I am aware of how hard it is, but perhaps you are standing and looking at this from one place. I suggest you stand and look from another angle.
Stand from the place of young black men at a lunch counter with milk poured on their heads, hoping to end the segregation of the lunch counters.....is it still hard to hold back from violence?
Stand from the place of the men in line at the salt factor in India. These men wanted to be free to make their own slat. One by one they approached the salt factory only to be beaten. One by one, they came in nonviolence.......do you still think you are not stron enough to be nonviolence, I think you are.....
Stand from the place of Rosa Parks on the bus...close your eyes and picture this....she has just been told to get up from her seat and said "no", do you think they were not spiritually violent, verbally violent to her? Do you believe they carried her away in silence?.....do you still believe you can't do it....I believe you can, I believe we are all stong enough but maybe not ready.
What can I do to help you get ready?
Gandhi biggest adversary in India became his closest friend. NOnviolence is about seeing the anti-gay folks as people, not things. People, not a movement like they see us. Do not see the anti-gay as an agenda, see them as people, with lives...I do know it is hard, but it has to happen to end the violence.
I have been emailing back and forth with a few people who are vocally anti-gay. One sent me a Christmas Card with a $10 gift certificate. She doesn't agree with me being gay, she thinks I am a sinner, but her ears are open...she respects my beliefs about being gay. SHe is a start to what we need to accomplish with all the anti-gay. I am sure she will still blog about anti-gay things and say horrid things about gays, but now I am in a position to talk with her and hope to end this violence and find peace.
We need peace...and nonviolence is the method that will bring it. I know this with all my soul!
Love,
Joe
|