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The Pacifist Memorial Its History and Purpose
On October 2, 1994, the 125th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, The Pacifist Memorial was dedicated. These grounds, already hallowed by constant prayer, the lives of students and teachers, the footsteps of saints, sages and activists famous and humble, welcome you on your journey of peacemaking. Both in its component parts and collectively, the Memorial seeks to inspire those who come here with the spirit of those remarkable women and men it commemorates, a spirit of remembrance and vigilance, courage and transformation.
It is our hope and purpose that this Memorial, dedicated to the spirit of pacifism and to the women and men who have embodied it, will nourish and encourage the transformation of our families, our neighborhoods, and of ourselves as instruments of deep and lasting peace. In remembering the heroes and heroines of nonviolence, let us fully embrace our heritage; in vigilance, let us be attentive and mindful of our susceptibility to anger and its result, and to the opportunities for love and healing around and within us. With courage, let us recommit ourselves and our nation to the peaceful way, knowing it is "better to suffer injustice than to inflict it, to love an enemy than to be one." And may we move out from this sacred place to fully transform our planet.
NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER At 125, Gandhi Still a Sign of Nonviolence Peace Activists Unveil Statue, Recite Poetry and Renew Dedication by Maria Karagianis, October 1994 SHERBORN, Mass. -The Peace Movement celebrated itself last Sunday, on a beautiful autumn afternoon amid falling leaves west of Boston. In the garden of the Life Experience School and Peace Abbey in this quaint New England village, Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mohandas Gandhi, unveiled a bronze statue of his grandfather in an emotional celebration of nonviolence. The day before, about 1,000 people traveled to Boston for a related conference called "Nonviolence or Nonexistence," cosponsored by the Gandhi Institute and Wellesley College. More than 600 were present Sunday at the dedication of the Peace Memorial, part of an observance of the 125th anniversary of Mohandas Gandhi's birth. Among those attending the weekend events were peace activists Jesuit Fr. Daniel Berrigan, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark and Dave Dellinger. Most of those attending the Sunday dedication were unaware that the founder and director of the Peace Abbey, Lewis Randa, recieved a death threat against Arun Gandhi by telephone moments before the ceremony began. As a result, police coverage was increased and speakers were moved from a podium to ground level, Randa said. A second threat, later that night, was phoned in against the school and Peace Abbey, Randa said. "In the 20th century, we have two examples of how to manage conflict," said Arun Gandhi, a dignified 60-year-old author and journalist who came to the United States from India seven years ago to lecture and teach as director of the M. K. Gandhi Institute in Memphis, Tenn. "We have seen those who solve conflict through violence and anger, like Hitler did," he said, removing the homespun blanket covering the eight-foot statue of his grandfather. "And we see those who solve conflict throught he power of love and nonviolence, as Grandfather did," Arun Gandhi said. His wife, Suananda, dressed in a coral silk sari and shawl, placed her fingertips together in prayer and bowed deeply, resting her forehaed for several seconds against the base of the statue created by sculptor Lado Goudjabidze. Winston Churchill once denigrated the famos pacifist as "a half-naked fakir." Mohandas Gandhi, whose radical, nonviolent protest led to significant reforms in what was British-controlled India, used to say of himself: "My life is my message." In his speech Sunday, Arun Gandhi recounted how in 1945, two years before Indian independence, his parents sent him, a sullen 12-year-old, from South Africa to live in india with his grandfather because they were worried about his rage after he suffered two racially motivated beatings near Durban. "First, I was beaten by a crowd of whites, simply because I was nonwhite," Arun Gandhi said. "Then I was beaten by a crowd of blacks. At 10 years old, all I anted to do was grow up and be strong so that I could hurt those who had hurt me." Despite the burdens of independence talks and political strategy sessions, the elder Gandhi devoted an hour each day - from 5 to 6 in the evening - to sit with his grandson, talking and spinning yarn. Arun Gandhi said he learned not only to redirect his rage, but during those 18 months traveling around India, he also became a spiritual disciple of Mohandas Gandhi, known as Mahatma, which is sanskrit for "great soul." Sunday's two-hour ceremony was held on the town's main street next to a statue depicting a forlorn woman holding a soldier's helmet, erected in 1926 in honor of veterans of World War I. Many in the crowd cried during the speeches, as when Berrigan read some touching poems he'd written in honor of his brother, Philip Berigan. Philip is finishing a prison sentence for destruction of property last December at the Seymour Johnson Airforce Base in Gooldsboro, N.C. There were tears, too, when Clark walked to another memorial on the Peace Abbey property, one commemorating civilian war victims, "It's been the rulers and diplomats and generals who have made war." Clark said. "And it has been the civilians who have suffered the ravages of war. So it is fitting that we honor them here today." Perhaps the most emotional moments of an emotional day came during a dance for peace, performed by some of the severly disabled students at the Life Experience School, whose directors, Randa and his wife, Meg, have built the curriculum around peace, nonviolence and social justice. The Life Experience School was founded in 1972 as Lewis Randa's alternative service following his discharge from the military as a conscientious objector. It is a community of able and disabled peacemakers, dedicated to peace education both in their own lives and in the greater community, according to information from the school. The adjoining Peace Abbey is an interfaith center for peacemakers around the world and was founded in the wake of the 1987 ecumenical peace gathering in Assisi, Italy, and following a 1988 visit by Mother Theresa to the Life Experience School. Some of the five soldiers in dress uniform who formed a color guard on the podium - all said they were connected with a shelter for homeless Vietnam veterans in Boston- were seen wiping tears from their eyes during the dance. Several speakers, including Clark and Dellinger, invoked the pacifist poems of W. H. Auden in the ceremony, which in true Gandhian fashion was universalist, tolerant and encompassed diverse religious beliefs. A local rabbi and several schoolchildren sang in Hebrew some paeans to peace. A Catholic nun and several priests spoke, including Fr. Frank Cordaro, a parish priest from Council Bluffs, Iowa, who will be sentenced later this month in Nebraska for pacifist activities. Also spesking was Fr. Jose Alas who was expelled from El Salvador in 1977 and was a colleague of martyred Archbishop Oscar Romero. "It is true the United States is the most powerful country in the world," Alas said, "but it is not the power of money or of guns or of progress that the world needs. It is the power of love and nonviolence." The Gandhi statue, designed and executed by a sculptor from the country of Georgia, was initially controversial in this small New England town of upper-middle-class residents, historic houses, stone walls and meadows. Several of the speakers remarked on the balance provided by a peace memorial erected next to a war memorial. Commenting on the turnout for the peace weekend and the success in finally overcoming political and financial hurdles to construction of the Gandhi statue, Randa held up his arms and shouted jubilantly, "If you build it, they will come."
Acknowledgements
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The
Pacifist Memorial, bearing witness to humanity's long-cherished
pursuit of justice and peace through nonviolence and love, stands
on the grounds of The Peace Abbey in Sherborn, Massachusetts. 
time; his life and philosophy inspired generations of nonviolent
peacemakers, including Dr. King and President Mandella. In the face
of ethnic conflict and struggles for liberation, we remember Gandhi,
who accomplished the freeing of a multiethnic, religiously diverse
people through the power of love and nonviolence alone.
1986 called by Pope John Paul II. Students, staff, and many friends
of the School and Abbey pray them daily; copies are available.
