Mary Bethune

American Negro Leader

His spirit reached for the stars A great warm light has been extinguished with the death of Gandhi. Gandhi died as he lived, seeking through understanding and compassion and love to absolve the ignorant and bigoted and self-seeking. His convincing gospel saved man in spite of themselves. His spirit reached for the stars and sought to win a world without gun or bayonet or blood. Out of his love of God and his fellow-men, he forged a political weapon. He glorified the chains and jails of his captors into the shining ornaments of martyrdom. Mahatma Gandhi cannot die, his spirit is free to stir men's souls in every comer of the earth. As we, mothers of the earth, stand in awesome fear of the roar of jet planes, the crash of atom bombs and the unknown horrors of germ warfare, we must turn our eyes in hope to the East where the sun of the Mahatma blazes.