Emma Gonsalez, silent for over four minutes,
recollecting the promise of lives cut off in the Parkland shooting.
Ann: Mr. Gandhi? Anita* says you have something you wanted to say here.
Mahatma Gandhi: Yes, Ann, I do. I first wish to express my appreciation for the space you have provided here for myself and others who no longer have a direct voice in the world. We have, however, still a keen interest in the evolution of mankind. I should say humankind. For too long, I and so many of my contemporaries were often condescending and dismissive of the role of women and young people in the world.
That role has become paramount now. The wisdom and perspective that is offered by individuals who find this world inhospitable to the soul’s development and growth by virtue of their sex, age, race, or class is critical to forming the structure of the new world that is now in painful stages of re-birth and re-creation.
And it is happening. Witness the anti-gun movement where young people, still children really, have taken on the mantel of responsibility because of the vacuum left by those in power.
This is how it’s done. Where the hole is, where the assumption that nothing will change floats above the reality of suffering on the ground, there, underneath, is the energy for change, and many young women and men have taken the lead in exposing that which has been created by indifference, cruelty, and power.
I am coming today because I would like to commend those of you who have taken up a banner for human rights in whatever way that has come to hand in your particular life. Many have joined this massive groundswell, human rights crusaders, who, to paraphrase what Edward Kennedy said regarding his brother Robert, are good and decent people who see wrong and try to right it, see suffering and try to heal it, see war and try to stop it.**
Many have joined this fight because they themselves have been on the wrong side of societal equations, many of them women who have seen their lives set aside and their children sacrificed.
No more will they be silent, yet neither will they condone violence, and therein lies the power of their movement for reform. Not to recreate domination by changing parties or sexes or platforms, but to change the substance of how we relate to one another so that what is acceptable is no longer governed by brute power and blind strength.
By their very presence they are showing us the limit of such power, its ineffectiveness and its ephemeral nature. They do so because they are powered by the drive of firsthand and historical experience. As Emma Gonzalez said,
“… we are speaking up for those who don’t have anyone listening to them, for those who can’t talk about it just yet, and for those who will never speak again. We are grieving, we are furious, and we are using our words fiercely and desperately because that’s the only thing standing between us and this happening again.”
These hurting, seemingly powerless, and previously ignored segments of our society are making change out of nothing more than the conviction that oppression can no longer be allowed to stand. Young people, exhausted mothers and fathers whose children have been shot in the name of freedom, and many others are coming together to stop the oppression of those who come after them.
I would be marching with them if I could, but, as it is, I ask that you do the same in whatever way presents itself in your particular life at this time. That life will end, and you will take stock and keep going as best you can. So take hold now to create a better baseline, and you will be moving on from higher ground when you pass from this world to the next.
September 10, 2020
*Anita Sacco. See "Recommended Channelers" under "Resources" tab.
Anita can be contacted for purchase of obtaining the recipe for her protection spray or readings at https://www.etsy.com/shop/FairyTaleEnd.
**Edward M. Kennedy, Address at the Public Memorial Service for Robert F. Kennedy delivered 8 June 1968 at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York
Poignant and powerful, Ann.