One hundred-fifty years.
What did we learn.
(The Universe is in your Hands edit)
Janet Kuypers
3/4/24
Walking through New Delhi,
I photographed the statue of Mahatma Gandhi leading
the Salt March to the ocean to get salt there for free
after Britain said they had to buy their heavily taxed salt instead.
Why pay for something under British tyranny,
when we could just walk the 390-kilometers to the ocean
to get the salt ourselves.
80 started the Dandi March that grew to over 50,000,
because so many protested the British-imposed salt tax.
That was the initiation
of the civil disobedience movement
that led to Britain leaving India.
I left New Delhi, paid my way in Visakhapatnam with money
emblazoned with that picture of Mahatma Gandhi’s walk,
and it make me think of the historic protests
and acts of civil disobedience that changed the world.
And then I think of the marches
that occur with amazing regularity
in the city I now reside,
and I forget what all of the protests are even for anymore.
There seem to be just so many,
and from what I can tell, nothing comes
from this kind of civil disobedience any longer.
It seems that everyone
wants to jump on the protest bandwagon,
and one protest after another
leads to people walking together,
feeling good about themselves,
and thinking they’ve made a difference —
and posting the Instagram pics of them making a “difference”
on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest,
and every other online medium to prove it —
when nothing has actually changed.
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I know that leading by example alone
is hardly the solution,
but the 21st century walking in unison
may no longer accomplish anything
other than stroking walker’s egos.
This may be the dilemma of modern times,
when too many people see a problem,
and do not know what to do other than to walk.
What is the walk accomplishing
other than improving your health
and making you feel morally superior.
Because I’m positive Mahatma Gandhi,
opting to weave his own clothes
instead of buying clothes to support a system he didn’t believe in,
didn’t do it so he could feel all high and mighty.
People now take a break from their day to participate in a march,
and then they go back to their everyday lives.
Mahatma Gandhi changed his life,
the march was only a part of the story,
and as a result, he changed the world too.
Mahatma Gandhi didn’t jump on a bandwagon
to join others to protest for change.
He started that journey himself,
which,
he still does,
in those who start those journeys too,
to this day.
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