Violence vs. Non Violence

By: Natasha Robson

Non-Violence

Gandhi, He was a man of peace. He was a man known for helping the people of India have freedom from the British. He was a man that didn’t fight with weapons. He replaced anger and hurt with non-violence. Eventually he led his country to peace and freedom through Non-Violence. Many people have their own interpretation of what Non-Violence means. But the truth is that there really isn’t one specific definition about what Non-Violence is. In an article I read it says that Gandhi taught about Satyagraha. He said “Evil can be overcome with Satyagraha.” “Satya meaning truth which equals love. Graha which means force. All together it means Truth force or Love force.” Today the meaning of what Gandhi taught is Non-Violence. Gandhi and Martian Luther King Jr. used non-violence in worldwide situations to help people as a whole get what they needed, but I don’t think that Non-Violence should just be used in World Situations. I know that we can use Non-Violence in our everyday lives to help us be the best person possible.

On August 28,1963 in Washington Martian Luther King Jr. gave a speech to his people saying that he had a dream of Equality between African Americans and White people. The speech he gave led his country to that peace and Equality that he dreamed for his people. But the speech its self didn’t magically just let his people have the same rights as everyone else. His people had to fight to. King saw Gandhi as a role model. The way that Gandhi led his people in India to freedom by using Non-Violent Communication. In the document “Active Nonviolence: A Way of Life” it says that Martian discovered the power of Gandhi’s insights in the civil rights struggle.” Martian took Gandhi’s example and told his people to not fight back when they were hurt, pushed around, and treated badly. His people followed his advice and the number of killings went down. His people didn’t hurt anyone. They acted from non-violence and the situation that they were in got better. This worked for Martian Luther King Jr. and his people. Using Non-Violence to stop a situation from getting out of hand can also help your personal life and things that happen in your own life from getting out of hand. In the past when I got mad I tended to go all out. I don’t hold anything out and that didn’t help me at all. I would end up hurting the people around me and I would end up regretting it later on. Then I learned about non-violent ways to deal with that anger. I leaned that talking was the most helpful. Keeping feelings inside you just helps those feeling to keep rising, and if they keep rising then one day you will explode with everything that you held in. Another non-Violent technique that I learned was a technique called “tapping.” Tapping is when you tap on your pressure points on your face and body and say positive affirmations about your self and the problems in your life. I would say things like “even though my friend hurt my feelings, I fully and truly accept myself.” And it helped me to calm down and to be happy again and to not let the situation that I was in to not turn into a huge situation.

Non- Violence is the best way because it keeps a situation from lasting a long period of time. Charles Fillmore was the founder of Unity Church along with his wife Myrtle. Charles Fillmore didn’t grow up rich. His father left him, his little brother, and his mom when he was young and they had to make their own food, get their own water and he and his brother had to work to keep themselves alive. But Charles never complained about his situation. He looked at it as a learning opportunity and he grew stronger from his disadvantaged. When Charles was older he moved to Kansas City with his newly wed wife Myrtle. In Kansas Charles started his own business as a Real Estate Agent of his own company. Things were going good but after a while his business crashed and he was left with nothing. In this situation Charles had two choices; he could either get very mad or start something to express his anger in a harmful way for people around him. But he chose to meditate for help from gad along his path. He kept looking for ways to make more money. He didn’t just sit there preying that a miracle would happen. He went out and did something about his current situation, and in time he got more money and he was able to do the things that he wanted to do, like support his family and move to a different place. If Charles had just sat on his couch and just wished for a miracle without doing anything for himself then his situation would have lasted for a much longer time then he wanted. When something bad happens to me my first reaction is to feel really sorry for myself. Feeling sorry for myself makes me feel better for a little bit better but in time I end up feeling bad about what happened to me all over again. So instead of feeling sorry for my self and watching TV and eating marshmallow cream from the jar all day long I do something for a change. I maybe go and get my hair done, or dye my hair a different color or things like that. Then I go and I like to be active. I go and hang out with my closest friends and tell them what is bothering me. By doing this I am not letting the situation that I am over power my life and last for a long period. By doing these things I am dealing with my problems in a Non-Violent way.

