
Submitted: 13/03/2006
To view responses to this paper from Harvard University faculty members, click here
Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next.
To view responses to this paper from Harvard University faculty members, click here
An extraordinary scoop exposes Democrat Jane Harman and the murky inner workings of Washington politics
guardian.co.uk, Friday 24 April 2009 14.00 BST
Jeff Stein, a reporter for Congressional Quarterly, has broken an amazing scoop revealing that Democratic member of congress Jane Harman was caught red-handed on a National Security Agency wiretap colluding with an Israeli "agent" to get a reprieve for two alleged spies working for Aipac, the American-Israel public affairs committee. The quid pro quo for Harman - according to the CQ revelations - was that the agent would arrange for wealthy Democratic party donor Haim Saban to threaten the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, with withdrawing funding unless Pelosi made Harman the chair of the House's powerful intelligence committee.
Harman vehemently denies the story - telling CQ that its claims "have no basis in fact" - and says she never contacted the Justice Department on the Aipac Two's behalf. (There are other agencies within the executive branch, I note.) But she does not deny the conversation took place with the Israeli "agent," who she has inferred was affiliated with Aipac. In 2006, I reported that Saban did threaten Pelosi, precisely as Harman had requested. No wonder Pelosi didn't take kindly to being swatted around. She was so ticked off by the assault that it backfired, and she put Harman in a deep freeze. The latter never got the gold ring she'd sought.
In addition, the CIA director informed Pelosi of the wiretap and its contents, so the Speaker already knew about Harman's collusion (though the former denies it had anything to do with her decision not to promote Harman).
When the NSA presented the evidence to Justice, there was a debate about whether to pursue an investigation against Harman. CIA director Porter Goss approved it. But ultimately, the then attorney general Alberto Gonzales decided to abort it. The reason he demurred is tantalizing. The New York Times NSA warrantless wiretapping story - which in 2006 won a Pulitzer prize - was about to break, and the Bushites needed every political hand on deck. Harman could be counted on since she was the most security-hawkish Democrat in Congress. On a related note, Helena Cobban obeserves that Harman was captured by the very same NSA which she defended so vociferously on behalf of the Bushites. Ah, delicious irony!
Did Gonzales, or anyone associated with the administration, contact Harman directly and ask for the NSA support in return for dropping the Aipac investigation?
The CQ story provides another bombshell that reflects poorly on Bill Keller, the New York Times managing editor. The NYT originally planned to publish the NSA wiretap story not long before the 2004 election. Guess which senior House Democrat lobbied it not to publish the story? Why did the Times sit on this story for well over a year at least partially on the word of a compromised Aipac stooge like Harman? Bill Keller has said that she wasn't a factor in his decision to delay publication. Yet the fact that he did exactly as she urged might lead one to naturally suspect otherwise.
The ironies of this story are beyond measure. Though the NSA claims the wiretap was authorised and not warrantless - assuming we can believe anything they tell us? - isn't it an irony that the Patriot Act may have made a victim of a powerful member of the House intelligence establishment? For a minute there, I thought the NSA's mission was to go after al-Qaida and Islamic terrorists. Though it was the Israeli agent and not Harman who was the target of the NSA investigation, isn't it also ironic that an intelligence maven would get caught like this? Shouldn't someone like Harman have known better than to consort with Israeli agents of influence?
Let's not forget that Harman is one the greatest beneficiaries of the largess distributed by Aipac's donor community, receiving more funding than almost any other House member from pro-Israel public action committees. Indeed, in the midst of her denials she proudly proclaims the deep pride she maintains in her relationship with Aipac (and you can be damn sure the phone lines are burning up between Aipac and its Congressional allies begging them to remain mum and let this die). In effect, she implies that her offer to go to bat for the Aipac Two was due to her close relationship with the organisation, rather than because of any help it might provide in getting her the intelligence committee job.
