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Show Letters To The Editor 'We Need Pacifists5 world might be a far better place today. But, as Mr. Hien suggested, war is almost a constant con-stant factor in society, and pacifism seems to have failed to make any great impression. But we need pacifists around all the time to remind us that the violence we commit against other men is our moral responsibility respon-sibility and ours alone, and to suggest to us that there is a "better way if we have courage and creative imagination enough to seek it diligently. Robert Carlton Delk Dear Editor: In "The Chronicle" and many other papers I have seen the word "pacifism" misused very frequently of late. Mr. Hien's letter in "The Chronicle" of May 14 goads me to write in the interests of more accurate definition. MR. HIEN'S definition from Webster, which, by the way, is only a part of the definition given in my Webster, is certainly cer-tainly not an adequate one. If I may venture a definition of my own, I would say that pacifism paci-fism is a way of life which seeks non-violently to narrow the circle of violence and to reconcile men to one another because it accepts the inherent worth of each individual and the sacredness of life. A person is not necessarily a pacifist because he opposes war in general or because he - opposes some particular war. And pacifists, while they may speak out more loudly in time of war, work continuously in peace time to do the work of changing men's minds and characters, char-acters, as Mr. Hien suggests has to be done. THEY WORK through many organizations (for example, The Fellowship of Reconciliation) in this country and abroad. And they work on many fronts family relations, race relations, labor-management relations, international in-ternational relations, etc. If they work most diligently on those problems within the societies and the policies of their own countries, as Mr. Hien suggests they do, this is because if they can exert any influence whatever they can exert ex-ert it best in those countries of which they are citizens. PACIFISTS work with the support of a varied and centuries-old background. The central cen-tral idea of pacifism can be found among the ancient Chinese sages, in the teachings teach-ings of the Buddha, in the Upanishads, in the teachings of Jesus, in the teachings of the sufis of Islam, in such historic peace churches as the Society of Friends (Quakers), and in many other places. Leo Tolstoy, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and many less famous people have put this idea into practice in their lives and have had some influence on their societies. so-cieties. IF MORE people for example ex-ample the people who have ruled Southeast Asia, China and the United States for the past century had tried to practice the pacifist ethic the |