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| Photo by BLADEN FINCH Members of the audience gathered for the program included Wesleyan students and Kaleidoscope members Elizabeth Owens, Richard Pulley and Kristi Lafoon. |
As a conclusion to “A season of Nonviolence,” Campus Kaleidoscope invited students and members of the community to a peace gathering at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. monument plaza in Norfolk on April 4. This celebration of peace came on the anniversary of King’s assassination. “A Season of Nonviolence” was launched in 1998 to bring tribute to the 50th and 30th commemorative anniversaries of Mahatma Gandhi and King.
“The season for nonviolence honors Gandhi’s and King’s vision of a nonviolent world,” said Kelly Jackson, administrative assistant in the Center for the Study of Religious Freedom. “This worldwide grassroots movement intends to demonstrate that every person can move the world in the direction of peace through daily choice and action based on compassion, respect and understanding.”
In the fall of 2002, Campus Kaleidoscope united with over a dozen local organizations to form the Hampton Roads Consortium for “A Season for Nonviolence.” The consortium is a diverse group, representing many different faiths and ideologies. This year, the consortium received proclamations for the “Season” from Governor Mark Warner and the mayors of Norfolk, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake. Originally a walk celebrating the “Dream” for nonviolence was scheduled instead of the gathering at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza.
“We felt a walk would be misinterpreted as an ‘anti-war’ march,” said Jackson. “We decided to gather in one place and focus on peace.” “This is a wonderful thing to participate in,” said senior Kristi Lafoon. “I just wish we could have done the walk.” The program opened with a prayer by Imam Vernon M. Fareed of Masjid William Salaam. Karen Gardner then gave a rendition of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. The youth of Ymedia (Youths Against Handgun Violence) gave the program an image of a result that comes from violence; they placed 62 pairs of shoes in a circle representing the 62 young people that died of gun violence in Virginia in 1999.
“The visual of the shoes is great, because you visualize all the people that could be standing in those shoes,” said Emily Spencer, spokesperson for Ymedia. A selection from “Strength of Love: a Collection of Sermons by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” was read by Dr. Catharine Cookson, director for the Center for the Study of Religious Freedom. “I wanted to read King’s sermon to show how much interrelated we are and how much we need each other,” said Cookson. “We don’t have a choice if we survive together unless we look out for each other . . . I think that’s what King’s voice was all about; working together takes strength and integrity.”
First graders from WH Taylor Elementary School in Norfolk were also a part of the program, reading letters they wrote to King. “I wish you were back and could see what has happened,” said one first-grader. “I liked when the kids read their letters,” said senior Darsheen Smith. “They expressed themselves very well for being so young.” Old Dominion University also participated in the peace gathering as their Speech Chorus performed Langston Hughes’ “Freedom’s Plow.”
Approximately 50 students and members of the community concluded the ceremony with the recitation of the Pledge of Nonviolence, committing themselves to becoming nonviolent and peaceable people. “We work for peace, because peace is a dominant strand that runs throughout God’s creation and anchors in the soul of man,” said Fareed. “Peace and nonviolence are cousins.”
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| Photo by BLADEN FINCH |
The ribbons symbolize support for American forces engaged in combat or otherwise in harm’s way due to events beyond their control. The debut of the yellow ribbon was during the American Civil War, as a symbol of love and honor from the fiancée of a Union soldier to her beau, who was searching for a sign that she’d wait for him to get out of Andersonville Confederate Prison Camp. He returned on stagecoach after the war, to find her waiting by an old oak tree in town with 100 yellow ribbons on it.
Following its use in the Civil War, it became part of the American tradition of displaying visible signs for unity and national pride in the Armed Forces that preserve the American way of life. The ribbons were seen during the 1981 Iran crisis, during a 444-day siege of the US Embassy in Iran, with 52 diplomatic hostages held against their will. The ribbons also made a return during the Gulf War and both Balkan Campaigns. College Republicans like junior Lyndsey Tripp cite the lack of visible campus support for military action as one of the chief reasons for putting up the ribbons.
“I felt bad, no, sick, every time I saw those ‘Blood for oil’ signs,” said Tripp. “Those men are out there getting shot at. Some are dying. The Iraqis even took prisoners. For us to sit here and watch, doing nothing, with those signs up and protesters in the streets talking bad about our troops makes me want to cry.” Frank White, 20-year veteran of the US Navy and the first Gulf War expressed his esteem for the fighting men by aiding in the posting of the ribbons.