Spencer Ackerman reports that Harman is due to speak at the Aipac national policy conference next month. Ackerman speculates that either Harman or Aipac might be too embarrassed for her to show up at the conference. But this is unlikely to be the case. Harman has become the biggest hero the lobby has. She will speak to the conference and she will receive a thunderous standing ovation. Count on it.
The Washington Post is reporting that the Justice Department is contemplating dropping charges against the Aipac Two. In fact, some journalists speculate that various government officials involved in the Aipac investigation, knowing the case will be dropped, are sick at heart at the prospect of it going no further. Hence their motivation to leak the story. In fact, one of the most powerful statements in Stein's original article is this quote from one of his sources denouncing Harman's behavior:
"It's the deepest kind of corruption," said one of the sources, recently retired law enforcement official who was involved in the Aipac investigation. "It's a story about the corruption of government - not legal corruption necessarily, but ethical corruption."
Dropping the case would be most unfortunate. Those of us who know Aipac and what it's capable of, understand that Rosen and Weissman were gaming the system.
The follow-up media coverage notes the absolute silence in both Democratic and Republican quarters about this scandal. Since both sides have a great deal to lose, they face mutually-assured destruction if either side tries to make hay out of it. The only one complaining loudly is Harman herself, who called for the Obama administration to release the entire wiretap transcript. Conveniently for her, this is not likely to happen.
Perhaps the final and ultimate irony will be that just as Harman was locked in a tight embrace with the Bush administration when the NSA story broke, now Harman and Gonzales are once again paired off. Each benefits from fear of the damage that this affair could do to their respective parties.
The shame is that because no one wants to touch this, Harman, Gonzales, Aipac and the alleged spies are not likely to face further investigation. In fact, announcing the end of the Aipac Two trial will be the best gift the Justice Department could offer Aipac on the eve of its national policy conference. The lobby and all its flacks and operatives will take this as a vindication of their tactics and mission. And a major opportunity to examine the inner workings of the Israel lobby's political machine will have been lost.
ISTANBUL, (PIC)-- Hundreds of writers, historians, and intellectuals attended the inaugural session of the Istanbul Peace Platform, which is organized in cooperation with civil society institutions with the aim of “protecting Al-Aqsa Mosque, and drawing attention to Israeli plans to demolish it”.
Sheikh Ra'ed Salah, the leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Israeli historian Adam Shamir, Dr. Kamel Al-Sharif, of Mizan Center for Human Rights, and several other researchers and historians are participating.
The conference would be discussing the dangers of Israel’s violations in Jerusalem and the Aqsa Mosque.
The conference would be concluded on Saturday evening with a session on the future of the Aqsa Mosque and the role of the international community in protecting it especially as Israel is disregarding demands to halt its excavations.
The Istanbul Peace Forum was formed earlier this year by a number of civil society institutions in Istanbul. It is said to be aiming at achieving cooperation with all efforts that seek peace and justice, attempting to find solutions to conflicts and ending injustice.
The Forum issued a statement on Friday asking the world community to urgently act to halt the Israeli excavations and to protect the Aqsa from Israeli oppressive practices.
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, stated on Thursday that Israel does not intend to freeze the expansion and construction of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.The statements of Netanyahu came during a meeting with the Czech Prime Minister, Mirek Topolanek. The Czech Republic is the rotating head of the European Union.
Comment:This is the weekly report by Palestinian Center for Human rights. As you read this report its obvious that Gaza troubles are far from over, the siege continues, Innocent Men, women and children are dying because Israel is restricting the entry of food, Medicines and other bare necessities. The oppression continues in all Occupied Palestinian territories. Administrator
PCHR Weekly Report: 3 Palestinians killed, including 2 children, 11 injured this week
Friday April 24, 2009 11:20 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News
According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, during the week of 16 - 22 April 2009, 3 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank, including 2 children. Eleven people were injured, three of them children. One Japanese humanitarian aid worker was wounded in the Gaza Strip. 15 Palestinians, including 3 children, were abducted by Israeli forces during 27 invasions in the West Bank. In Gaza, Israeli forces abducted 2 fishermen.
Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip:
On Thursday April 16th, the Israeli airforce shelled a home east of Dir al Balah, completely destroying it.
On Saturday, April 18th, Israeli soldiers stationed at the Beit Hanoun/Eretzcrossing opened fire at two aid workers who work withthe international organization World Vision. One, the driver, was a 32-year old Palestinian, andthe other a Japanese humanitarian aid worker. The organization had informed the Israeli forces that they would be approaching the crossing, as the Japanese worker was planning to leave Gaza. When he got out of the car, Israeli forces opened fire. The two workers hid behind cement blocks, but the Israeli troops kept firing for fifteen minutes, breaking the windows of the car.
Also on Saturday April 18th, Israeli troops opened fire at a farmer who was working in his field 400 meters away from the border fence, east of Dir al Baleh. The farmer was not injured, but four homes were hit with bullets.
Throughout the week, the Israeli navy fired at fishing boats off the Gaza coast. No injuries were reported. Two fishermen were abducted by Israeli forces in Rafah on Tuesday April 21st.
In spite of Israeli claims that border crossing restrictions had been eased in Gaza, Israeli forces obstructed the entry of most food, medical supplies, and other necessities. The situation in the Strip continues to deteriorate, with the siege barring the entry of construction materials thereby preventing the reconstruction of thousands of buildings demolished or damaged during the January invasion. Fuel and cooking gas are also barred, except for extremely small amounts, The price of food has risen considerably in the last two months with the proportion of those living in poverty rising from 60% to 80 %.
The Rafah International Crossing Point has been opened for a few days for a number of patients who received medical treatment abroad and needed to return home to the Gaza Strip.
At least 900 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have been denied family visitation for more than 17 months.
The power station in Gaza received only 7.5% of the power it needs to run. At least 10% of the population of the Gaza Strip is deprived of electricity supplies.
Israeli attacks in the West Bank:
Israeli forces conducted 27 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank this week. During those incursions, Israeli forces killed 3 Palestinians and wounded 11.
On Friday, April 17th, a child from Al Zaitoun neighborhood in Hebronwas killed by an Israeli settlement guard. Israeli authorities claimed that the child attacked the guard with a knife. Investigations by the PCHRrevealed that he was trying to cross a settlement fence in an agricultural area, and there was no reason for the guard to kill rather than arrest the boy.
Also on Friday April 17th, Israeli forces killed one child and wounded another in Al Jalazoun refugee camp north of Ramallah. The army claimed that the two were trying to throw ‘molotov cocktails’ at settler homes in Beit El settlement.
Also on Friday, Israeli forces violently attacked two anti-Wall protest in Bil’in and Nil’invillages, both west of Ramallah, killing one Palestinian and wounding 10, including 2 children.
On Thursday April 16th, Israeli soldiers closed a number of roads in the Old City of Jerusalem, including the roads leading to Al Aqsa mosque, andbarred all residents under the age of 50 from entering. When Palestinians tried to reach the mosque to pray, Israeli forces attacked them violently with billy clubs, injuring several.
On Saturday April 18th, Israeli soldiers barred hundreds of Palestinian Christians from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre during the celebration for the Orthodox Easter. Tourists were allowed to enter but Palestinian Christians were prevented from entering the holy site.
On Saturday April 18th, Israeli troops arrested children, ages 14 – 17, at a roadblock southeast of Hebron. They were taken to Kiryat Arba police station, and released on the same day.
On April 19th, Israeli troops arrested one child age 15 from Safah village, north of Nablus as he was trying to cross a barbed wire fence near the village.
On Monday April 20th, Israeli forces abducted one resident from Dura village, southeast of Hebron, when he got too near a section of the Wall.
