1. ;
2. hot for humility 
3. everyone
4. today
5. haiku
6. hereafter
7. :
8. rhetoric
9. Gandhi
   
   Non-violent acts
   Create peace in the now and
   In the hereafter.
   
   

   -A Haiku by Daniel Qin

   
   
   Today, everyone who advocates non-violence as activism against oppression reference the rhetoric of Mahatma Gandhi: "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." Likewise, Martin Luther King Jr. shared similar ideals; Chavez brings up such studies on combating the violence with opened fists throughout his piece time and time again--a belief that he begs that his audience follows. However, the pleas Chavez places at the feet of his readers, seem slightly shallow. In retrospect, acting in non-violence is simple. Nothing is done; only words are exchanged. So if defiance with weapons set aside is such a simple concept, why do nations aim its futuristic artillery and nuclear weaponry at another? Heck--why do children, which Jesus established as the bodies of innocence, still throw stones and pick fights? If those little demons that Jesus deemed as the purest of our race can't even solve conflicts through non-violence, how can Chavez expect the brotherhood to drop its weapons? Instead of asking his audience to engage in the "farmers' movement," Chavez should advocate what nourishes nonviolence--what sort of soil the succulent philosophy must be sowed in. Open fists alone will not shake the hands of enemies, it needs to be accompanied with unfurrowed brows. A man must be hot for humility and without anger for any sort of non-violent actions to truly have effect.