September 11, 2006 - A Day of Contrasts

Len Ellis

We have before us ashes from the World Trade Center, a heartbreaking reminder of the catastrophic price of violence.  Because this event is so recent in our memory, we connect the date with the act of violence. 

To honor the memory of those who were killed on 9/11, and because of 9/11, it is important to free the world from a sense of manufactured despair by remembering another 9/11 which took place 100 years ago with an enormously powerful legacy that has changed the world through nonviolence.  9/11, 1906 is the day Gandhi gathered with him 3000 citizens in the first organized nonviolent protest.

Most importantly, perhaps, remembering 9/11, 1906 means that ordinary people can choose, can decided to do something extraordinary by freeing themselves from despair and change their world with nonviolence, rather than be led by the desperate belief that the world had no choice but to sink deeper into the inferno in its attempt to put an end to violence.

The future of the world has the potential for being entirely different, with no more wars, no more hatred, no more weapons, no more racism, no more injustice, no more sexism, and no more violence.  It begins right here, with each and every one of us.  It is not our neighbor's responsibility to start living this way.  It is solely ours. 

To live truly free we must not live in fear.  What kind of world are we giving to our children, to our grandchildren?  What kind of example are we setting for them?  One in which we resolve our differences by killing one another and then living in fear of retribution, or one in which we honor and respect each other and solve our differences through compassion and nonviolent means?

So I ask you to hold in your consciousness a vision of a world without violence, a world where people choose to work out differences by talking and listening, by having empathy and compassion, rather than bombs and bullets.  You see, no matter how many people you kill because you think they are against you, there will always be others who will see things differently.  Taken to the extreme, eventually, there will be no one left.  Conversely, the doctrine of love operating through the Gandhian method of nonviolence is one of the most potent forces for bringing peace to our world. 

Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?

The events of Sept 11, 2001 present us with a choice and a challenge: to respond with more destruction and hate, or to resolve to take our inspiration from that same date 100 years ago, when a different method to bring about change was conceived.

I ask you, this day, in the witness of this community, to take a pledge of nonviolence:

I choose to seek nonviolent solutions to conflict.

I choose to break the cycle of violence.

I will seek to resolve my own conflicts without violence.

I will encourage nonviolent responses to conflict by my friends, neighbors, and government.

Peace begins with me.

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