By Topher Sanders, Jacksonville News
Nearly 50 students at Jacksonville’s Robert E. Lee High School took a message of nonviolence to their peers Wednesday as part of an international peace movement.
The peace ambassadors are members of the "I Take The Vow" movement started by physician, writer and philosopher Deepak Chopra, who preaches a vow of "nonviolence in my thoughts, my speech and my actions." The vow requires people to tell at least two others about the movement.
The students at Lee decided to tell an entire school.
"It’s going to take a while, but it has to start with that individual," said Lee senior Antoinette Wakefield, 17, who worked to spread the message on Wednesday. "If we keep promoting it and people see that it’s actually going somewhere, people will eventually fall in line."
Wakefield is a member of the school’s Spirit Team, student leaders recognized by their teachers as able to work across differences. The team took the vow on Tuesday.
Debra Truitt, an English coach at Lee, coordinated the effort after she learned about the vow from her niece.
"When I saw it I just got so excited about it," she said. "We thought it would be fun to do it in bigger groups and let our kids really take responsibility for it."
Wakefield and fellow senior Jamare Hall talked with a group of girls in teacher Michael King’s classroom about the vow. The students exchanged stories of messy friends, unfaithful boyfriends, mean classmates and fights.
One student told Wakefield she doesn’t believe there is anything the movement can do to compel students to stop talking in violent terms. The student admitted that many fights begin with words.
"One of the ways you can do that is by starting with yourself," King said. "It’s starts with you. When you make a change within yourself, people will see that change."
Even in the face of pessimism, Wakefield remained positive that she and her fellow Spirit Team members can spread the message of nonviolence to her peers.
"It’s not a losing battle," she said, "it’s just a work in progress."
Wakefield ended the session by reminding her peers that spreading peace and nonviolence starts from within.
"You have to evaluate your life and look at yourself and see what you can change about you," she said. "There’s always going to be somebody who’s going to say something about you … because misery loves company.
"But you have to say, ‘I’m better than that.’ "
Mahatma
Jesus lived and died in vain if He did not teach us to regulate the whole of life by the eternal law of love.
A non-violent revolution is not a program of seizure of power. It is a program of transformation of relationships, ending in a peaceful transfer of power.
If one has pride and egoism, there is no non-violence. Non-violence is impossible without humility.
Violence is needed for the protection of things external; non-violence is needed for the protection of the Atman, for the protection of one
Kudos to all the Spirit Team students who are taking the pledge and promoting peace in their school!!!
As many of us have discovered along our spiritual paths, it is when we find our own sense of peace deep within our own beings that we can help others to find peace within themselves. Our thoughts, words, and actions become the barometer that others look to for guidance and support.
How lucky the students at Lee are to have peer leaders among them who took the vow, and are willing to stand up and promote peace in their school.
Bless you all for your initiative and ability to speak your truth!
Kathy