I MAKE MY STAND: A PERSONAL MANIFESTO AND CALL TO ACTION
Following are links to the earlier posts in this series:
- INTRODUCTION
- I MAKE MY STAND . . . WITH IMMIGRANTS
- I MAKE MY STAND . . . WITH MOTHER EARTH AND ALL HER CREATURES
- I MAKE MY STAND . . . WITH THE MARGINALIZED
- I MAKE MY STAND . . . WITH PEOPLES OF ALL FAITHS AND THOSE WHO CLAIM NO FAITH
- I MAKE MY STAND . . . ON THE SIDE OF PEACE AND AGAINST WAR
I MAKE MY STAND ON THE SIDE OF PEACE
AND AGAINST VIOLENCE
In the
light of recent events, when I think of violence here in the U.S., I think of
the cowardly white minorities who, in the heritage of Adolf Hitler and the
Nazis, envision themselves as a master race, and call for violent uprising
against government and for the destruction of the Jews and of all people of
color. I would be remiss if, in our current context
I did not state clearly that I have nothing but disdain for such small,
hate-filled, unfathomably ignorant disregard for the brotherhood/sisterhood of
all humankind.
However,
a more prominent and constant form of violence here in the U.S. is the violence
carried out by the government against its citizens. (A similar argument could be made concerning
governments of other countries, but here I will focus on the country where I
live and have my citizenship.) What do I mean when I refer to violence carried
out by the U.S. government? I refer to neighborhoods and communities - especially
of African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and other so-called
“minorities” - that languish year after year, decade after decade in abject
poverty. In terms of the quality of
education, access to basic services, availability of healthcare resources and
even the availability of grocery stores, these communities are considered
“deserts.” They exist in inner cities as well as in rural areas. Add to this the fact that over the last 30+
years wealth in this country has been concentrated in the hands of a smaller
and smaller group, called the “one percent,” and that this transfer of wealth
is carried out on the backs of workers, the middle class, and the poor. The failure to address or, until the last two
or three years even acknowledge, the unharnessed reality of police brutality
against communities of color, and the explosion in the number of Black and
Latino young men, especially, who crowd the privatized prison system. The failure in this country to own up to the
racism at its historical and present core.
The evermore uninhibited and violent expressions of anti-immigrant, anti-Black,
anti-LGBT, and anti-women sentiments that are allowed to grow, unchecked. The
fact that we allowed water hoses, attack dogs, and rubber bullets to be used
against Native Americans peacefully protesting once again an illegal
infringement on their lands.
THIS IS THE
REALITY OF VIOLENCE IN THESE UNITED STATES, UN-NAMED
BY THE POWERS-THAT-BE
AND AGAINST WHICH I MAKE MY STAND!
In the present
moment, I must state clearly that while I stand on the side of peace, I do not
consider myself a pacifist. I am sure I have much to learn in this
area from the great ones, like Martin Luther King, Ghandi, and Thomas Merton. But
I also resonate with revolutionary priests, like Fathers Camilo Torres of Colombia, and Rogelio Poncel in El Salvador, who believed that at times our faith calls us to
join the people in armed revolt against the systemic violence suffered for too
long.[1]
They argue that the act of rebellion, of active resistance is, in fact, an act
of love, justified as a response of standing with those who have suffered
life-times and generations of violence.
Writing
about the situation in Latin America – but words that I believe apply equally
to the United States today – the Catholic Bishops meeting in Medellin, Colombia
in 1968 declared that the lived experience of misery and exploitation of the
people[2]
is “a situation of injustice that can be called institutionalized violence
[that is] responsible for the death of thousands of innocent victims.” “This
view,” writes theologian Gustavo Gutierrez, “allows for a study of the complex
problems of counterviolence without falling into the pitfalls of a double
standard which assumes that violence is acceptable when the oppressor uses it to
maintain ‘order’ [but] is bad when the oppressed invoke it to change this
‘order.’ Institutionalized violence violates fundamental rights so patently
that the . . . bishops warn that ‘one should not abuse the patience of a people
that for years has borne a situation that would not be acceptable to anyone
with any degree of awareness of human rights.’”
“Let us
by all means,” they continue, “avoid equating the unjust violence of the oppressors (who maintain this despicable
system) with the just violence of the
oppressed (who feel obliged to use it to achieve their liberation.”[3]
And so, it is in
this area of gray – of standing against the unjust violence of the system
and on the side of
those (myself included) seeking liberation –
that I make my
stand
for peace.
[1]
I have a great deal of respect for journalist, author and Presbyterian
minister, Chris Hedges. He wrote an
article recently entitled “How Antifa
Mirrors the Alt-right,” where he argues that armed insurrection on the left
actually feeds into supporting the goals of the right. I’ve read the article and because of my
respect for Hedges over-all perspective and approach, I feel I need to ponder
it carefully and perhaps look at some other sources that would challenge the
stance I am expressing here.
[2]
Think of the people of Puerto Rico who our President threatens to desert and
forget; or the millions, mostly poor, who may lose their health
insurance because of policy decisions being taken in the White House; or the
unarmed African American men and women whose images and names we have seen on
the news, who have been shot in cold blood by police officers; or the Native
people and their supporters who, for engaging their right of protest, were
hosed down in below-zero temperatures by private security personnel and officers of the
law; or the DACA young people who, after living almost their entire lives in
this country, may be deported; or the millions of men, women and children all
across the Middle East, made refugees
and killed by bombings and conflict either waged directly by the U.S. or paid
for with the tax dollars of U.S. citizens.
The list goes on, and on!!
[3]
Gustavo Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation (15th Anniversary
Edition) (Maryknoll, N.Y., Orbis Books), pp. 63-64.
