It was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who said “All my adult life I have deplored violence and war as instruments for achieving solutions to mankind’s problems. I am firmly committed to the creative power of nonviolence as the force which is capable of winning lasting and meaningful brotherhood and peace.”
We all can be advocates of nonviolence, to carry on Dr. King’s message. You can be a hero in your community by championing peace and nonviolence. It is desperately needed.
There are sad stories every day of violence in our cities. If you turn on the TV news it seems inevitable you will see reports of people being shot as gun violence proliferates. While no one action will prevent all these tragedies, becoming a messenger of peace will help. By setting a good example, any one of us might convince someone to choose peace over violence. You can join with others in groups and events to make the peace message louder.
Dr. King believed that nonviolence was ultimately a more powerful force than violence. Nonviolence is powered by love.
“Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love” said Dr. King.
We need Martin Luther King’s peaceful message in our communities but also for nations.
Nonviolence must overcome the scourge of war in Sudan where there is immense suffering. Sudan’s civil war has claimed the lives of civilians and displaced millions in Africa. People are starving to death in Sudan because of the food shortages caused by the fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
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The leaders of the two sides in Sudan’s war must realize what Dr. King has said: violence leads to more violence and only weakens a cause. Sudan’s combatants must put down their guns and settle their disputes through peace talks which Dr. King always encouraged.
As Dr. King said “People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.”
The UN World Food Program (WFP) is struggling to feed millions of people impacted by Sudan’s civil war. With funding low, victims in Sudan are in danger of starving to death.
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A great action for Martin Luther King Day would be to send food to WFP to feed Sudan’s war victims. Along with the life-saving food can be a message for the combatants to choose peace over the futility of war. For there can be no future in Sudan forged under fear and hunger.
In Iran, the government must stop using violence on protesters who want freedom and a better life in their country. The world is watching.
“People in Iran daring to express their anger at decades of repression and demand fundamental change are once again being met with a deadly pattern of security forces unlawfully firing at, chasing, arresting and beating protesters, in scenes reminiscent of the Woman Life Freedom uprising of 2022. Iran’s top security body, the Supreme National Security Council, must immediately issue orders for security forces to stop the unlawful use of force and firearms,” said Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.
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We should have an expectation that all governments choose nonviolence over conflict. There can be no real peace for anyone under the cloud of violence and war.
As Dr. King said “Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.”
Wars do not bring peace and they create their own problems which often lead to more war and endless spending on weapons. There is not much of a future for anyone in the darkness of war. The United States should be the leader for ending wars and arms races. We can’t back away from this leadership role. Right now our diplomatic power must encourage Russia to stop its brutal invasion of Ukraine and agree to disarmament of nuclear weapons.
On this Martin Luther King Day we all can be inspired by his message of nonviolence, because it is the right path. We all know this to be true. We just need Dr. King’s courage to spread his message and live by it.
William Lambers is the author of The Road to Peace and partnered with the UN World Food Program on the book “Ending World Hunger.” His writings also have been published by the Washington Post, Newsweek, History News Network and many other news outlets.