Week begins with tribute

Staff Reports
The Collegian

A vigil in Fresno State’s Peace Garden marked the 136th birthday of Mahatma Gandhi as Stop-the-Hate week began at Fresno State Sunday.

A candlelight vigil had been planned for the evening, but strong winds limited the event to a garlanding of the Gandhi statue.

Before the vigil, members of Fresno’s Indian community entertained an audience of more than 50 with traditional songs and dances in the music building.

“If we incorporate just 10 percent of what Gandhi stood for, we would all be better people,” said Siri Kant Rao, president of the Central California Cultural Society of India.

Gandhi is credited with helping end the British occupation of India. His methods were also studied by Martin Luther King, Jr. as an example of nonviolent protest, and Gandhi’s style of civil disobedience was used during the civil rights movement in the United States.

Fresno City College President Ned Doffoney also spoke Sunday, recounting a story which he said was the reason Gandhi began his work toward peace.

Gandhi was aboard a train in first class when a white passenger asked for him to be removed from the cab, which he was.

“He would not accept second-class travel when he had paid first-class taxes,” Doffoney said. “He transferred that to the world.”

He said this was the critical moment in Ghandi’s life.

“Thank God Gandhi, at a critical moment, made the decision to change the world,” he said.

Doffoney also looked at the event from the white passenger’s view point.

“You don’t know how the little things you do affect world events,” he said.

Stop-the-Hate week continues today at noon with an interfaith panel discussing immigration in USU room 317. On Tuesday in the same room is another discussion at noon titled “Peace Through Dialogue.”

On Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the coffee house is a poetry jam, and at 7 p.m. Friday is International Culture Night in the Satellite Student Union.

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