Our Core Principles

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1. Awareness Starts With Self Awareness

 

• We do not set ourselves as exemptions to the base human emotions of anger, fear, rage or pain. We do not set ourselves as superior to the base human emotions experienced by those who oppose our message, but rather we dedicate ourselves to opposing the expression of these emotions as actions.

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• The first step in the continual journey of non-violent action is to recognize the capacity for anger, fear, rage and pain within ourselves, to examine and name those emotions when they arise and, in so doing, to both accept our capacity for such emotions and pledge not to act from within them.

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• We recognize that those we might name as our opponents in our search for Solidarity are members of the human race in the exact same way that we are and that our shared humanity is more powerful than our ideological differences.

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2. Do Not Respond to Violence In Kind

 

• We do not respond to violence in kind, neither by deed, nor by word

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• We recognize that suffering is redemptive and contains within it tremendous educational and transformational potential.

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• We dedicate ourselves to accept suffering without retaliation both for the sake of the cause and for the sake of our own development as individuals committed to a philosophy of non-violence.

 

• We commit to attacking the forces of evil that impel individuals toward violence, not individual people who are committing violent acts.

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3. Solidarity + Compassion Are Symbiotic Concepts

 

• We believe that the end result of non-violent action is the creation of friendships, the fostering of understanding and the building of community.

 

• We pledge to seek out what we have in kind with those who would consider themselves our opponents and to emphasize, both for ourselves and for them, the ways in which we are already living in Solidarity with each other.

 

• We affirm that the purpose of non-violent action is the creation of the Beloved Community, a global vision in which poverty, hunger, homelessness, racism, bigotry, prejudice and all forms of discrimination are eradicated by the all-inclusive spirit of Solidarity and the standards of human decency that this unity entails.

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4. Creating the Beloved Community is Continuous

 

• We understand that our personal commitment to non-violence involves a daily affirmation of our commitment to the philosophy and methods of non-violence, as well as a daily examination of our motives to ensure we are not swayed by personal grievance toward violent actions.

 

• We further understand that the Beloved Community is not a goal which, once achieved, will sustain itself without our constant commitment to its principles and our constant vigilance against its enemies.

 

• We pledge to remain aware, awake, inclusive and welcoming, to meet hatred with love, to meet despair with hope, in the face of the causes before us and in anticipation of those to come.

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5. “The Arc of the Moral Universe is Long, But It Bends Toward Justice,” – Dr. Martin Luther King.

 

• We understand that in our commitment to non-violence and Solidarity we are but a link in a long chain of words and actions that extend back through the lives of those that have come before us.

 

• We affirm that in committing our lives to these principles we do not seek greatness, but rather progress.

 

• Our hope and our strength come from our belief that we are a part of an action toward Solidarity whose work will extend beyond the scope of our individual lives and whose effects with shape the lives of our children, our children’s children, and down through all the generations to come.

 

• Together, with open minds and open hearts, we can create the world we believe in. Above all we pledge, in every day of our lives, to commit to the mantra: I will try.

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