On Courage and Wisdom, Nov 13, 2011
On Courage and Wisdom
(Address to Occupy Minnesota Protesters and Allies, November 13, 2011)
The mostly young people who have been here day and
night at Hennepin Plaza have already been tested by cold
and hunger and dirt for several weeks and you, like those
first rebels on Wall Street and now in cities all over this
country, have set a proud example of forceful but peaceful
protest in a public square. Congratulations and thanks.
But tonight you are facing your semester exam. I won’t call
it a final exam, because there will be other tests and exams
as long as you live and remain devoted to justice. But, for
some of you, this may be your first fierce confrontation
with institutionalized violence. And how well we all
respond and how well we deal with our own fears is
something you will always remember.
Make no mistake about it, this protest is about to become
an act of civil disobedience. Will we remain committed
to nonviolence when police are moving in, perhaps with
threatening actions more than simple verbal commands?
Ordinarily, as Gandhi taught us, and Jesus before him and
Martin Luther King, Jr. after him, the commitment to non-
violence does not guarantee success in worldly affairs.
History is full of examples of both failures and successes
of nonviolent actions. And ordinarily the necessary training
and preparation for an effective nonviolent action takes
time, the same sort of time that it takes armies and police
departments to teach individuals to trust their teammates.
(2)
But we don’t have that kind of time and the challenge we
face is to stay together and, as the Civil Rights protesters
sang in past years, to hold on, hold on, keep your eyes
on the prize hold on. And the prize is a great one. If I
were a Hindu preacher, instead of an old Jewish surgeon,
I would say the prize is the coming of Truth right here
on earth. The prize is justice as fairness* rather than as
punishment. The prize is equal opportunity for all rather
than for only those lucky enough to be born into situations
of wealth and power. The prize is compassion towards
friend and stranger, neighbor and foreigner, and to see
finally the humanity we have in common even with our
enemy. Abraham Lincoln had that vision of peace in
another time of war: “With malice towards none, with
charity for all.” The prize is love and respect for ourselves
and for all that lives and for this earth and this universe of
surpassing beauty. The prize is Franklin Roosevelt’s vision
of freedom, freedom of expression, freedom to worship in
our own way, freedom from want, freedom from fear.**
So now we become part of that great historical chain
of freedom fighters. In the coldest darkest time of the
American Revolution, Thomas Paine wrote “Common
Sense: These are the times that try men’s [and now we
say, “People’s”] souls. The summer soldier and the
sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service
of his [and her] country; but he [and “she”] that stands it
now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”
(3)
Difficult as it is to remember, the soldiers who commit
war and other atrocities in our name and the police who
commit violent acts right here on the home front, are not
our real enemies. They have only been fooled into doing
the bidding of higher officials who act, as we know, in
the service of financial and military institutions who have
become the gods of the modern world. Let us remember
this throughout this stressful time and respond together
with wisdom, remaining gentle and humble and absolutely
fearless. Hold on everybody, hold on.
Sincerely and with love,
David Harris, VFP
*John Rawls, deceased professor of law at Harvard
University, in “Justice As Fairness”
**President Franklin Roosevelt, 1941, address to Congress
(on the eve of World War II)
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