Soul of Nonviolence - North Star of Healing
“I DESPERATELY want a movement space that knows that compassion is not a zero-sum game. Where we have compassion for people’s ignorance. Where we are allowed to be messy and to make mistakes. Where accountability is an act of love and the word “holding” is the key word in “holding others accountable.” Where the sanctity of all life and our interdependence to everything that exists is so deeply known and felt that no person will ever question their sense of belonging. Where no matter what any of us has done, that we all know that there will always be space for us here. That no matter what we have done, we will trust our circle enough to grieve the harm that we caused and to say “yes, I did that” and know that we will not be cast out of humanity. Where we can learn to respond to even the most egregious harms without letting our sights off of the North Star of healing.”
Earlier this month, the killing of Daunte Wright by a police officer brought more pain and anger to people already hurting from the effects of police brutality. Kazu Haga responded by sharing a wish for the movement that it could hold up importance of compassion, of “holding” as the key in “holding others accountable” to keep moving in a direction of healing.
Veronica discusses how challenging it can be to prioritize compassion and how its roots in real experience, with real pain make it more than a fanciful ideal. She ties this concept to Desmond Tutu’s explanation of “ubuntu”: “my humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in yours.”
In our trainings, we often use the two hands of nonviolence to learn how to be strong and work our way forward together. Veronica sums it up, “With one hand I say, ‘stop.’ With the other I build a bridge.”