Peace and the Language of the Unheard by Cat Chapin-Bishop

Cat Chapin-Bishop, a Quaker Pagan, writes in her blog, Quaker Pagan Reflections, about the meaning of words and wishes for Peace in the context of #BlackLivesMatter and the example of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Both King and Woolman understood something that too many whites who are upset about the current wave of racial unrest fail to understand: peace is not a matter of stillness, and particularly, it is not a matter of dissent suppressed.

Rather, peace, real peace, is an active force, constantly on the lookout for quiet violence as well as the use of weapons and force.  Poverty is violence.  Racism is violence.  Relegating women, or gays, lesbians, and the transgendered to lesser lives–that is violence.  Colonialism is violence.

And at times, the very calm that would outwardly seem to those in comfort to be the essence of peace, is instead simply another form of violence.