By George Lakey
March 2001

Translated versions available on-line:

• in Italian [La spada che guarisce: una difesa della nonviolenza attiva] and
• in Spanish [La no-violencia como "espada sanadora"] and
• in Portugese [A Espada Que Cura]

Ward Churchill's book "Pacifism as Pathology" has become an important reference point for many of the "new activists" who have made headlines in the "battle of Seattle," in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Prague and other confrontations with economic and social injustice. Ward Churchill is an activist with the American Indian Movement and other groups, a prolific writer, and a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado.

While hanging out with the new activists I decided to write a response to Churchill's book, and was spurred on by the chance to participate in a public debate with him in Boulder in February, 2001. We had a good and spirited interchange; audience members remarked on the value of seeing two older activists with real differences talk with each other as allies alert for the emergence of common ground.

Ward and I are both looking for sources of power that are strong enough to cut away the chains of injustice and oppression, and at the same time support the healing of this scarred planet Earth and its trampled people. Martin Luther King believed that nonviolent action is that "sword that heals," so I've taken the title of this essay from King's writing. I'll start out with some points of agreement between Ward and me, and then go on to challenge some of the points Ward makes in his book.