Nonviolence For Social Justice Movements >> The Social Justice Mountaintops
Picture the peaks of mountains rising above the clouds. Each peak represents a social cause -- the environment, women’s rights, rights for people of color, animal advocacy, workers’ rights, farmers’ rights, other human rights, organics, sustainability, and so much more. Notice the murky haze that lies in the low lands making it appear as if the mountaintops are islands popping up out of the smoky clouds – alone and separate.
Off to one side is a mountaintop of a cause that seems so far away from the mountaintop you’re on. And over there is a mountaintop you’ve visited before, but the people there don’t really interact with the people on your mountaintop. Sometimes it even seems like they speak another language on those other mountaintops. Certainly some of their ideas may seem a little foreign to you.
But now come down off your mountaintop for another perspective. Notice that the murky haze is really a smokescreen -- pumped out in an escalating stream of propaganda, lies and false connections fed by violent industries that rely on our separateness, our fear and our infighting for their own survival.
If you think critically and see through the hazy smokescreen you suddenly realize that we’re not separate after all. We are all part of the same mountain range. Our foothills, our very foundation, are the same. We are connected.
When you come down off your mountaintop you’ll find that our common ground is Nonviolence.
The work you are doing to connect people to the issues on your mountaintop is much like the work that others are doing from their mountaintops. Whether it’s connecting people to other diverse peoples, or connecting people to the planet’s environmental needs, or connecting people to the needs of animals, we are all working to connect.
“Imagine the power of an organized, unified group of millions of people all pulling in the same direction rather than a million different groups all pulling in different directions.”
Nonviolence, Inc.
PO Box 1161
Boulder, CO 80306
720.252.8449
