Buddhist or not, this model of non-violence is worthy of note, globally.
"Non-Violent Prisoner Strike in Georgia Crosses Racial Lines Fed up with their living and working conditions, prisoners across the state of Georgia last week staged a six-day mass peaceful protest that transcended racial boundaries.
Black, Latino and white inmates at least six prisons, including Hays State Prison, Telfair State Prison, Macon State Prison and Smith State Prison, banded together to show their unhappiness by staying in their cells. The families of some prisoners reported that corrections officers responded violently, destroying personal effects and beating inmates at one penitentiary while another facility cut off the hot water supply.
Inmates spent months coordinating the protest by using cell phones smuggled into the prisons.
They have demanded better living conditions, medical care and nutrition, more educational and self-improvement opportunities, wages for work performed in prison and better access to their families, among other demands." Article
"One night a Tibetan Buddhist monk in maroon-and-saffron robes swept into His wife, Peggy Battin, comforts Hopkins after a particularly grueling day of off-the-vent breathing and therapy. (Leah Hogsten/The Salt Lake Tribune) Hopkins' Bountiful rehab room and delivered a piece of ancient wisdom. The body is nothing; it is ephemeral,' the lama told him. 'The mind is everything.'
Hopkins remembered that sentiment when he saw, for the first time, his emaciated body in the mirror while being wheeled into the shower. He either could be depressed by the sight or celebrate his expanding mental powers and social skills, either indulge in self-pity or confront the challenges ahead with dignity and drive.
'The lama's words came back with their full force,' he recalls, 'and I understood them for the first time ... and my potential depression lifted.' Article Audio
Buddhist caring must be more than mere engagement. It must cause us to confront the vicissitudes of our own ignorance. Then, and only then, can we say we are at one with the challenge of the human condition. LR
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