The Forgotten Revolutionaries Who Shunned Terrorism

By Andrew L. Jaffee

Apologizing for terrorism is completely indefensible. Have people forgotten MLK and Gandhi’s teachings? Have people forgotten the Velvet and Singing Revolutions in Eastern Europe against the Soviet/Russian Empire?

The Soviets murdered millions, deported millions to Siberia, bugged telephones, banned books, outlawed native languages, encouraged Russians to emigrate to occupied nations to dilute the indigenous cultures, assassinated and jailed dissidents — it was the Orwellian horror come true.

But, for example, the Balts (Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians) never turned to terrorism during 50 years of brutal occupation. They organized secret meetings, passed banned books around, held clandestine cultural festivals — held tenaciously onto their culture. In their ultimate act of rejection of Soviet oppression, thousands of people held hands forming a chain across all three Baltic nations. Now that’s beauty. That’s what MLK and Gandhi taught.

Estonia (1.3 million people), Latvia (2.3 million people), and Lithuania (3.6 million), all three with few natural resources, never had a chance of facing off militarily against the might of Russia (141 million) with virtually unlimited natural resources.

The Balts didn’t blow up cafes full of civilians. Same goes for African-Americans led by MLK against the U.S. status quo of the time, or Gandhi against the British Empire, or now the infinitesimally small Tibet against 1.3 billion Chinese.

Turning to terrorism takes a twisted, immoral, despicable consciousness — an unwillingness to accept personal responsibility, and an abrogation of common decency.