The Real Enemies

The recent suicide of a transgender female in Ohio has brought this issue to national attention.  I have seen this story shared many times on social media.  Many of my friends are very angry with her parents for their lack of support and their attempts to have her change and be a boy.  While this anger is understandable, I feel that it is misdirected.

Whether the issue is equality for transgender individuals, gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals, people of color, religious minorities or any other group, the enemy of equality is not people.  Our tendency is to focus on the people that perform acts of evil – bullies, parents, police, suicide bombers, etc.  We then label them evil and demand that they be punished.

However, the truth, spoken so powerfully by Martin Luther King, Jr., is that “evildoers are also victims and are not evil people.”  The third principle of nonviolence that Dr. King taught is stated in full: 

PRINCIPLE THREE: Nonviolence seeks to defeat injustice not people.

Nonviolence recognizes that evildoers are also victims and are not evil people. 

The nonviolent resister seeks to defeat evil not people.

- See more at: http://www.thekingcenter.org/king-philosophy#sub2

The real enemy, then, is injustice.  And, injustice arises as a result of misinformation (a nice way of saying “ignorance”).  When we perpetuate misinformation in our various institutions (church, schools, government, family, etc.), we are creating the breeding ground for injustice.  It is important that we keep our focus on the real enemies – misinformation and injustice. 

When we know who the real enemies are, we then know what our tasks must be if we are to create change.  Our tasks are to inform, to educate, and to demand that the institutions that inform and educate our children do a better job.  The problem is a systematic one.  Our systems of injustice must change.  Those systems ultimately emerge from a thought-system of fear, separation, division, and irreconcilable differences.  It is our institutions and the thought-system that gives them birth that must change.   

This young woman’s parents are not the enemies.  Christians are not the enemies.  Republicans or Democrats are not the enemies.  Ignorance and injustice – those are the enemies.  We all have to live together on this planet, in this country, in our local communities.  The only way we can do that is if we all work together to defeat all systems of injustice.

The task I give myself is to “think globally, act locally.”  I think globally by being aware of all of the systems of injustice on the world stage.  I act locally by first and foremost, starting with my own mind.  Am I feeding the thought-system of fear, separation, division, and irreconcilable differences?  Or, am I feeding the thought-system of love, oneness, communion, and reconciliation?  I then act locally by practicing the thought-system of love in all of my relationships with friends, family, co-workers, clients, strangers, etc.  I then act locally by being aware of systems of injustice in my local community.  What am I doing to make a difference?  Am I taking action, or am I waiting for someone else to take the first step? 

If all of us do this, all of our local acts of justice and compassion will transform the world.  So, I encourage all of you to “think globally, act locally.”  Start with your own mind.  Then move out into your most local relationships.  Then expand this to your community.  And, always remember that our goal is to defeat evil, not people.