Reply #178: One thing I know about non-violence is NOT judging people

[Kanary]

Non-violence means not making a judgement of people, especially based on a short post on an internet forum.

Non-violence means striving for understanding, rather than criticism.

Non-violence means appreciating when someone has honored you with expressing their honest feelings about their own situation.

Non-violence means understanding that we are NOT all alike: We have different needs, different backgrounds, different experiences, different capacities.

Non-violence means respecting another enough to be willing to LISTEN to what they are thinking and feeling.

Non-violence means knowing at your deepest center that others can't be converted to your beliefs by force.

What I know of Dennis Kucinich is that he is fully COMMITTED to non-violence. He has spent many years delving into himself to understand who he is inside, and a commitment to understanding others. Over and over, Dennis exhibited that aspect of himself during the campaign. I saw Dennis in many different situations, where he was dealing with people, sometimes shouting, who did not agree with him, and who wanted to push him in their direction. He didn't use verbal force with them, or show them any disrespect at all. In one tense instance I'm thinking of, he set his own boundaries of how he would be treated by them, but he did NOT, in any way, judge them. He was there to LISTEN, and help them to get what they wanted.

Dennis does not stand there and call someone "COWARD", or other names, in order to "convert" them. If he were ever to lose control and call someone names like that, he would have the grace to apologize.

I am one of those who have been an activist for 35 years. I do NOT want others hit over the head in my name. We simply can't build a better culture with those methods.

Understanding.

Patience.

Caring.

*THAT'S* what Dennis is about.

Kanary