london and the power of nonviolence

London is burning. And I'm upset. Upset that it's happening. Upset at its causes. Upset at the results. And upset at the reaction by talk radio.

Police brutality is abhorrent and in this case started chaos. My age group is the cause. I know I wouldn't participate. I've been raised to loathe violence. America has placed the path of nonviolent means of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. on a pedestal. For good reason. It seems to work. The world takes note, though it takes time.

Nelson Mandela gave up. One of my religion professors at Walla Walla University once condemned Mandela's abandoning of nonviolence and felt that his change caused Apartheid to last even longer.

However, Mandela eventually lived to see Apartheid die. Violence and fear worked to some degree. The youth of London seem to agree. An opnion article I read at Al-Jazeera quoted a participant's response as to whether the riots were solving anything:

Yes," said the young man. "You wouldn't be talking to me now if we didn't riot, would you?

Two months ago we marched to Scotland Yard, more than 2,000 of us, all blacks, and it was peaceful and calm and you know what? Not a word in the press. Last night, a bit of rioting and looting and look around you."

Eavesdropping from among the onlookers, I looked around. A dozen TV crews and newspaper reporters interviewing the young men everywhere.

He's right. The world is taking notice. Because the city is burning, sure. But largely because of the size and effectiveness of protest. I believe that anything fought for this passionately will succeed, especially with nonviolent means. Imagine thousands of British youth marching the streets without destroying business. They are against the rich, but forget that middle-class shop owners are the biggest losers here.

Listening to talk radio on my drive to Clarkston frustrated me to no end. The host, Michael Savage, lambasted the "communists" responsible and was certain that "higher powers" similar to the evils of Obama were at work in this and are using class warfare to destroy society. Though there are small elements of truth in these ideas, this message is more damaging than the riots themselves. Power trippers like Savage are constantly using fear at their disposal, in the same manner as the rioters. It's all worth abandoning.

I've been the TA this summer for a WWU online class, History of the US. For our last discussion topic, we asked students to discuss various types of protest employed during the 1960s. This was asked before London was set ablaze. The students didn't make too many connections, but I see many similarities, particularly to college students protesting Vietnam. Did Kent State really solve anything? I don't think so. Sit-ins and teach-ins made a much larger impact. London should resume stability soon. Small changes will inevitably be made, but will the youth really get what they want? Do they even know what they want? I doubt either. Imagine if they preached more than anarchy and employed nonviolence...

For more pictures, check out Reuters or Al-Jazeera.