Interview
Meditation
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Nonviolence as a way of life

From Curtiss Paul Deyoung

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Video Interview Transcript

When you look at closely Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, others, for them nonviolence was a way of life. So they were not only just nonviolent in the streets when they were doing resistance, they were nonviolent in their personal relationships. They were nonviolent even in their spirit and in the way they responded. And that was part of how they dealt with some of their anger against injustice was they had a spirit of nonviolence. Others used it as a tactic. And King, you were certainly aware of that. And as a tactic when you when the other side has more arms than you do and you're going to lose a military battle, nonviolence can be a method for doing social change. And it draws lots of media attention if you're in a society that has a free press. But for King it was just consistent. There was a incident that happened at one of his events where a person jumped on the stage while he was speaking and slugged him in the face, knocked him down. He spun around and those that were watching him said his arms never came up. His eyes always had a sense of peace and love for this person that hit him. And many people who had up to that point questioned whether King was really committed to nonviolence so that proved that he was because this was just he wasn't out marching. He wasn't out you know in the work resisting. He was just holding a meeting and someone I think who was a Neo-Nazi jumped up on the stage and hit him. And then afterwards when the police came King went prayed with the gentleman and said let him go. I mean so his life was just one consistent line of nonviolent because for him his faith and his nonviolence were inseparable.

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