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Strategies & Market Trends : Gorilla and King Portfolio Candidates -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: kumar who wrote (46560)	9/19/2001 3:18:32 PM
From: ratan lal	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 54805

Published on Saturday, September 15, 2001 in the Minneapolis Star Tribune Gandhi Knew Not to Fight Violence with Violence by Jesse C. Buikema The idea of patriotism has always been foreign to me. Every human is equal, so why choose to identify with only a portion of humanity? But as I awoke to the world in flames before me on the television, something inside of me clicked. I found myself weeping as I have never before. Waves of emotion rolled over me and the anger inside of me grew. If at that moment the call had come that our country needed soldiers to avenge the deaths of our citizens, I would have been the first to sign up. As I collected myself and made sure that my aunt and her family were safe and in their home in New York City, I began to think more clearly. I began to think of Mohandas Gandhi. How would a man with wisdom like no other in history react to such a crisis? Would he call for immediate retaliation? Would he act as President Bush plans to act -- with swift resolve to avenge those killed? I do not think so. The wisdom we can learn from Gandhi is the same wisdom the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. used to lead the civil rights movement to victory. It is the same wisdom that helped Gandhi free the Indian people from the shackles of British oppression. Gandhi had the wisdom and the courage to stand up to the British Empire without firing a shot, without retaliating after the massacre and torture of his people. To me, Gandhi is the ultimate hero and patriot. His love of his country was so great that he put himself in mortal danger and refused to fight violence with violence to save it. His hard work and great struggle for peace and justice paid off with the liberty of his people. The world began to see the British Empire as a tyrant. Every time they murdered and beat peaceful civilians, the British lost their footing on the moral high ground they held so dear. So, you may ask, how does one gather the courage not to fight back with violence? How can we as a nation act in a courageous manner? First of all we must protect our homeland against further attacks. We cannot sit by and allow more attacks on our people. But as we have witnessed in Israel recently, retaliation can lead to an even greater retaliation by our enemies and still more American deaths. We as a nation must choose between two roads, both difficult to travel and both with unknown ends: We can choose the freeway of retaliation that seems to be a good choice for the immediate collective satisfaction of our citizenry. Or we can choose the slow and unattractive dirt road of peace that may lead to death and hardships, but also glory. The choice is difficult. It is hard to ask anyone to sacrifice their sense of security for a nonviolent protest against the forces of evil. And if we do go to war and I am asked to fight for my country, I will be proud to fight as an American. One thing we cannot forget, however,is the wisdom of Gandhi. To follow this wisdom is to always be the opposite of your enemy. They are cowardly and attacked innocent civilians; we should be brave and refuse to retaliate in anger. They hate us; we should love everyone. They use God's name in violence; we should use God's name in peace. They accept only those who adhere to their religious principals; we should accept everyone. They glorify death and destruction; we should embrace the glory that is life and rebuild our country. If we choose the freeway -- the quick solution -- we shall run the risk of being just like them -- hateful, vengeful, cowardly and ignorant. If we choose simply not to fight back in retaliation, but to defend our country and with all of our resolve fight for freedom, love, justice, democracy and peace, we will have already won. Jesse C. Buikema, Minneapolis. University of Minnesota student. © Copyright 2001 Star Tribune