Nonviolence is the Recognition of the Humanity of Others
We named our webinar series, “We Are All Part Of One Another.” This is a line from the great feminist nonviolent activist Barbara Deming. That line is, of course, reflective of an ancient truth that lies at the heart of all the world religions and the scientific understanding of humans as intensely social and interdependent creatures.
We know we can’t harm another human being without harming ourselves.
We can’t allow unjust systems to remain in place oppressing our precious sisters and brothers and call ourselves nonviolent. Instead, nonviolence calls on us to actively pursue justice for all.
“In a real sense, all life is interrelated. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be...This is the interrelated structure of reality.”
-Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail