Following the speech of CESIE’s President, Mr. Vito La Fata on the news Telegram of nonviolence on the road of the Research Centre for peace in Viterbo directed by Peppe Sini.
http://lists.peacelink.it/nonviolenza/2010/09/msg00041.html
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On the 2nd of October, Onu and the whole world celebrate the International Day of Nonviolence, on the 2nd of October we remember the work and the commitment of people like Gandhi, Aldo Capitini and Danilo Dolci because it is by remembering these men of peace that the commitment of each of us can arise for a more sympathizing and fair world.
But in this day our thought must also go to those populations and to those regions of the world that live in situations of war and violence, situations that deny the right to life and the peaceful living together. Today more than ever we must ask ourselves, without falling into the rhetoric of sentences or forced speeches, about the value of nonviolence and the connection that it has with life of humanity and the reality that surrounds us.
So, celebrating this day to promote a culture of peace, of tolerance, of comprehension, of interculturality and of nonviolence it becomes an important way to develop a critical conscience in the civil society and in institutions, an attention to the pacific methods of relation among people, cultures, nations, both at local and international level.
The spirit that animates this day must be that of divulging the message of nonviolence in our workplaces, in our closest institutions, in schools, among young people and in the decision-making places of politics, a politic world that seems too careless and far from putting into practice nonviolence paths in the citizens’ interest, especially of the weakest and defenseless ones.
This day must spur us more and more to realize educative and training initiatives and to divulge very meaningful experiences in this field because believing in the social value of nonviolence also means to testify these choices and activate to execute the role of aware observers on the institutions.
At this point I must conclude by quoting the nonviolent activist that during the Sicilian dark years gave hope and supported the weakest people, this is what Danilo Dolci said: “who objects that until now in history structural changes weren’t possible through nonviolent methods, that have never existed nonviolent revolutions, it is necessary to answer with new experimentations in order to show that what hasn’t existed yet in a complete way, can exist. It is necessary to promote a new history” (from Don’t you hear the smell of smoke?, Laterza 1971, p.90).
Public information and awareness must guide to the reaffirmation of the universal relevance of nonviolence principle. Today more than ever our commitment must be the one of testifying.
Vito La Fata