The Season of Nonviolence for All Beings
January 30 to April 4
The Season for Nonviolence begins on January 30 and ends on April 4. Created by Sunanda and Arun Gandhi, (Arun is the grandson of M.K Gandhi.), this annual observance commemorates the assasinations of M.K. Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. Recently Cesar Chavez has been included in the commemorations. The Season of Nonviolence is recognized by hundreds of communities and groups.
• It is a call to all human beings to find ways to resolve conflict nonviolently.
• It is a time to remember these great visionaries and the values they taught.
• It is a season to learn about peacemaking and carry what we learn into the future.
• It is a sign that we human beings have the capacity to create a peaceful world.
But there is something missing. While there will be many blogs and websites and speeches about this inspiring time—in nearly all cases, there will be no mention of animals. Yet the animals of this world endure hideous violence at the hands of human beings. There will be uplifting talk among peacemakers of learning nonviolent communication, of changing our mindset from competition to cooperation, and that is all absolutely necessary and essential.
But we cannot aspire to such lofty goals only for ourselves as if we alone deserve peace, as if we can end war and rape and human slavery and still eat a steak at the end of our peaceful day. We cannot eat the misery and suffering of other beings and expect to have peace for our species alone.
John Denver, who sang many songs for the rights of animals, expressed it well in his “So You Say that the Battle is Over.” "Go tell that to those," he cries out, “with the wind in their nose, who run from the sound of a gun.” The same sentiment applies to those with the smell of death in their noses in slaughterhouses, factory farms, fur farms, laboratories, fish farms, fishing nets, and all the other instruments of suffering and death that the human beings have created.
Let us make this a Season for Nonviolence for All Beings. I cannot doubt that Gandhi, King, and Chavez would applaud such a noble goal.
May peace prevail on earth for all beings.
May all beings be at peace.
May all beings be free.
For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed,
he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love. --Pythagoras
The human cycle of violence will not stop until we stop the underlying violence,
the remorseless violence we commit against animals for food.--Will Tuttle
As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields. --Tolstoy
As we talked of freedom and justice one day for all, we sat down to steaks. I am eating misery,
I thought, as I took the first bite. And spit it out. --Alice Walker
To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. I should be
unwilling to take the life of a lamb for the sake of the human body. --Mohandas Gandhi
Only when we have become nonviolent towards all life will we
have learned to live well ourselves—Cesar Chavez
have learned to live well ourselves—Cesar Chavez
