07/13/2024

Dear Friends,

I am writing in the late hours of July 13th, 2024, shortly after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. Because of my call for peace in response to political violence overseas, I feel obliged to publicly condemn the shooter’s heinous act.

Referring again to the Five Mindfulness Trainings of the Plum Village Tradition: “I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to support any act of killing in the world, in my thinking, or in my way of life.” Thus, even momentarily thinking that the death of a man like Trump might somehow positively impact the world is a violation of my ethical commitments, and it is a destructive habit of mind regardless of party affiliation.

In the presence of injustice, nonviolent resistance remains the most powerful form of activism, and I cite the lives of Mahātmā Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr along with my own teacher—Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh—as examplars who embodied this eternal spiritual truth. There is no scenario in which I can imagine violence being an effective means of acheiving one’s stated aims, and that includes campaigning for President of the United States of America.

Please be safe, and wishing you all the best.

—K