International Day of Non-Violence

Today is an important day in history and in my life. I am a practitioner of non-violence and October 2, 2014 is the International Day of Non-Violence, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi.  Before I came to work as the Executive Director of ACPA-College Student Educators International, I served as the senior official at Soulforce, an activist organization working to end discrimination against sexual and gender minorities and to decriminalize the lives of these individuals around the world.

 

I continue to serve in a volunteer capacity with a working group at the U.S. State Department to advise the Secretary of State on strategies to end discrimination and violence against LGBT people around the world.  I am mindful today of the millions of people who have been lost in violent conflicts because human beings persist in stigmatizing one another and exercising power and privilege in destructive ways. I don't have all of the answers but I am grateful today that I have you, a community of people devoted to the development of student lives and to the core values of equity, inclusion and social justice.

 

I started out my day by rereading the steps to non-violence. Reconciliation is the last one and the hardest.

 

 

 

I hope you will join me today in a single act of nonviolence in a challenging relationship or situation.  

 

Peace,

 

Dr. Cindi Love