Israeli Annexation Wall:
Israeli forces began the construction of a new section of the Wall on the land of Ramad’in village, southwest of Hebron. Troops bulldozed Palestinian land east of Ashkelot settlement, placing large concrete blocks in preparation for the construction of the Wall.
On April 22nd, the Israeli Army decided to seal 1,000 acres south of Hebron, and prevented villagers from entering their lands, declaring the area a ‘closed military zone’.
On Friday, April 17th, in the village of Bil’in, west of Ramallah, villagers gathered, as they do each week, after Friday prayers. They were joined by Israeli peace activists, including the Anarchists Against the Wall. Some of the protesters wore mock shackles on their hands to honor the Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, as the protest was held on Palestinian Prisoners Day. The villagers held flags and chanted, and marched toward the site of the Wall construction. Israeli troops fired rubber-coated steel bullets and high-velocity tear gas canisters. One Palestinian non-violent demonstrator, Bassem Abu Rahma, 31, was killed by a canister fired directly at his chest from a distance of less than 20 meters. In Nil’in, 10 Palestinians were injured, including 2 children, by rubber-coated steel bullets and high-velocity tear gas canisters in a similar anti-Wall protest.
South of Bethlehem, in al-Masara village, soldiers attacked a protest held on Friday April 17th. The soldiers barred the march from moving forward by placing a barbed wire barrier in front of the marchers. Israeli forces attacked from Efrat settlement, moving in toward the protesters firing rubber-coated steel bullets and high-velocity tear gas canisters.
When complete, the illegalAnnexation Wall will stretch for 724 kilometers around the West Bank, further isolating the entire population. 350 kilometers of the Wall has already been constructed. Approximately 99% of the Wall has been constructed inside the West Bank itself, further confiscating Palestinian land.
Although the Israeli military claims to have lifted some restrictions on movement in the West Bank, 630 Israeli military roadblocks remain in place, preventing Palestinians from travelling within the West Bank.
Israeli settlement activity:
On Sunday April 19th, the Israeli army resumed the bulldozing of Palestinian lands in Beit Ummar village north of Hebron in order to construct a new high-voltage electricity line of 1600 volts for Kiryat Arba and Hadar Beita settlements. The troops uprooted two acres of land, destroyed vineyards and demolishing ancient stone walls separating Palestinian lands.
On April 22nd, Israeli soldiers, accompanied by 3 bulldozers, invaded an area east of Akraba town near Nablus and forced eight families living in ten houses to leave their homes to clear the area for settlement expansion.
In Jabal al Mukaber, Israeli forces demolished a Palestinian home, again to make way for settlement expansion.
Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians on a number of occasions this week. On Thursday April 16th, a large group of Israeli settlers tried to break into the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, the third holiest site in Islam. The settlers began shouting and claiming that they would destroy the mosque to build a Jewish temple. When the settlers tried to attack the mosque, Palestinian citizens who were praying there prevented the settlers from entering. Access to the mosque is controlled by Israeli soldiers, who made no effort to stop the group of extremist from entering.
On Saturday April 18th, armed Israeli settlers came to the site of the former Homesh settlement, and threw stones at the Palestinian cars driving on the Jenin-Nablus. They also attacked Palestinian farmers in their orchards.
Recommendations to the International Community
Due to the number and severity of Israeli human rights violations this week, the PCHRmade a number of recommendations to the international community. Among these were a recommendation that the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention fulfill their legal and moral obligations under Article 1 to ensure Israel’s respect for the Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
The PCHRstated that they believe the conspiracy of silence from the international community has encouraged Israel to act as if it is above the law andencourages it to continue its violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. The PCHR called upon the High Contracting Parties to the FourthGeneva Convention to comply with its legal obligations detailed in Article 146 of the Convention to search for and prosecute those responsible for grave breaches, namely war crimes.
