The Voice Of Peace
On August 7, 1930, a hateful , angry mob with intent on murder was quelled by a small voice of peace. It happened in Marion, Indiana, and to this day, no one understands just what happened.
Things were very different then. Try to imagine being there, if you can.
Three young men, in their teens, are held in jail, accused of rape and murder, in a story that is spreading like wildfire throughout the community. They have not been convicted, only accused, but the story spreads, unhindered by doubt or rational questioning.
The story is gruesome, These three men found a young man and woman in their car on River Road, a popular "lovers' lane" on the outskirts of this small town. they pulled a gun and ordered the pair out of the car. The man with the gun took the man from the car to the river side, shot him, and took his money. Meanwhile, the other two men robbed the woman and raped her. No doubt this got even worse with each retelling. Of course, this was Indiana in the 1930s, so the people believed the story had to be true, because the men who committed this terrible crime were black.
That's how it was in Marion, Indiana in 1930. Black equals guilty, case closed.
Imagine, if you can, thousands of people gathering at the jail, quite possibly the majority of the town's white population, being whipped into a frenzy of hate and anger by the local leaders of the Ku Klux Klan. Imagine them demanding the three men be turned over to them, and when the small handful of police at the jail refuse, try, if you can, to imagine these fine citizens taking sledge hammers and pickaxes and breaking through the jail house. They find the men, and drag them out, one by one, and beat them bloody and unconscious, and then someone yells for a rope.
This is not from a movie. This really happened. Two of the men were hanged by the mob that night, amid laughter and cheering by the thousands of onlookers.
The third man was James Cameron, who, at that time, was 16 years old, and as far as I know, is still living today. As they were putting the rope around his neck, he says he heard an angelic voice say,"Take this boy back, he had nothing to do with any killing or rape." At that moment, the miracle happened. The mood of the crowd suddenly changed from anger to shame, from revenge to repentance, and the rope was removed from his neck. Many who contributed to his injuries now helped him walk away from that terrible scene.
Very few remember hearing the voice, and to each who did, it was different. Most don't remember being there at all, or so they claim. There was a local photographer who took many pictures, including one of the two men hanging from a tree, with cheering onlookers pointing and laughing at the bodies. This picture was carried by the Associated Press and printed by newspapers around the world. There is no doubt it happened. There is no doubt that many who claim they were somewhere else were there. There is no doubt that these good citizens were, for a short time, enmeshed in an insane mob intent on spilling human blood. How certain are you, that if you had been there, you would have not been part of the mob, maybe even one of those who hauled up the rope. Most of the people there would have been sure, the day before it happened, that they would never do such a thing, but they did. How civilized are we? How much do we really know about ourselves? If we really are so civil and sane, why do we have wars?
Man's Dark Side
There is a very dark part of the human spirit that sometimes incites large groups of normally reasonable people to riot or war. Once it gets going, nothing can stop it. Not reason, not love, not anything. Usually.
That night, something was more powerful than the stampede of an angry mob. Something was able to instantly pacify a group of thousands of people and make them ashamed of what they were doing. One small voice for peace was stronger than the many voices of the Klansmen and their followers, and even the unstoppable avalanche of hate that was already in full slide, taking everyone down the steep slope to Hell.
The avalanche was stopped. It was a miracle.
There have always been many questions about that night. Why did thousands of ordinary Americans completely lose their morality, their sanity, maybe even their souls over a rumor that may not even have been true, for all they knew? Why did no one question the story, or what they were being exhorted to do about it? Where was their ordinary common sense? Is our animal nature really that close to the surface? If there really was a miracle, why was only one of the men spared? Why not all three?
I have never heard of another story where a mob action of this sort was stopped in its tracks by what was, apparently, a paranormal force of some kind. There may be other stories like this out there, but this is the only one I know of. I am sure that if God, the angel, or whoever, or whatever, had not intervened, then every black man in that jail would have been hanging from that tree by morning.
Flash forward to the present time
It seems to me that right now, all over this world, there are voices of hate, rage, and anger, inciting the peoples of various nations to fear each other, despise each other, and eventually kill each other. Between nations, inside nations, and inside churches in those nations, it's all the same. There is usually someone who stands to make a profit if this group goes to war against that group, and they will move Heaven (or Hell?) and Earth to make sure it happens. These are the war mongers, the right wing preachers, mullahs, or whatever, and the corporations who will profit hugely from war, while millions of ordinary people die a horrible death. They don't care. It's just business. Blood doesn't scare them nearly as much as red ink, especially when it's someone else's blood. Business is booming. Boom! Boom! See how the money rolls in! Ain't it great?
We don't need another war. We don't need to go into Iran, or anywhere else and maim, torture, and kill a lot of people to get their oil, or their land, or anything else.
America is blessed with so much of everything we need, if we just learn how to use it. We don't really need more oil, any more than one of those greedy corporate executives needs more money. We don't need to go to war to get something we can make right here at home, using sunlight and water, such as ethanol or hydrogen. What we do need is intelligent, responsible leadership. We need people in charge who care about everyone, and who can see the whole picture, not just oil wells or pipelines, or the fat bribes they get from the corporate bosses. Or, failing that, we need an angelic voice to speak quietly but powerfully to all of us, and steer us away from the catastrophic mistake we are presently making. Do we really want our children to inherit what we are creating right now?
We need a miracle
I think that night in Marion, something very powerful did intervene and save the life of one man. I don't understand how or why, but something like that does not just happen. It proves that there is some kind of great and benevolent power, which can, at least occasionally overcome evil and prevent something terrible from happening.
I am not religious, but I think there may be power in conscious, intentional visualization, using whatever device you have at your disposal to focus your awareness. It may be prayer, or some work of art that has meaning for you, or a poem or song. It may be some form of meditation or shamanic ritual. It may be a magic mushroom. Whatever works for you, use it. I believe that if we all pray, meditate, or do whatever we need to to create a vision, it may be possible to make that vision a reality.
There are presently groups of people out there who are doing just this sort of thing to promote a vision of a final war, an armageddon, or jihad, as the storm clouds of war gather and get darker and more threatening. This can't be what we really want. We can't let a minority of crazy people decide our fate for us, by whatever means.
We need to call upon that angel, that force, that great spirit which saved the life of James Cameron on that horrible night, to once again shine a light of love and understanding through the darkness, and maybe stop this madness, not just in a small town in Indiana, but everywhere in the world. This miracle may happen anyway. No one was praying in that crowd that night, but it happened anyway. I do think it is more likely if people make it clear that it's what they want. At minimum, answers may come to each of us about what we can do to make it real. Or even better, maybe we really can have a miracle.
Let's each of us, in our own way whenever we can, visualize a great awakening among all the peoples of this world, and an understanding that we all have a right to be here, we are all children of the same God, and there is no room for hate and war. Let us imagine a world where everyone cares about each other and we really can get along.
There can never be a war between good and evil. War is always evil. Good wins if the war is never fought.
I hope there are messages like this one springing up all over our planet, and I hope this one, or one like it, moves you to do whatever you can to promote peace and kindness everywhere. I have very limited bandwidth on my web site, and it will probably crash the site if a lot of people look here for this. Therefore, I give permission to repost this just like it is here, on your own site, or print and distribute it wherever you think it might help. Of course you can change the reference tag to go back to your site when people are done reading it, and maybe the colors so it will fit with other parts of your site. I ask for no money or credit, all I hope for is that it contributes to the good in this world, and helps to steer us away from the disasterous path we are now on. I am just...
One small voice for peace