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Tuesday, 12 September 2006 19:22 |
By JIM GENARO
While the date known as 9/11 came to be associated with terrorism and destruction five years ago for many Americans, a gathering of peace activists in Asheville commemorated a different significance for it last Monday ÇƒÓ the 100th anniversary of the launching of Mahatma Gandhiës first nonviolent political action campaign.
Several hundred people gathered at Pritchard Park downtown for a program that featured speeches, songs, prayers and an official pronouncement by Mayor Terry Bellamy, declaring the date "Peace on Earth, Peace With Earth Day."
The
event, which was sponsored by a coalition of religious and activist
organizations, marked the centennial of a speech Gandhi made in 1906 to
3,000 Indians in Johannesburg, South Africa. It was during that speech
that he extrapolated his vision of a nonviolent resistance movement.
Gandhi called
this movement "Satyagraha," meaning "power of truth, power of love,"
according to event organizer Richard Fireman, co-director of Caring for
Creation.
"If we do our work well, Sept. 11 will be remembered not for the War on Terror," but for Gandhiës actions, Fireman said.
"Gandhi was a
spiritual leader who lived simply and saw God in every single person,"
Kim Carlyle of the Network of Spiritual Progressives told the crowd.
The message, Carlyle added, is still timely.
"Today, we must transcend our own culture of materialism, greed and violence," he said.
Anti-war
activists and environmentalists need to work together for a common
vision, Carlyle argued, alluding to the connections between war and
ecological destruction.
"Our
preoccupation with war distracts us from dealing with the collapse of
our ecosystem," he noted. "Injustice goes hand in hand with
environmental degradation ÇƒÓ and often leads to war."
Furthermore,
Carlyle said such causes must be engaged on a grassroots level by
multitudes of people rather than be facilitated primarily by a few
strong individuals.
"Today people say, ǃÚI wish we had a leader like Gandhi.ë But I think Gandhi would have wanted us to be the leaders," he said.
Next, the Rev.
Joyce Holliday, pastor of Circle of Mercy, discussed the importance of
people of different faiths working together for peace.
"Whatever
religions we are from ÇƒÓ whatever spirituality we embrace ÇƒÓ we are all
people who wish for peace," she told the gathering.
Compassion in the face of violence can diffuse and transform it, Holliday added.
She then told of
a child who was walking with her father in the woods during the weeks
after the 9/11tragedy. When his daughter told him she was scared of
monsters in the woods, the father asked her what they should do if they
ran into monsters.
"Feed them so they wonët want to eat us," the girl replied.
Holliday suggested that this story held wisdom for dealing with terrorism.
"Perhaps if we
let go of our bullying and arrogance in this nation ÇƒÓ perhaps if we
took the billions of dollars we spend on war and used it to feed people
and build hospitals, perhaps our terrorism problem just might be over,"
she said.
Between speakers, several musicians performed songs.
In addition, the
Rev. Howard Hanger, pastor of Jubilee! Community, performed a
traditional Cherokee ritual, invoking the four directions and then used
a Tibetan Buddhist singing bowl in an effort to shift the crowd into a
meditative state of mind.
Later, Tyrone Greenly, who represents Christians for a United Community, invoked the dateës significance.
"I think itës
really appropriate on this day, in particular, that we celebrate human
life," he said. "There truly is no ǃÚus and them.ë What helps me, helps
you ÇƒÓ and what hurts me, hurts you."
He closed by
quoting former South African President Nelson Mandela as saying, "The
time for the healing of the wounds has come ... We must, therefore, act
together as a united people, for national reconciliation, for
nation-building, for the birth of a new world."
To conclude the event, white doves were released from a cage to fly into the evening sky, symbolizing peace.
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