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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 5, 2018)
December 5, 2018 Page 13 O PINION Unwavering Messenger of Hope and Justice Lessons in servant leadership m arian W right e delman This past month the Children’s Defense Fund was blessed with a visit from one of the greatest nonviolence practitioners in our nation and world, Rev. James Lawson. He shared lessons in leadership with our staff from our greatest American prophet, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who called Rev. Lawson “the leading theorist and strategist of nonviolence in the world.” In some of the recent elections Americans once again reaffirmed their desperate hope for positive, principled leadership in times of chaos, calamity, and confusion. Rev. Lawson has long been an example of exactly this kind of leadership. Rev. Lawson has been for me and countless others a peerless teacher, role model, and leader of nonviolent direct action. He guided Dr. King and thou- sands of young leaders of all rac- es and ages seeking racial and economic justice. He is our living embodiment of effective social by change and exemplifies and taught us Christ’s and Gand- hi’s nonviolent values and strategies to combat our na- tion’s recurring birth defects of slavery, Native American genocide, exclusion of wom- en and non-propertied white men from our political and eco- nomic processes. And for 90 years he has been a singular and unwav- ering voice calling across genera- tions for a nation and world where every child of God is welcomed, respected and empowered to real- ize their God-given potential. Rev. Lawson is the son and grandson of Methodist ministers and received his own ministry license during his senior year of high school. He was educated at Ohio’s Baldwin-Wallace College, Oberlin College and Vanderbilt Divinity School, but he was also schooled by the 13 months he served in federal prison after be- ing arrested for refusing to enter the military when drafted—or in his words, refusing to “put on somebody’s military uniform for the purpose of using arms against other human beings.” It was in prison that Rev. Law- son reread the writings of Gandhi and theologian Howard Thurman. Afterwards he spent three years as a Methodist missionary in India, where he first read about Dr. King and the Montgomery Bus Boy- cott—a milestone in the move- ment brewing at home in the Unit- ed States that he would help lead. Rev. Lawson and Dr. King met in person in 1957 after Rev. Lawson returned to the U.S. and was studying at Oberlin’s Gradu- ate School of Theology. Dr. King urged him to come south to join the Civil Rights Movement, argu- ing that there was no other cler- gyperson with his experience and knowledge of nonviolence. Rev. Lawson replied that he had been thinking about it and would come as soon as his studies were com- plete, but Dr. King convinced him to come immediately. In January 1958 Rev. Lawson moved to Nashville to nurture, challenge and prepare the students of the Nashville movement, pro- ducing some of the great leaders of the national Civil Rights Move- ment including Congressman John Lewis. Rev. Lawson served as Director of Nonviolent Edu- cation for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Rep. John Lewis later wrote: “Jim Lawson knew…that we were being trained for a war unlike any this nation had seen up to that time, a non- violent struggle that would force this country to face its conscience. Lawson was arming us, preparing us, planting in us a sense of right- ness and righteousness.” He has never stopped doing that and our nation has never stopped needing him and benefiting from his unwavering nonviolent mor- al voice. Rev. Lawson continues to mentor and prepare communi- ties for nonviolent struggle and direct action organizing. He has been part of the movements for racial justice, reproductive choice, a living wage, the rights of hotel and other service industry work- ers, undocumented immigrants and those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender. He has worked across our nation with students, including the Dreamers who pushed for the DREAM Act to grant legal status to immigrant children. And he is a role model for me and generations of younger servant leaders as he continues to teach and preach and inspire. I am so grateful for Jim Law- son’s example, stamina, extraor- dinary intellect and generosity of spirit to so many and am so glad to have him as friend, mentor and teacher. He has been God’s un- wavering messenger of hope and justice for all of God’s children. Marian Wright Edelman is president of the Children’s De- fense Fund We Have 12 Years to Save — or Lose — Our Only Home Consider this your warning to act now o livia a lperstein Pull on the seat-belt in your gas-guzzling car, folks, and strap in for the worst ride of our lives. This fall, the United Nations In- tergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a critical report warning that humans have about 12 years — until 2030 — before global warming reaches a catastrophic level. The report concludes, fright- eningly, that the world can’t al- low global temperatures to warm past 1.5 degrees Celsius, or there will quite literally be hell to pay. And unless we take drastic ac- tion, we’re already all set to get there. Consider this your all-hands- on-deck, siren-blaring warning that we need to act comprehen- sively to mitigate climate change now — or forever hold our peace. The IPCC predicts an increased by risk of devastating climate-related risks to health, livelihoods, food, water, security, and economic growth. As sea levels and global temperatures rise, low-ly- ing communities will dis- appear and heat-related deaths will increase, along with diseases like dengue fever and malaria. Areas that cease to be inhabitable by humans will fuel an accelerat- ed refugee crisis, while resources like agriculture and crops will be decimated in key areas impacted by climate change. That’s just a few of the high- lights of the Ten Plagues-like pun- ishment we’ll get for endangering our planet. We’re facing a pretty grim future — and that’s even if we manage to cap the rise at 1.5 degrees, which we’re not on track to do. For those of us who are pretty young like me, our golden years may be anything but. Before you slip quietly into your doomsday bunker or start praying that someone invents in- terstellar space travel, there’s an urgent message of hope: We’ve got a little bit of time to save the only home planet we’ve got. And it’s going to take all of us to do it. While dire, the report also con- tains some critically useful recom- mendations. Governments, companies, in- digenous peoples, local commu- nities, and individuals all have a critical role to play to solve this crisis. We can and must act quick- ly and collaboratively on a local and global scale before it’s too late. Acting alone or failing to co- operate, the IPCC report empha- sizes, will fall short. The Paris Climate Agree- ment isn’t going to be enough — we need massive, World War Two-level mobilization. The vic- tory will be that we get a living, healthy planet. The report also highlights the need to consider justice and equity as we consider solutions. Some nations, like the Unit- ed States, are leading contribu- tors to greenhouse gas emissions and other accelerants of climate change. Others contribute less to emissions but are more vulnerable to catastrophic damage. A number of low-lying nations (on whose approval the Paris Agreement de- pended) will literally be underwa- ter if temperatures rise beyond the IPCC’s limit. The point being: The countries that have contributed the most to climate change need to contrib- ute the most to fixing it — and to helping those who suffer most to adapt. What can you do, right here, right now, besides giving up meat, your car, or plastic bags and straws? Urge your local or state gov- ernment to commit to 100 percent renewable energy in the next de- cade. Get your community and your state to ban the use of frack- ing and other fossil fuel produc- tion that will drive us to doomsday that much quicker, not to mention the other dangerous risks to peo- ple’s health. Call on the federal government to implement the recommenda- tions of the IPCC report, and com- mit to working with the rest of the world to act swiftly. Olivia Alperstein is the Media Relations Manager for Physicians for Social Responsibility. Distrib- uted by OtherWords.org. 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