Do You Hear the People Sing?

I woke up this morning with this in my head.  As Michele's radio alarm came on with news about the protests across the country in the wake of the grand jury's non-indictment of Darren Wilson for the killing of Mike Brown.  I am of the opinion that protests need to happen, even though the legal waters may be muddy in this particular case, the protests need to happen because of the totality of the brokenness in the system.  But I also hear the words of Martin Luther King about the absolute necessity of non-violence, and I know that he's right in a way that I will probably never be able to grasp as a member of the privileged class, for whom violence is usually the preserver of safety, security and the status quo.
But back to Les Miserables for a moment.  Does that scene inspire the fear and hatred of white Americans?  No, we feel a stirring of the heart and the blood at such a scene of the people rising up in democratic revolution, because they're white, and because it happened a long time ago, and because history has vindicated their cause.  But we are quick to criticize those who are rising up in our cities, because they are black and because we are afraid, but lets be honest, if this escalates badly it's going to be another barricade situation and it's going to end with a lot of bloodshed, but not the blood of the people in power.  The politicians and the keepers of the system will be safely in their towers, wondering as Marie Antoinette once did, why the people aren't content to continue to suffer these injustices.
Violence will be met with greater violence.  The Doors once sang with a misguided optimism, "They got the guns but we got the numbers," but that sentiment is foolish.  Their guns (and tanks and bombs and planes) all too easily negate almost any numbers.
Non-violence is the only way, but it is a long, difficult way indeed.  It takes creativity to figure out how to create a disruption that cannot be ignored by the powers that be without doing something destructive.  It takes courage to face down armored police and snarling dogs and tear gas grenades without resorting to the same violence.  It takes an almost naive hopefulness to believe that the people who are comfortably at home and away from the struggle will actually understand and care enough about your plight to do anything other than fear you.  Most of all it takes an enormous amount of spiritual work to channel your anger, even outrage, in a direction that does not lead to violence and hatred.
That's the job. It takes more than a song.  It takes more than being willing to die in the fires of revolution, it takes being willing to live into the path of evolution, being part of the solution rather than just a more urgent problem to be solved.