Invitation To Rally For Peace

To the Editors:

During the height of the Vietnam War, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote: “The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only LOVE CAN DO THAT!”
The Oberlin Peace Activists League would like to express our deepest sympathy for everyone whose family or community members were lost or injured in the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, a day that none of us will forget for the rest of our lives.
OPAL is a non-partisan organization committed to building a just and peaceful world through nonviolent direct action. Though our work on issues such as the School of the Americas (a military school in Georgia where the U.S. government trains Latin American soldiers to terrorize their own people) has made us acutely aware of the U.S.’s role in international violence and the reasons why many people despise the U.S., we firmly believe that acts of violence such as Tuesday’s can never be justified.
While this is undoubtedly a time for grieving, we believe it is also a time for action. Recent newspaper articles such as The New York Times’ “A New War and Its Scale,” point to the unfortunate reality that the United States will soon be entering a large, drawn out war. Though we may feel overwhelmed with grief and anger at the attack, as our country gears up for what will likely become a war involving several countries and lasting many years, it is imperative for us to call for peaceful, nonviolent resolutions based on principles of social justice and democracy.
The members of OPAL believe in the words of MLK written above, that violence begets violence, that two wrongs do not make a right, that war is not the answer.
We invite you to travel with us to Washington D.C. next weekend. On Sept. 29 and 30, we will visit the White House to express our uncompromising opposition to racist attacks and harassment of Arab American and Muslim people and all people of color in the U.S. We will gather to call for peaceful solutions, rather than the increased militarization of the world and space and the expansion of police power to restrict basic democratic rights.
It is difficult to be a dissenting voice in the U.S. right now because so many people were affected by the September 11th tragedy. However, as the U.S. prepares for war and people of color are attacked and even killed in the backlash, we need to come together to oppose war, racism and the loss of our civil liberties. While the Bush Administration will use the Sept. 11 tragedy to advance their conservative agenda, we must use this critical moment to advance our agenda for peace and justice. We can take a deep breath and think carefully about how to move forward, but we must continue moving forward. Every inch that we give now will be hard to gain back in the months and years to come.
We invite you to join us this Tuesday, Sept. 25 at 9 p.m. in Wilder to discuss going to the march in Washington.
As peace activists, we denounce war and violence in our world. As Oberlin students, we also denounce all acts of violence in our community. We send our most sincere condolences to any students who have been harassed as a result of the Sept. 1 attack. We also stand in solidarity with the survivor of the rape that allegedly occurred on our campus last Friday night. As students seeking to create a better, more just world, we absolutely will not tolerate acts of hatred and violence on our campus.
“Will we wait for the next time, to kill kids on some far-away shore/Or will we throw a wrench in the gears as we shout, ‘no más, no more’ Will we pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living/ Stand up on our feet or die in slavery/Is there somebody here whose life is not worth giving?/Who's it gonna be if it isn't you and me?” –David Rovics, folksinger

–Jackie Downing
College senior

on behalf of OPAL