Gandhi Worldwide Education Institute
160 Wintergreen Way,
Rochester, NY 14618.
email: arun@totalnonviolence.org . www.gandhiforchildren.org
My heart goes out today to the people of Aurora who have suffered this immense and mindless tragedy. To those who have lost their loved ones and to those who escaped with injuries this incident will never make any sense. The word WHY? will always haunt them. Already the nation is screaming for more protection, more security. And, yes, the Government has already set the security apparatus in motion and we will gladly surrender more of our freedom to be safe.
As much as this is the time for sympathy and healing it is also a time for soul-searching. It is easy to isolate this incident as an evil act of a madman and tighten security and move on with life. We have done this over and over again but the scourge of violence refuses to disappear.
Why will it, when we find so much joy in violence and feed our children this diet from the time they learn to walk? In fact violence has become so pervasive that it has overtaken our speech, entertainment, relationships, politics, culture, religion in fact, every aspect of human life.
In less than 15 years Colorado has suffered two senseless national tragedies in which scores of innocent lives have perished, not to speak of the mindless violence and killings that plague our cities every day. Just as hate begets more hate, violence begets more violence. So in the sacred memory of those who have died let us pledge to stop glorifying violence and to build a society of love, compassion, respect and understanding.
With Heartfelt Sympathies,
Arun Gandhi
Marriage Equality Affirms Basic Human Rights Golden, CO…Centers for Spiritual Living, a trans-denominational spiritual organization that has been in existence for over eighty years, today affirmed its view that marriage equality is not about politics, but rather about basic human rights.
Golden, CO…In an era when religious denominations are splitting into smaller and smaller sects, one just reunited after being split since 1954. Science of Mind®, also known as Religious Science, founded in the 1920s by philosopher Ernest Holmes, functioned as two competing organizations for more than 50 years. This week, delegates at their joint annual conference in San Diego approved reunification, called “integration,” with 98% of the vote.
Golden, CO…As the media frenzy around the controversy over a proposed mosque within blocks of Ground Zero has continued to grow, and verbal and physical attacks against Islamic people take place, I am struck with the thought that many Americans have forgotten some basic tenets of not only the U.S. Constitution, but also of civility and common decency. While I appreciate the raw feelings surrounding the site, which has rightly become sacred ground in the nine years since the fall of the World Trade towers, it does not make sense to me to deny rights to groups who had nothing to do with the tragedy. September 11th was not an act of Islam. It was an act of terrorists who distort the precepts of that religion.