Soul of Nonviolence - Questions Of Conscience
“Cowardice asks the question: is it safe? Expediency asks the question: is it politic? Vanity asks the question: is it popular? But conscience asks the question: is it right? And there comes a time when we must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular—but one must take it because it’s right.”
This week, Veronica discusses a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. about one of the strongest motivations a person can experience: doing what’s right. Of course, what’s right is often not the easiest path. To get by we may choose safety and political correctness, choose belonging to the mainstream and being complacent with what’s wrong instead of forging a path of our own. And while it’s not comfortable to go against the grain, doing what we know to be wrong gives us only a false sense of belonging.
Veronica expands this concept to consider the societal implications of turning our back on what’s right. She explores how we are culturally at a crossroads on matters of race, war, the environment, and even our relationships with our neighbors. At this crossroads, we face a matter of living in integrity: We can hide from the issues and deny our role in these systems, but not being true to ourselves; or we can honor ourselves and the truth by doing what’s right, and maybe even find a value that’s larger than life.