April 24, 2009 Posted by Elias
Perhaps for the first time in History , with today’s advanced communications, News media outlets, the world was able to watch live from their living room or work place , Mass destruction, a Holacust conducted against innocent Men, women, and children .
April 23, 2009 Posted by EliasLabels: Jews, United Nations, Zionism
By David Kendall
It seems ridiculous to speculate about what Dr. King might say to Barack Obama when we have a published record of what King actually did say to his government immediately before they had him assassinated. [1]
"Humanity is waiting for something other than blind imitation of the past. If we want truly to advance a step further, if we want to turn over a new leaf and really set a new man afoot, we must begin to turn mankind away from the long and desolate night of violence. May it not be that the new man the world needs is a nonviolent man? Longfellow said, "In this world a man must either be an anvil or a hammer." We must be hammers shaping a new society rather than anvils molded by the old. This not only will make us new men, but will give us a new kind of power. It will not be Lord Acton's image of power that tends to corrupt or absolute power that corrupts absolutely. It will be power infused with love and justice, that will change dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows, and lift us from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope. A dark, desperate, confused and sin-sick world waits for this new kind of man and this new kind of power." [2]
At the 23rd Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Holiday Celebration in San Francisco staff members from the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute had an opportunity to participate in the festivities and interact with those in attendance. Along with receiving bookmarks, buttons, pencils and a special note from Dr. King on political participation, attendees were asked to answer the question, "What would Dr. King want to say to Barack Obama?" [3]
But all speculation aside, Dr. King's actual comments appear in his last book, "Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?" The admonitions from that book seem as well-suited for Barack Obama now as they were for Lyndon Johnson in 1967 regarding war, poverty, racism, apartheid, imperialism and all the associated wastes of human and natural resources. If these typical forms of injustice aren't entertaining enough, they become even more surreal as Barack Obama now perpetuates them in the name of "Dr. King's Dream". Apparently, he thinks he can get away with this morbid and fraudulent strategy because his skin color is roughly the same as Dr. King's. But somebody needs to draw the line here, and it might as well be me. I don't see any other volunteers.
According to Dr. King, his dream came in two general phases: 1) abolish racial segregation, particularly in the southern United States, and 2) eradicate poverty worldwide. [2] The first four chapters of his last book discuss the successes, struggles and failures of phase one. The final two chapters and the appendix of his book outline his planned approach toward phase two. Dr. King was an extremely intelligent man, and the preceding is just a rough summary of his well organized book.
But nowhere in Dr. King's book is there any suggestion that the fulfillment of his "dream" might be the election of a black President who supports racist wars of economic aggression in the Middle East and the financial interests who sponsor them. He does emphatically insist that blacks must become politically involved, but not to advance the status quo or to "save Capitalism from itself". [4] The status quo doesn't need any help. It doesn't need to be "bailed out". It needs to be challenged and, for the most part, dismissed. I doubt that anyone had a greater understanding of the "deep structural change" necessary to accomplish phase two of his dream than Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In fact, recent conclusions indicate he was murdered by his own government for daring to make such recommendations. [1]
Barack Obama is obviously intelligent enough to share Dr. King's understanding. But he also seems to driven to evade the public responsibility that should accompany that understanding. Is he merely dodging a bullet, or does he honestly believe he can rewrite history to somehow revise "Dr. King's Dream"? In his first ten weeks of office, when Obama makes decisions that are obviously not in the best interest of the people who elected him, it becomes brutally apparent that those decisions are in deliberate compliance with forces outside the democratic process. There isn't much question about who or what those corporate forces might be. The question is, why does such an intelligent man continue to lead in the same failed direction as his predecessors after so vehemently denouncing their approach?
Moreover, why does Barack Obama think he can pursue a plunder-for-profit agenda in the name of "Dr. King's Dream"? This is a sick fantasy that must be debunked and rebuked whether Obama plans to change his approach or not. If you want to lead this herd of stupid sheep to slaughter, Mr. Obama, then by all means do it. I won't begin to presume I could possibly stop you. But don't think for a minute that you can get away with blaming this painful fiasco on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. or remotely associate yourself with him in the process.
