Monday, April 11, 2005

Nonviolence is Action

According to Ken Sehested, "Nonviolence is more than refusing to shoot someone. It is not to be confused with passivity or with sectarian withdrawal (in the name of moral purity). Rather it involves a commitment to willingly enter a situation of conflict, to absorb the assault (includes verbal and emotional) without resort to revenge, to listen with empathy to the "enemy," which involves the willingness to have your mind changed. In occasions like ours, no amount of voting will bring healing. Parliamentary procedure must give way to the discipline of reconciliation."