Non-Violence is better because it is a more permanent situation. When Gandhi first decided to help the people in India he knew that there would be a lot of road block in the way. But that didn’t stop him. For doing what he did India is now free. They don’t have the British breathing down their necks and telling them what to do all of the time. They don’t have to sell British goods, and they don’t have to follow British orders anymore. To this day India is still free. They are allowed to believe in whatever they want to believe in and they are happy. Of course there may still be things wrong with the government system in India but they aren’t having wars with another country. When Hitler decided to run Germany with his violent techniques it back fired on him. After his plan died of ruling the world ended. He didn’t know what else to do and many, many people hated him, and that led to his death. Hitler shot himself on April 30, 1945. His ruling over Germany didn’t last. His people moved on and they did not continue to kill Jewish people like Hitler had wanted. When I want to get over something in my life, or when I want to start something I always look to the positive side of things. Last summer I wanted to go to this international Unity conference so badly. The only thing that was holding me back was the competition. I wanted to get a scholarship to go to it. I had to write an essay telling about everything I had learned about Unity principles and Non-Violence and how I used these techniques in my life. The biggest problem I had with this was when I found out that one of my best friends was running against me. She knew how hard I had been working on this and I felt betrayed by her for running against me. But instead of getting up in her face about it and getting mad at her I wished her luck. After meditation and reassurance that even if I didn’t win life would move on and it wasn’t the end of the world I wished her luck from my heart. Instead of letting my anger that I had for her keep building up and controlling my life I let it go so that I could keep our friendship. Our friendship is now stronger then ever J

Non-Violence had been used by so many of our Great leaders to accomplish great things in the world. Not only is it used by our past leaders but it is being used at this very moment by citizens of the world. Monks, Christians, Unitarians, and many other religions and practices engage in non-violence to get their voice heard to. This shows that not only can non-violence be used in our world but it can also be used in our everyday lives, so that we can accomplish great things right now, and in the future. We can make a difference by using Non-Violence to change an unjust situation. Everyone has their own way of practicing non-violence.

Being Peace

Being Peace Seminar Reflection

Part: 1

Present: what does it mean to live in the present moment? Do you live in the present moment?

For me living in the present moment means to be in the now. To not live in the past and to not fantasize into the future. Living in the present if the time for me to live my life. To make decisions on what I want to accomplish now. I won’t say that I haven’t lived in the past by wishing I could do something that I did in the past differently because I have, but now I realize that living in the past is just taking away from the things I could be changing right now. Buddha once said “The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly” and I think he is right. Living in the future is almost as bad as living in the past. If a person lives in the future they also miss what is happening in the present. I think it is ok to make plans for the future like deciding what college you want to go to, or what you are going to get someone for Christmas. But there is a point where you have to stop. You can look for a college and be excited about it but there are steps you have to take like getting a good score on your SATs and you have to get good grades. I think if you just focus on what wall paper to put in your dorm room or what parties you are going to instead of going to school and getting into that college then you are not living your life in the present. You are living life in a dream.

I think that I am living in the present but I also am not. I don’t think it would be easy for me to live in the present. I am to full of dreams and I personally love to live in the future. In a way I am afraid that if I live in the present my life wouldn’t be as fun. I am a carefree person and I love adventure. I want to go to Korea for a long time in two years and I spend most of every day or the free time that I have leaning about Korea’s culture and language. I do regret things that I have done in the past and sometimes I do catch myself living in the past. But that is who I am and that is the present for me.

Being Peace Seminar Reflection

Part: 2

I decided to create my own poem about non-violence J it was created while I was taking a bath J

Instead of knives and guns,

I used hearts and flowers,

Instead of drugs and pills,

I used Meditation,

Instead of fists and kicks,

I used my words,

Instead of living in the past with regret,

I live in the present with a smile,

And instead of running away from everything,

I decided to breathe.

Jihad vs. Mcworld

Jihad vs. McWorld

The main idea for this reading was the differences between Jihad and McWorld. The article that we read in My Humanities class talks a lot about McWorld. McWorld is a democracy that believes that they can bring everything together by their use of technology. The article talked about how technology now a day is what people if America and people from other countries use to mainly make their lives better. To solve all of their problems. McWorld in the worlds of the article would make the world better. With McWorld people would have more identity and freedom if the whole world decided to go the “McWorld” way. The article also talked about Jihad. Jihad is a democracy that mainly focuses on Religion. Jihad wants to have different cultures come together and all believe in one main thing. Jihad in a sense kinds of controls people. In Jihad one person is the leader of everything and they expect for everyone else to follow what they want to do. Kind of like Hitler. In jihad people don’t have freedom of speech and no identity. McWorld on the other hand let’s people live by the laws that America has today all over the world. Except us American make the decisions for them.

