Among the other events of this day are the discovery of Manhattan Island by Henry Hudson in 1609, The Annapolis Convention in 1786 (to which only 5 states showed, but which then issued to call for the Constitutional Convention), the American victory over the British at the Battle of Lake Champlain in 1814, Bob Dylan's first performance in New York at Gerdes' Folk City in 1961.  It is the Ethiopian New Year.   Pakistan celebrates Jinnah Day, for its founder Mohammed Jinnah died on this day in 1948.  It is the birthday of William Sidney Porter (O Henry) in 1862, Paul "Bear"Bryant in 1913, Charles Evers in 1922, and Brian Depalma in 1940.  Besides Jinnah, it marks the deaths of Nikita Khrushchev in 1971 and Lorne Green (Bonanza, Battle Star Galactica) in 1987.  It is also the day when right wingers in Chile with the assistance of the CIA overthrew the duly elected government of Salvatore Allende in 1973.

On this day in 1773 Benjamin Franklin wrote

There never was a good war or bad peace.
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About Gandhi -  He was the son of a prominent official in Gujarat who studied law in England, and then began to practice in the expatriate Indian community in South Africa.  His use of resistance through mass civil disobedience, which he describe with the term satyagraha based on ahimsa or total non-violence.  He achieved some success for the Indian community in South Africa, was invited to India where his continued use of such tactics led to his being given two appellations, Bapu for father, and Mahatma for Great Soul.

Martin Luther King Junior read about Gandhi while at seminary, and in 1959 took a trip to India where he met with the followers of Gandhi.  This laid the seeds for King's own public career of non-violent protest, such an important part of American history and the civil rights movement from Montgomery until his death in 1968.

At Meeting for Worship for the purposes of Business yesterday, our Clerk (lay leader - we unprogrammed Quakers do not have clergy) relied upon the Gandhi quote as he discussed some of our possible goals for the year.  He reminded us that as Quaker we always seek out "that of God" in every person and attempt to address that.  Gandhi's words should remind us of the Biblical injunction to hate the sin but love the sinner.  And, as our clerk reminded us, no matter how angry we might be at George Bush, Dick Cheney or Donald Rumsfeld (and I would add Karl Rove), when we cease to recognize that of God in them we abandon a key part of our beliefs.  I would add that we are then starting down a road where we justify our actions by belittling others, a road of rationalizing our own "superiority" that diminishes our own humanity.  

I keep in mind two relevant images, that of the American officer in Vietnam who said that in order to save the village we had to destroy it, and the famous Pogo cartoon where he looks out on the devastation of the swamp and says "we have met the enemy and he is us."

To these I now add the quotes above of Franklin and Gandhi.  I will repeat all four to end this posting.

I acknowledge the pain of remembrance of this day for so many.  Living as I do 4 miles from the Pentagon, knowing as I did four people killed in the attacks, 1 here three in NY, I understand that 2001 seems to overwhelm all other associations with this day.  For myself, however, I refuse to allow that to happen.  And so I offer the image of Gandhi, who began the process this day of becoming the change he wished to see.

We had to destroy the village in order to save it
we have met the enemy and he is us
There never was a good war or bad peace
Non-violence does not signify that man must not fight against the enemy, and by enemy is meant the evil which men do, not the human beings themselves.