Looking Ahead

 

Looking Ahead

As we reach the election, we should all hope that the next President is someone who espouses non-violence in our communities. With so much violence that has overtaken our communities, it is the one election where non-violence should be a key issue. We need our next President to address this problem and speak out against violence in a direct way. We also need the next president to be a symbol for peace and make non-violence a central theme.

As we hear stories of violence taking place en masse in our communities, it is time for the adherents of non-violence to speak out and stand up for a leader who will share our concerns. We need a President who understands the importance of peaceful protest and non-violent resistance and the ideas of our greatest leaders like JFK, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi. We need to show a desire to be non-violent and to carry out the principles of the Mandela in our everyday lives.

Those of us that embrace the non-violent path must show our support for leaders who will also adhere to those principles. It should be our top agenda. When young people lose their lives due to so many senseless acts of violence, we should stand up for a leader who will show a better way. As our young people succumb to violence in their lives, we must set forth an agenda that shows people the meaning of non-violence and create more awareness and acceptance.

The teaching of Mahatma Gandhi and the life that he espoused show us that non-violence is the only path that saves so much heartache and sorrow. For those of us who are affected by violence, it is the panacea for all ills. Our leaders must embody such qualities for us to advance as humankind. The AVP community is blessed to have such a model and to invoke in our political lives. How can we be truly be great leaders without a real understanding of this noblesse oblige.

As a New Yorker, I am dismayed by so many acts of violence that take place in our big cities and leave so many scarred and broken. We must reverse the tide. We must attain a grasp of the non-violent path so we can have greater hope. We must seek out better resolutions than the old rock and dagger. Let us hope that the AVP community will grow and prosper with the new election and continue its work as a cupbearer of non-violence and that the next election, will see its growth and name spread throughout the land and throughout the lives of people to bring the light of its wisdom to those dark places. I hope with the next election, as a new wave of hope takes hold, that also a new foundation for non-violence will also be laid as its cornerstone. Let’s march on hand in hand.

AJ Naseem is an AVP Facilitator and avid blogger