October 2, 2007, the world is celebrating the International Day of Non-Violence.
This is being celebrated today as a salute to Mahatma Gandhi who initiated and helped India gain independence. But this action not only helped India but the world as well for it inspired civil rights and freedom movements through Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King Jr.
How is this day significant? It is important to raise awareness and reach out to people about the different ways violence is being done everyday. The media has always been blamed for putting up graphic and visual descriptions and footages of violence that happen elsewhere around the globe. Children being abused, raped, living in war-torn places and doing forced labor always make headlines. Domestic violence are also being out in the open for everybody to speculate and talk about. Everything seems to be violent, including the extreme weather conditions our planet is experiencing which brings about violent tendencies in the survivors in their quest to live through the day.
The situations above that I have written about are just tips of an iceberg. There are so many ways to exhibit and interpret violence. Exhibiting violence need not be too physical but emotional, social, religious/moral and mental assault are considered as such too.
Click here to view categories of violence.
When I read all those listed in the categories, it got me thinking if we are back to the time when people were called “Barbaric”. Are we?
To those who were and are victims of violence in whatever form, may you find the courage to stand up and be better persons. May you be encouraged to tell about your experiences so that others may learn from your experiences. May you be “whole” again in your quest to find yourself back. May you find the answers, the reasons and the solutions so that you would be able to move forward.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007 at 6:07 am and is filed under Bits and Pieces, Lessons in Life, My Thoughts, Parenting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.