A Life's Journey to Nonviolence

"All my life I have admired individuals and leaders who arose from pasts of unjust violence, lifestyles of violence, and institutional violence to live a life of peace, nonviolence, and social justice. But I always asked myself the question, How? This theory or belief in living a life of non-violence when the whole world around me was falling apart seemed foreign and for the wealthy. 

I grew up being constantly beaten by a father who was a pastor and who left me at 8 years old, to fighting in the streets to ensure that my belongings remained my belongings, to joining a lifestyle which had a core principle of “dog-eat-dog.” This lifestyle then landed in jail and stripped me from my freedom throughout my teen years. Through all this I dreamed and thirsted for a violence-free life but felt as if that was my only identity. 

It was not until I discovered the meaning of social justice and learned about the lives of great leaders like Malcolm X who grew up similar to how I did. These great leaders empowered themselves and the world around them to fight not with each other but rather for equality and justice. I then made a stance and decided that my life and my community are worth more than the suffering created by homicides, domestic violence, child abuse, and unjust violence. 

Martin Luther King Jr. talked about how loving your enemy and freeing the oppressor is a whole war in itself and takes much self discipline and self love to do it. The love for my people, myself, and justice continue to fuel a life of nonviolence and social justice that I am determined to live. No conviction will be larger than my own conviction to be nonviolent as a way to reach social justice. 

This voyage has allowed me to work all over the United States and spread empowerment to young people that also thirst to live a life of peace, justice, and nonviolence. This voyage has brought me to become part of Realizing the Dream’s International Youth Corps, as their mission for world peace aligns with my life-long goals in my pursue of social justice."

-Ely Flores, Los Angeles, California

International Youth Corps (IYC)