One of the questions that we were asked during our Seminar was “which do you think is more important Peace and Stability, or Identity and Community?” for this question I answered that I thought that Peace and Stability was more important. I said this because although I would love for everyone to know who I was in my community, Having Peace in my community and everywhere else and having stability in every community is way more important to me. Loosing identity really doesn’t matter to me because I already know who I am and I don’t need everyone else in the world to know. Peace and Stability lasts longer then Identity and community. A lot of people in my class took this question in many different ways and I though that they were all good. Some said that loosing identity meant that you didn’t know who you were and you just kind of became a ghost and I had to disagree with that as I took the question as being really well known in a community like Oprah! And to have a good community you need to have peace and stability in that community to make that happen. That was my answer to this seminar question.

The ones who walk away from Omelas

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

3. “Write what happens to a person who walks away, extend the story.”

When I started to walk I didn’t have any idea where I wanted to go. All I knew is that I wanted to get away. I wanted to leave the hurt and pain that I felt for the child behind. I wanted the images that were stuck in my memory to go away. I could have stayed and lived on liked everything that I experienced when I saw the poor thing in that basement like everyone else did. But I couldn’t. The day I decided to walk away was a warm summer evening. I never really got cold in Omelas so I only wore a light coat. The leaves on the trees were on the peak of turning in to fall colors. The sun streaming through the trees shone on the side walk in a brilliant river of gold. I only knew one thing when I left. I wanted my life to change. I would miss my family and everything I had ever grown up with. But I knew that inside I was doing the right thing. So I started to walk, not looking back. I didn’t say goodbye to anyone, and I didn’t say hello to the ones that I passed in the streets knowing that if I did I would turn back and go home.

Minuets, hours, day, maybe months passed by, or so it felt. I don’t know how long I had been walking. I didn’t know where I was. All I knew is that I had been walking for what seemed like forever. My legs were screaming with pain. I was never much of a walker. I decided to sit down to rest on a nearby rock. I looked around me, and say that I had been walking on a dirt path in the midst of a forest. The dirt path was made up of moss and some leaves that had started to fall off of the huge trees that rose over my head making a canopy. Sun shone through the breaks in the leaves. I suddenly felt a shock of a tingling sensation in my heart, and for the first time in months I smiled to myself. For the first time in months I felt free. Like I could do things, things that I had only dreamed about doing. For the first time I didn’t have to worry about anything. Or so I thought.

As I started to walk again, I felt full of energy. A slight breeze had started to flow through the air. The breeze sent a slight shiver down my spine. I felt light on my feet. The path ahead of me seemed to go on forever. I wanted a change of scenery. After a while I became kind of lonely. There were no human beings around for me to see of talk to. When I was in Omelas, I didn’t think that there was any other land beyond the Gates that lead into Omelas. It was a wonder that the land that lay beyond Omelas. I had thought that I would be able to see huge flowers or, things flying in the sky, I thought that I would be greeted by the sing song voice of birds above me, but everything was silent except for the crunching of dirt under my feet. I looked above me and saw that the once brilliant glow of the sun had turned into a greyish blue dust filled with the first stars of the night. I decided to lay down for the night and drift away into my dreams.

I woke up sometime in maybe the early morning or middle of the night, the exact time I couldn’t really be sure of. The sight that I saw around me was not one that I would want to see again. I felt blind. I couldn’t see anything around me. My heart started to race. Above me I heard the night calls of the creatures of the dark around me. I slowly got to my feet. What if one of these animals sees me and eats me? I had never been around creatures that lived outside of Omelas. The only thing that I knew about them was from the stories that the elders in Omelas would tell us. The stories would be about brave men who left Omelas to fight for us but would never return. The elders said that the reason they didn’t return was due to a creature they called “Big Foot”. Big Foot was said to have large sharp teeth and stood to be one hundred feet tall. I had never really believed these stories, but now alone in the dark these stories all came back to me. The only thing I wanted to do was run away from this dark. I started to walk blindly along the path that I thought would be ahead of me.

