Today we have a political holiday dedicated to Martin Luther King. (I hope you read Brad's account of his excercize of his constitutional right to public assembly on King's actual birthday.) King often stated that there was one main influence on the conduct of his personal life, Mohandas Gandhi. I have sorted through a few quotes from this skinny little man to share with you. I could ramble on a lot here, but it seems inconsequential compared to these thoughts so I'll shut up.



Gandhi:

You assist an evil system most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees.
An evil system never deserves such allegiance. Allegiance to it means partaking of the evil.
A good person will resist an evil system with his or her whole soul.

Peace will not come out of a clash of arms but out of justice lived and
done by unarmed nations in the face of odds.


Non-cooperation with evil is a sacred duty.

Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the
other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more
effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment.


It is the law of love that rules mankind. Had violence, i.e. hate, ruled us
we should have become extinct long ago. And yet, the tragedy of it is that
the so-called civilized men and nations conduct themselves as if the basis
of society was violence.


The most perlous traits in a society:

Wealth without Work
Pleasure without Conscience
Science without Humanity
Knowledge without Character
Politics without Principle
Commerce without Morality
Worship without Sacrifice



Gandhi was once asked what he thought about western civilization. His
response was: "I think it would be a good idea."



Peace and courage, as always,



Steve