Garlanding Gandhi highlights 'Stop the Hate Week'

By Chhun Sun

Fifty-six years after his death, the life, legacy and peaceful message of Mahatma Gandhi still lives on. In what organizers considered the highlight of “Stop the Hate Week: Building a Culture of Peace,” a peace assembly and garlanding ceremony was held in the Peace Garden on Friday in honor of the man who told the world “we must be the change we wish to see.”

His famous quote echoed throughout the ceremony in the form of poetry, speeches, music and a photo exhibit dedicated to the life and times of the beloved social activist.

To start the ceremony, Chicano and Latin American studies professor Juan Felipe and about 15 of his students lined up with their backs facing Gandhi’s statue and recited the “Pledge,” which was printed on the back of the program.

“I pledge that hate has no place in my heart,” Felipe said, and then his students repeated his words in unison. “Not in my life…No way!”

While Fresno State Provost Jeronima Echeverria read the proclamation that announced the week of Sept. 28 to Oct. 2 to be now known as “Stop the Hate Week,” a group of Fresno High students marched in silence across the Peace Garden holding large banners with phrases such as “Keep the peace within yourself, then you can also bring it to others.”

Some of the students took a moment to talk about their perspective on peace to about 30 people standing in a semi-circle in front of Gandhi’s statue.

“We’re always saying stop the violence, but we still constantly go out and kill,” noted Fresno High sophomore LeRoy Holley, who said participating in the ceremony “felt like any other day,” because “my teacher, Dudley Najiev, has us doing stuff like this a lot.” Holley and his classmates also participated in last year’s garlanding ceremony for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “We want gang violence to stop, but it’s OK to kill people in Iraq? If we want something to change, we have to do it ourselves.”

Twelve members of the Indian Student Club sang Gandhi’s favorite Indian song, “Raghupathi Raghava.” One line, translated into English, means “Your name is God in any form, bless us all, O divine one!”
Social work education professor and promoter of “Stop the Hate Week” Su Kapoor closed the ceremony with a speech. As Kapoor spoke about his thoughts on Gandhi, participants passed out red and white flowers to the crowd to put around the neck of Gandhi’s statue. The garlanding was done while a flute was softly playing, bringing a somber end to the ceremony.

LaQuanta Brown, a social work major, attended the ceremony because her social work professor announced it in class. Even though she only experienced the end of the ceremony, she said she felt empowered.

“It’s very sincere how real this is, especially in the time of war,” she said.