Awareness And Advocating For ChangeA Look At

Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr., And Primo Levi Essay, Research Paper

Awareness and Advocating for Change

We as human beings go through countless experiences in a lifetime. Many of these experiences are not necessarily positive ones. Many of us think about these unbearable experiences, and that is all we do; think. It is every so often that one of us human beings has a thought, and follows through with an action for change. This is the point of cause and effect; i.e., think and do. What does writing do. What power is behind a pen. What effects can writing cause, and why do people write about specific things. What is action. What brings on change. War, a popular topic of debate; how does a war start. When is there peace. What brings on peace. What happens after war. How do we remember war. What often goes unnoticed in the topic of war and peaces are those who advocate change. War is often over a change that needs to be made, be it political or social or what have you. In order for change to occur, the issue at hand must be properly introduced to the people it is effecting, then be introduced to the person who is willing to take action, or who ever can transform the situation and initiate change. Who are these people that bring change.

Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King Junior, and Primo Levi are all people who have played a major role in writing, preaching and creating an impact, speaking on behalf of those who can not speak or express themselves as others can, perhaps out of fear or for the fact that they are no longer living. All three men have experienced extreme degrees of discrimination, and were willing to bring up painful pasts for the sake of awareness or change. They each have a different reason to write, yet they each write on behalf of those who have experienced a harsh reality of life, the same realities they have experienced themselves, racial discrimination.

Mohandas Gandhi symbolizes the nationalist movements of India, though he used the message of peace and love, rather than war and destruction. One time an outstanding lawyer in South Africa, Gandhi gave up practicing law and returned to India in order to help ease the suffering of the repressed people of his homeland(Brown, 22).

Gandhi’s love for people and his religious passion made him a revolutionary in many of his ideas and actions. He desired to see India freed from British rule in a bloodless revolution, similar to the “Glorious Revolution” of seventeenth century England. Knowing that violence only increases violence, he began the practicing of passive resistance or as he called it, “satyagraha” which means “truth soul” (Ambedkar, 12). In his famous salt march in 1930, Gandhi and thousands of others marched to a coast where salt lay on the beaches to protest the British governments’ restriction against the Indians making their own salt. Though many were beaten, arrested and killed, no one fought back. Over the course of his life he led three major rebellions, rallied support for nonviolent strikes, urged Indians to boycott anything British, and supported women’s rights.

Gandhi possessed many characteristics of a great leader. His love for the people of India was limitless, he wanted nothing more than to serve and help them. Always putting others above himself, he sought to make himself even lower than the lowest member of the Hindu caste system. He even humbled himself to the point of sweeping up excrement left behind by others, hoping to teach people that disease was spread in filth. One of his most famous qualities was that he led by example and never taught what he was not willing to do himself.

A common quality between Gandhi and many other great leaders was that no matter what he did he did it to the best of his ability. He once said:

“No matter how insignificant the thing you have to do, do it as well as you can, give it as much of your care and attention as you would give to the thing you regard as most important. For it will be by those things that you shall be judged.”

He gave up his life and material possessions, fasted, suffered for his people and their cause. He showed that passiveness does not indicate weakness and became a leader in the purest part of the world.

Maybe Gandhi’s greatest gift to the world happened long after his assassination in 1948. Few people realize that had it not been for his influence, we may have never witnessed or read in this country Martin Luther King Jr..s famous speeches and writings, or Nelson Mandela’s struggle in oppressed South Africa, or even be aware of such currant issues as Mumia Abu Jamal.s struggle regarding the oppression within the political and judicial system. These people and many more who have followed in his footsteps admire Gandhi’s leadership ability and his legacy that will continue for many centuries to come.

Another one of the world.s best-known advocates of non-violent social change was Martin Luther King Jr. The image of a social activist and leader was the result of broad formal education, strong personal values and ethics. This excellence in leadership can be traced to his character that is shaped by his moral values and personality. We look at Martin Luther King Jr. and these characteristics to reveal the reason of his rise to leadership in our society. His behavior was in line with his values and beliefs and was presented in accordance with the