BY KAREN BEST
Haldimand Review
Dec 29, 2006
Opinion - Peaceful resistance can be more effective than a show of violence or intimidation.
Before we consider local circumstances, let’s walk back in time to see how this works.
In 1989, a man stood in front of advancing tanks in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. By this act, he temporarily stopped the army sent out to quell protesters who denounced the actions of the Communist Party of China. Eventually the man was pulled into the crowd where he blended with thousands of faces. But the photographic image of his bold and effective defiance is seared in the collective international memory.
Photographers were not within focus range of Rosa Parks when she refused to give up her seat in the middle of an Alabama bus on Dec. 1, 1955. Under Montgomery City law, African Americans were permitted to sit in this section until the seats were required by Caucasian Americans. The 42-year-old was tired of giving in and was arrested and convicted and fined $10 plus $4 for court costs.
On the day of her trial, 35,000 leaflets were printed asking African Americans to protest the law by refusing to ride the buses. It rained the next day. The 40,000 African American commuters rode in car pools and travelled in African American-operated cabs but most walked to work — some as far as 20 miles. The boycott continued for 382 days.
Before the law requiring bus segregation was lifted, dozens of buses stood idle and the bus company’s finances were severely damaged.
During the boycott, some segregationists retaliated with terrorism; burning African American churches and bombing Martin Luther King’s home. However, the boycott was one of the largest and most successful mass movements against segregation. Parks is credited with bringing international awareness to the plight of African Americans and to the civil rights struggle. The reaction to her refusal to stand up for a Caucasian catapulted King to the forefront of t he Civil Rights Movement.
In 1943, Frau Israel and other non-Jewish (Aryan) women protested the deportation of their Jewish husbands to Auschwitz. They braved possible death when the SS set up machine guns on the Berlin street where the protest was staged. Violence was avoided and deportations were halted. However, after the war, the Nazis planned to execute the men and their wives but the victory of the Allies thwarted their scheme.
In these three examples, people faced personal repercussions, even death, to stand up for what they believe and yet none of them resorted to violence.
Even though big city newspapers and national television networks relish the drama of flames and fists, a quiet and determined stance can relate the real substance of a crisis or situation.
For instance, on Dec. 16, a woman climbed up on a Caledonia fire hydrant near a pole where a Mohawk unity flag was flying. She held aloft a pole bearing the Canadian flag. It fluttered in the brisk late autumn air in front of a tight line of OPP officers. In the distant background, a line of native, union and international flags moved in the wind. This was a quintessential image.
All flags deserve respect. I believe they should never be cut, burned or trod upon and never flown upside down (apparently the international sign of a country in distress). In Caledonia and Canada, we have the right to fly our country’s flag.
This right was executed by the next generation that day. The woman handed off the flag to two 13-year-old girls. Smiling and proud, they placed their four hands on the pole and strode up to the line of cops. A foot from them and about two feet away from the pole where the Mohawk flag flew, they stretched their arms as high as they could, taking the Canadian flag the closest it has been to a Mohawk flag.
The incident was free from any violence and laden with a message. It was something to witness.
And coming in the northern entrance to Caledonia is now something to experience. After cresting the hill near the gypsum plant, drivers move through a section of road decorated on both sides with Canadian flags.
In a town where the question of land ownership worries residents, the best way to assert and reclaim national identity is to fly a Canadian flag. Each home should have one.
While making a point, flag flying is not quite a Rosa Parks or Frau Israel action. But someone has suggested an idea that falls in line with African American non-violent resistance.
In a way, the idea springs off of an August action. When rocks were flying between Caledonia residents and DCE occupants, a Second World War veteran’s home was pelted. Even though rock throwing subsided, one of his neighbours sat on guard in the veteran’s backyard for the entire night. The sentry filled a vacuum left by other authorities.
Could this be accomplished on a bigger scale? My source thinks so, suggesting a peace patrol. On duty 24/7 in shifts, members could be armed with whistles, pagers and cellphones. No one would bear weapons of any kind.
With discipline crucial to success, members would have to be absolutely peaceful, refraining from any kind of antagonism or aggression. Any deviation from peaceful presence would eradicate the group’s mandates which would be conveying a sense of security to town residents and demonstrating the vacuum created by current OPP policies.
Like the 382-day bus boycott by African Americans, such a disciplined patrol would attract national attention. And raise the big question— why is this necessary?
While contemplating the value of peaceful acts and proposals, one must also see reality. Over the past 10 months, tension has ebbed and flowed. Unfortunately, I now sense a terrible escalation in anger and frustration among those who brandish different flags.
The potential for violence hangs as a real threat in the unusually warm winter air. I hope both communities can redirect some of their flag fervour toward maintaining a modicum of peace in Caledonia.
What I fear is that two peoples who have lived side by side are now driven apart. The schism is deep and painful. Although it now appears to be only a figment of our collective imagination, I hope healing can occur. Even if it does, the scar will be jagged. The skin will be stretched taut and be susceptible to tears.
Barbara McDougall is right. We won’t be going anywhere once government folks disappear over the horizon. Maybe it’s too early to think about how we’ll manage but set this aside. We’ll have no choice but to deal with it.