Here's Dr. King:
Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?
Excerpts from chapters 1 and 2:
The Assistant Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, Hyman Bookbinder, in a frank statement on December 29, 1966, declared that the long-range costs of adequately implementing programs to fight poverty, ignorance and slums will reach one trillion dollars. He was not awed or dismayed by this prospect but instead pointed out that the growth of the gross national product during the same period makes this expenditure comfortably possible. It is, he said, as simple as this: "The poor can stop being poor if the rich are willing to become rich at a slower rate." Furthermore, he predicted that unless a "substantial sacrifice is made by the American people," the nation can expect further deterioration of the cities, increased antagonisms between races and continued disorders in the streets. He asserted that people are not informed enough to give adequate support to anti-poverty programs, and he leveled a share of the blame at the government because it "must do more to get people to understand the size of the problem."
The legal structures have in practice proved to be neither structures nor law. The sparse and insufficient collection of statutes is not a structure; it is barely a naked framework. Legislation that is evaded, substantially nullified and unenforced is a mockery of law. Significant progress has effectively been barred by equivocations and retreats of government -- the same government that was exultant when it sought political credit for enacting the measures.
The hard truth is that neither Negro nor white has yet done enough to expect the dawn of a new day. While much has been done, it has been accomplished by too few and on a scale too limited for the breadth of the goal. Freedom is not won by passive acceptance of suffering. Freedom is won by a struggle against suffering.
No great victories are won in a war for the transformation of a whole people without total participation. Less than this will not create a new society; it will only evoke more sophisticated token amelioration. Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention. There is no other answer. Constructive social change will bring certain tranquility; evasions will merely encourage turmoil.
Power, properly understood, is the ability to achieve purpose. It is the strength required to bring about social, political or economic changes. In this sense power is not only desirable but necessary in order to implement the demands of love and justice. One of the greatest problems of history is that the concepts of love and power are usually contrasted as polar opposites. Love is identified with a resignation of power and power with a denial of love.
What is needed is a realization that love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love. There is nothing essentially wrong with power. The problem is that in America power is unequally distributed. It is [the] collision of immoral power with powerless morality which constitutes the major crisis of our times.
Before this century, virtually all revolutions had been based on hope and hate. The hope was expressed in the rising expectation of freedom and justice. The hate was an expression of bitterness toward the perpetrators of the old order. It was the hate that made revolutions bloody and violent. What was new about Mahatma Gandhi's movement in India was that he mounted a revolution on hope and love, hope and nonviolence. This same new emphasis characterized the civil rights movement in our country dating from the Montgomery bus boycott of 1956 to the Selma movement of 1965. We maintained hope while transforming the hate of traditional revolutions into positive nonviolent power. As long as the hope was fulfilled there was little questioning of nonviolence. But when the hopes were blasted, when people came to see that in spite of progress their conditions were still insufferable, when they looked out and saw more poverty, more school segregation and more slums, despair began to set in.
Unfortunately, when hope diminishes, the hate is often turned most bitterly toward those who originally built up the hope. In all the speaking that I have done in the United States before varied audiences, including some hostile whites, the only time that I have been booed was one night in a Chicago mass meeting by some young members of the Black Power movement. I went home that night with an ugly feeling. Selfishly I thought of my sufferings and sacrifices over the last twelve years. Why would they boo one so close to them?
But as I lay awake thinking, I finally came to myself, and I could not for the life of me have less than patience and understanding for those young people. For twelve years I, and others like me, had held out radiant promises of progress. I had preached to them about my dream. I had lectured to them about the not too distant day when they would have freedom, "all here and now." I had urged them to have faith in America and in white society. Their hopes had soared. They were now booing because they felt that we were unable to deliver on our promises. They were booing because we had urged them to have faith in people who had too often proved to be unfaithful. They were now hostile because they were watching the dream that they had so readily accepted turn into a frustrating nightmare.