I kept walking in the in the dark, again not knowing what was ahead of me. But the only difference now was that I also didn’t know what was on either side of me or what was behind me. The hard rocks under my shoes stabbed like knives into the arch of my feet. I wanted to cry out but I couldn’t for I was afraid that the creatures all around me would attack. So I sucked up my pain and continued walking along a hidden path. I walked wishing that someone would come and lead me to the light. After what seemed like ages of walking the once opaque night around me turned in to a foggy grey glow of very early morning. A spark of light began to rise again inside of me. I took a look around me trying to figure out where I was but it was no use. Of course nothing would look familiar, but I did it anyway. I continued walking looking at the trees high above me. Suddenly I felt as if I was flying. It only lasted a minuet; I landed in the moss covered ground on my side. A warm yet burning sensation started to flow down my arm and leg. Tears came to my eyes blinding me once again, but not with the dark, just with pain. Wiping the tears away I looked down at myself to see blood. Lots of blood. It covered my arms, and legs. I sucked in a rapid breath. My body burned like a thousand flames. Nothing like this had ever happened to me before. Omelas was safe. Protecting everyone from harm. I didn’t know what to do. I felt miserable. I decided to rip a piece off of my shirt and wrap it around my wounds. The itchiness from the cloth irritated my skin. I was glad that I didn’t have a mirror, for I could just imagine what I looked like. For a minuet I was glad that no one was around because I wouldn’t know if I looked presentable or not.

Finally standing up I started to walk again. I didn’t want to go on. I wasn’t prepared for the outside world. It was nothing like I imagined it would be. I wanted to give up. My legs were a thousand pounds walking down the path.

Months later I found myself still walking. I never found anyone else. All I ever saw was the trees surrounding me. Sometimes if I was lucky I would see a single bird flying through the once amazingly blue sky. In my eyes, everything seemed dull and dreary. I was tired. Every part of me was weak. I didn’t want to walk, I didn’t want to sleep, and I didn’t want to eat. I felt as if I were in a nightmare that would never end. But I continued walking. The weather had changed from a warm breeze that once sent a small shiver up my spine to a blistering cold that chilled my bones. White powder covered my path. I had to drag myself along to keep from freezing to death. After a day or two of walking the trees and path turned into an open field. It was beautiful. The powder had melted a bit and the first patches of the new spring grass could be seen. Butterflies fluttered their tiny wings before me. They called to me, telling me it was safe to rest, telling me that everything would be ok. As I lay down, looking at the sky, I felt happiness, maybe even joy. The sun was warm on my face. For once in a long time I felt very safe. Closing my eyes I drifted off into a more peaceful place. My body felt warm and everything around me turned into white gold wonderland filled with all the things I had ever dreamed of. Opening my eyes was too difficult for me. So I stayed there. In the field, and never once had to worry about anything ever again.

Seminar Reflection

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

Part 2

#1.What is the difference between the people who walk away and the ones who stay in Omelas?

Omelas. This is the name of a town that sounds like a possibly nice town from the name and the description. The only thing you don’t know about it is what really goes on behind the scenes in the town of Omelas. Once a year Omelas holds a wonderful parade. People from the town chat merrily to each other in the streets and so do the men. Children run around naked screaming with excitement. Everything seems joyous and carefree, but when the whole town is in cheer one living child lives in misery. Locked in a basement with hardly anything to eat and sitting in its own poop, living in misery. The child doesn’t know why its there, what it had done to deserve this. You may be asking, do the people know its there? And I would say YES! Yes they do. The people of Omelas have leaned to accept this fact. Well I can’t say all people; some people in Omelas choose to walk away.

In the town of Omelas there is a really big difference from the people who decide to walk away and the people who decide to stay. The people who stay in Omelas have a good life. As it says in the document on page 3 it says that “One thing I know that there none of in Omelas is guilt”. What I got from this sentence is that the people in Omelas must not live in regret, and not living a life full of regret is pretty nice. Then again I would have to ask myself is living a life without regret everything? The people who choose to walk away because they regret what the people of Omelas have done to the child and they choose to walk away from it. I think one of the main differences about the people that walk away is that they actually do care. When the see the child the sometimes become silent for a few days and then they leave Omelas. They don’t know where they are going but they just keep walking (paragraph 14). Another difference is that the people in Omelas know they are not free, just like the child (paragraph 12) and they choose to stay that way but the people who decide to walk away become free. They can think what they want to think, and they don’t have to be around the child in the basement. These might not really seem like really big differences but to me they are. I think that what the people who walk away are doing is good. They know they cant do anything to help the child so they decide to take initiative and walk away themselves so that they don’t have to be part of they community that lets the child live there alone and sad. So in my own opinion the people who walk away are doing something good and the ones who stay aren’t doing something very good. Those are the differences about the people who walk away and they people who stay.