Last Updated on May 12, 2022 by David Vause
(image in the public domain, downloaded from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Paul_VI#/media/File:Pius_XII_with_Monsignor_Montini.jpg)
When Pope Paul VI opined “If you want peace, work for justice”, I am sure that he was referring to emotional and intellectual peace. But it is also a karmic truth. Violence is rooted in injustice. It takes a saint to embrace pacifism like Gandhi or M.L. King. The general population will never be saintly. When unarmed mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters are gunned down by the police repeatedly over 200 years, people eventually get angry. Pacifism is only possible in the right country. The Tiananmen Square protesters learned this quickly when they were massacred. No one knows what Tank Man‘s name was, only what happened to him in his final minutes of life. Many years ago, I read a quote attributed to Ho Chi Mihn. I can only paraphrase: “Gandhi would not have lasted 6 months in French Indochina.” I believe him completely. Israel cannot find peace because of one unalterable truth about its birth. In 1948, Palestine was 60% Muslim, 32% Jews, and no Muslim entity was consulted before its creation.
As an entitled, middle-class, self-identified Whites it is way too easy to embrace pacifism. Frankly, if I were a relative of Breonna Taylor, I’d be mad as hell.
“If you want peace, work for justice” is a karmic truth.