“I am grateful for the sacrifices our men and women in uniform are making to keep us safe and free,” White said. “Their deeds will not be in vain and I am honored that this institution of higher learning can say part of this campus stands tall behind our troops.” Many students support the notion that the cause is just and show support for the content of the President’s March 19 address, announcing the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which Bush stated, “Our nation enters this reluctantly -- yet our purpose is sure. The people of the United States and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens peace with weapons of mass murder. We will meet that threat now with our Army, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard and Marines, so that we do not have to meet it later with armies of fire fighters and police and doctors on the streets of our cities. We will accept no outcome but victory. We will defend our freedom. We will bring freedom to others and we will prevail.”
Many students believe that this effort is necessary and proper to defend the globe and the Iraqi people from Saddam and his regime. “What is more just, using our military to remove a tyrant now or to wait as he builds more weapons and gets stronger?” said Rushing. “Shall we wait as more of his people suffer under his hand, die by his sword and he puts America itself in his sights next, when he is more able to carry out the countless threats he has levied on us all these years?” “It’s about ensuring our safety and liberating the people of Iraq from a leader who commits genocide on his own people every day,” said senior Raegan Baker, who helped tie the yellow ribbons.
“I’m not a Bush supporter by any stretch, but I like the ribbons,” said History Professor Dan Margolies. “We’re fighting to ensure US interests in the Persian Gulf, oversee the demilitarization of Iraq, and secure the safety of our allies over there, which I think are all justifiable things, and the war has even been fought with a great deal of care to limit civilian casualties.” Offering advice to protesters, senior Stephen Sturtz commented, “appeasement does not bring peace and it’s high time for all Americans to love the land where we are and God bless the people that made it that way, the US military.”
Dear spoke to members of the student body, faculty, and community in a lecture presented by the Hampton Roads Network for Nonviolence, a subgroup of the Tidewater Sowers of Justice, whose mission is to “promote peace and nonviolence among all people,” according to chairperson Linda Douglas.
In June 1982, Dear spent time in Israel, where he entered a chapel and read the words, “Blessed are the nonviolent ... blessed are the peacemakers.” Dear claimed that he “told God, ‘I will devote myself to working for peace if you give me a sign,’” after which three Israeli bombers came flying right at him. “Life is all about peace, walking the road to peace,” Dear said. “The reality of the world is mass murder. Thank you for walking the road to peace in this terrible time.”
Dear said that nonviolence is about being nonviolent to others and to ourselves, and that it is not passive, but active. He then condemned the current war in Iraq and what he referred to as the “systematic slaughtering of people” and “genocide against innocent people who have suffered under Saddam and are now suffering more.” “This war is so wrong and unjust, and it needs to end now,” Dear said. “Bombing Iraq isn’t going to bring peace or disarmament. It is only guaranteeing further terrorist attacks against our own country, saying it’s OK to bomb preemptively. If we care so much about disarmament, we should disarm our own nuclear arsenal first.”
Dear referred to “a world addicted to death,” and went on to discuss the religious aspects surrounding war and nonviolence, claiming that nonviolence is a part of every religion and is the common ground of all of them. He even went as far as to say that supporters of the war can no longer consider themselves to be Christians. “War is never justified in any religion,” he said. “War is demonic, evil, anti-God, anti-Christ and anti-human. The bottom line for Christians is that you are not allowed to kill. You may be a fine American, but you are no longer a Christian.”
The entire notion of nonviolence and the commitment to it, according to Dear, stems from the idea that every human being on the planet is equal. He describes it as the belief that “there is no cause for which you are willing to take or support the taking of another life,” but claimed “we are willing to be killed in the struggle without even a trace of desire for retaliation.” Dear encouraged people to take stands against the war in Iraq. “As our country is slaughtering the innocent people of Iraq, we are being nonviolent,” he said, encouraging audience members to participate in “Not in Our Name Hunger Action” -- fasting during the time of war in solidarity with those suffering. He also encouraged audience members to not listen to news sources such as CNN and other networks or publications such as the New York Times or the Washington Post, claiming that he does not believe the claims made by the mass media in regards to the war.
“You can no longer say you’re for peace unless you are publicly, actively against war,” he said, paraphrasing Jesus as having said, “love your enemies, don’t nuke ‘em.”Many Wesleyan students echo such antiwar sentiments. “I’m not for the war because I feel that the American people have never been in full possession of the facts, but have instead been spoon-fed predigested political rhetoric from the Bush administration,” said sophomore Brett Crehan. “I’m not for the prolonged death of human beings.”
“I support our troops and respect their courage and duty, but I’m skeptical of the government’s truest intentions for a regime change in Iraq,” added senior Brad Martin. “People die in war. It’s an ugly reality.”
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