The line of demarcation between defensive violence and aggressive violence is very thin. The minute a program of violence is enunciated, even for self-defense, the atmosphere is filled with talk of violence, and the words falling on unsophisticated ears may be interpreted as an invitation to aggression. If a method is not effective, no matter how much steam it releases, it is an expression of weakness, not strength. When one tries to pin down advocates of violence as to what acts would be effective, the answers are blatantly illogical. This is no time for romantic for romantic illusions and empty philosophical debates about freedom. This is a time for action. What is needed is a strategy for change.
Beyond the pragmatic invalidity of violence is its inability to appeal to conscience. Power and morality must go together, implementing , fulfilling and ennobling each other. In the quest for power I cannot by-pass the concern for morality. Power at its best is the right use of strength. The words of Alfred the Great are still true: "Power is never good unless he who has it is good."
Nonviolence is power, but it is the right and good use of power. In the guilt and confusion confronting our society, violence only adds to the chaos. It deepens the brutality of the oppressor and increases the bitterness of the oppressed. Violence is the antithesis of creativity and wholeness. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible.
Are we seeking power for power's sake? Or are we seeking to make the world and our nation better places to live? If we seek the latter, violence can never provide the answer. The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, betting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder the hate. In fact, violence merely increases the hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
Hate is just as injurious to the hater as it is to the hated. Like an unchecked cancer, the hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Many of our inner conflicts are rooted in hate. This is why the psychiatrists say, "Love or perish." I have seen hate expressed in the countenances of too many Mississippi and Alabama sheriffs to advise the Negro to sink to this miserable level. Hate is too great a burden to bear.
Of course, you may say, this is not practical; life is a matter of getting even, of fighting back, of dog eat dog. Maybe in some distant Utopia, you say, that idea will work, but not in the hard, cold world in which we live. My only answer is that mankind has followed the so-called practical way for a long time now, and it has led inexorably to deeper confusion and chaos. Time is cluttered with the wreckage of individuals and communities that surrendered to hatred and violence. For the salvation of our nation and the salvation of mankind, we must follow another way.
Humanity is waiting for something other than blind imitation of the past. If we want truly to advance a step further, if we want to turn over a new leaf and really set a new man afoot, we must begin to turn mankind away from the long and desolate night of violence. May it not be that the new man the world needs is a nonviolent man? Longfellow said, "In this world a man must either be an anvil or a hammer." We must be hammers shaping a new society rather than anvils molded by the old. This not only will make us new men, but will give us a new kind of power. It will not be Lord Acton's image of power that tends to corrupt or absolute power that corrupts absolutely. It will be power infused with love and justice, that will change dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows, and lift us from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope. A dark, desperate, confused and sin-sick world waits for this new kind of man and this new kind of power. [5]
David Kendall lives in Washington state and is concerned about the future of our world.
Notes:
[1] Douglass, James W. (March 15. 2000). “The King Assassination: After Three Decades, Another Verdict”. Christian Century. http://www.precaution.org/lib/09/prn_king_
assassination_another_verdict.000315.htm
[2] King, Dr. Martin Luther (1968). Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos Or Community?. New York, NY: Beacon Press, pgs 3-4, 66. ISBN 0807005711
[3] Staff. (February 02, 2009). “What would Dr. King want to say to Barack Obama?”. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute.
http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/news/article/what_
would_dr_king_want_to_say_to_barack_obama/
[4] Obama, Barack (2006). "The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream". Crown Publishing Group. pg 155. ISBN 0307237699.
[5] King, Dr. Martin Luther (1968). Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos Or Community?. New York, NY: Beacon Press, excerpts from chapters 1 and 2. ISBN 0807005711
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