We prayed today at site of the first two of the eight homicide victims since January 17, 2008. There had been no reported homicides for the first 16 days of this year and now there are eight, with a couple of young children in critical condition. The madness of senseless killing, especially of young African American males by young African American males, continues. With the ever-increasing victims of the endless war in Iraq, death dominates my consciousness. Yet we can keep our faith and our hope and faith. For while violence deepens in our world, nonviolence, the power of love, continues to grow. There is a growing awareness that “Together we are Growing Power”, a force that can overcome senseless death and destruction.
Tonight while babysitting my grandchildren — my real hope for the future — I was reading from Vandana Shiva’s “Earth Democracy”, a book about Justice, Sustainability and Peace. She quotes from a book by Walt Martin and Magde Ott called “Albert Schweitzer: Reverence for Life” It talks about a growing awareness that we see more and more of, that counterbalances the senseless violence we see so much of these days.
Unity in diversity, diversity in unity is the natural state of all life. We are interdependent — plants, animals, people — and need the delicate interplay between these various expressions of life to remain healthy. This natural interdependence of human kind is not the artificial “globalization” forced on the many by a few. It comes from the people, is organic, basic to our lives, and originates from the profound experience that life is universal. We want to live and ‘live in the midst of other life that wants to live’ as Schweitzer succinctly put it.”
Violence destroys and nonviolence is living with life.
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