Opening the Eyes of Blind Prejudice

The doctrine that they preached was a non-violent doctrine. It was not a doctrine that made their followers yearn for revenge but one that called upon them to champion change. It was not a doctrine that asked an eye for an eye but one that summoned men to seek to open the eyes of blind prejudice. The Negro turned his back on force not only because he knew he could not win his freedom through physical force but also because he believed that through physical force he could lose his soul.

--Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Why We Can't Wait

NPR Report on Space Weapons

According to Theresa Hitchens, Vice President of the Center for Defense Information (www.cdi.org) was interviewed on NPR's Worldview by Jerome McDonnell and had some very interesting information. First, the Bush Administration is in the middle of revamping our weapons in space program desiring to bring weapons to space before any other country.

There are international treaties that has laid the foundation to set space as common ground and a place for peace. There are also treaties where satellites are not aloud to interfere with any one else's satellites. Yet, according to Hitchens, space has been militarized even though it has not yet been weaponized. But Bush is seeking to weaponize the ultimate "high ground."

For the last 20 years the UN General Assembly has been voting on a treaty to prevent any weapons in space and to keep it for purely peaceful reasons including communications and economic development. In December 2004, 178 countries voted in favor of this treaty and 4 countries abstained. Those 4 countries were the United States, Israel, Palau and Haiti. Palau and Haiti really have no space program to begin with.

Why is the Bush Administration bent on world domination? I don't believe it is about security any longer. If 6,000 years of known history has proved anything, it is that war cannot bring peace.

I am concerned, Mr. Bush, about the amount of money you spend on the military in the name of security, and the amount of violence you have authorized. I am concerned that if we continue down this path, God's judgment will be fierce. I am concerned that America can ever identify with the Prince of Peace because we have known only war, economically, socially and spiritually.

I pray God calls us back, and we listen to his voice.

The City and Non-Violence

I guess the real question begins is that can a non-violent program of education and action work in the inner-city. In a place torn by gangs, structural and systemic racism and classism and a loss of respect for human life and a general spirit of disunity among people on the South Side of Chicago, is a revisiting of MLK's theology necessary and fruitful? I guess we will see. My hope is to begin looking at the question seriously within the next year with the youth group I am a part of as well as the church.

Hero, The Movie

In the realm of myth and legend, and in the artistry of Chinese Martial Arts films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon comes a brilliant movie, Hero that raises questions of violence throughout. For the film makers, a hero is a person who lays down his life for the greater good or for someone other than himself/herself.

What is interesting is the critique of the emperor in the end. Though the Chinese government has in the past censored some of director's Zhang Yimou movies, this one made it to the world stage because of its support of China's identity to its people as being "Our Land." Yet underneath, it was the hero who died for the greater good and who lived up to the highest ideal--that the sword would disappear and there would only be peace for the warrior.

There were three ideals expounded in the movie that are crucial for this part. 1. The warrior first learns his craft and becomes one with the sword (Zen like, you could say). Here even a blade of grass can be the warriors weapon. 2. The sword of the warrior now resides inside his heart and he needs no weapon to defeat his enemy but does so with his bare hands. 3. The warrior's sword disappears altogether and he no longer needs or uses violence to achieve peace. He is the real Hero.

In the movie, the emperor is at most at level 1. Where the heroes who were seeking to subvert the empire achieved this highest ideal of non-violence. Even the emperor's noble goal of unifying the land is not an excuse to use any means necessary. In the end, the emperor was not a Hero but would depict a government who continues to violently oppose dissenting views within its borders. Tiananmen Square is a modern example.

The irony of the film is its action and violence in a message that helps us remember, revenge is not justice nor is revenge ours to take. To counter violence with violence only leads to more violence. True heroes lay down their lives for others.