compassion, might without morality,
and strength without sight."
Will we choose violence or will we choose another path?