Mahatma Gandhi Community Forum
Obama on Gandhi
On Gandhi Service Day, October 2, 2008:
Dear Friends,
It’s a pleasure for me to join today in commemorating Mahatma Gandhi’s day of birth, celebrated across America and around the world by service to our neighbors and other good works. Gandhi’s commitment to creating positive change by bringing people together peacefully to demand it resonate as strongly today as they did during his lifetime. Through the power of his example and his own unshakeable spirit, he inspired a people to resist oppression, sparking a revolution that freed a nation from colonial rule. In formulating his strategy to achieve freedom, Gandhi had a choice, and he chose courage over fear.
America faces many choices as we work to address the challenges of our time. We must act from a place of strength and conviction to reclaim the high road and position of moral leadership that has defined the United States at its best.
Gandhi’s significance is universal. Countless people around the world have been touched by his spirit and example — his victory in turn inspired a generation of young Americans to peacefully wipe out a system of overt oppression that had endured for a century, and more recently led to velvet revolutions in Eastern Europe and extinguished apartheid in South Africa. Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke of their great debt to Gandhi. His portrait hangs in my office to remind me that real change will not come from Washington — it will come when the people, united, bring it to Washington.
This is a pivotal election. This is our time for change. For far too long, we’ve watched as ordinary Americans work harder and harder for less and less. We’ve watched our standing in the world erode as we continue to lose American lives in a war that should’ve never been authorized and never been waged. I need you to stand up and work for change. Let us all rededicate ourselves, every day from now until November 4th, and beyond, to living Gandhi’s call to be the change we wish to see in the world.
Sincerely,
Barack Obama
Dear Friends,
It’s a pleasure for me to join today in commemorating Mahatma Gandhi’s day of birth, celebrated across America and around the world by service to our neighbors and other good works. Gandhi’s commitment to creating positive change by bringing people together peacefully to demand it resonate as strongly today as they did during his lifetime. Through the power of his example and his own unshakeable spirit, he inspired a people to resist oppression, sparking a revolution that freed a nation from colonial rule. In formulating his strategy to achieve freedom, Gandhi had a choice, and he chose courage over fear.
America faces many choices as we work to address the challenges of our time. We must act from a place of strength and conviction to reclaim the high road and position of moral leadership that has defined the United States at its best.
Gandhi’s significance is universal. Countless people around the world have been touched by his spirit and example — his victory in turn inspired a generation of young Americans to peacefully wipe out a system of overt oppression that had endured for a century, and more recently led to velvet revolutions in Eastern Europe and extinguished apartheid in South Africa. Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke of their great debt to Gandhi. His portrait hangs in my office to remind me that real change will not come from Washington — it will come when the people, united, bring it to Washington.
This is a pivotal election. This is our time for change. For far too long, we’ve watched as ordinary Americans work harder and harder for less and less. We’ve watched our standing in the world erode as we continue to lose American lives in a war that should’ve never been authorized and never been waged. I need you to stand up and work for change. Let us all rededicate ourselves, every day from now until November 4th, and beyond, to living Gandhi’s call to be the change we wish to see in the world.
Sincerely,
Barack Obama
Replies are closed for this discussion.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Be Love on -
I feel hopeful & inspired to read Obama's letter, especially the following words "His portrait hangs in my office to remind me that real change will not come from Washington — it will come when the people, united, bring it to Washington". This truth is undeniable and it feels as though Obama holds space for this truth. Harry Belafonte spoke at the inauguration Peace Ball and said words to this effect "If Obama fails it is because we the people have failed".
We have much work to do. This work is made all the more possible through sites such as this and ipeace where we are able to establish, share and deepen our connection with each other & thereby make things happen!
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Permalink Reply by Eric SHIMA on -
Excellence Barack Obama,
Your voice here is the voice of voiceless that the poet Aime Cesaire of Martinique had announced in 1939 in his "Cahier d'un retour au pays natal" or Notebook of Return on the native land. This is the time where a voice does not just bring sounds bu resurrects spirits: Gandhi, King, Aime cesaire, ...and everyone is shaked, and all despots are naked and shiver and fall from their sparkling sieges, and Jeus hears, the angela applaud.
This is the time.
This is the time to spaek with one voice to chase the evil and rebuild our souls before the institutions.
UN, World Bank, IMF, UNESCO, WHO, ...shall shine and let their spirit bee seen if they have one.
The change you mean is the one that I, little boy shall bring from a mountain of Burundi with my little job backed by spirited leaders.
The change you mean is the one Alexandra Burke sings in her "alleluia" that appeals real angels.
The change you mean should mean the going away of the rapers, the new colonizers that "rape" Africa, support war in DRC, compete in killing and slaughtering in Gaza and turn off the radio and TV when they here that voice in US and elswhere.
Just keep up the smile and let the facts meet the good words. We know what brings joy and hope. Let the White an Black enjoy the benefits of love.
God is wit you
Eric SHIMA, Dublin
eric_shima@yahoo.fr
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