“First, they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” Mahatma Gandhi


It follows from Gandhi's teachings that "first, they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." My mother taught me this.

The Los Angeles City Council and Mr. Horowitz ignored the South Central Farmers when they made the illegal backroom deal to sell the farm back to Mr. Horowitz far below market value and without considering the significant public value of community urban farming.
Well, the world is watching now.

The judge laughed at the South Central Farmers when he denied justice and threatened immediate eviction despite the noble and dignified testimony of the witness campesina and the dignified demeanor of all the farmers in the courtroom. His derision reminded me of Jesus'
parable of Luke 18: "There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, and ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.' And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, 'Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And shall God not avenge [Her] own elect who cry out day and night to [Her], though [She] bears long with them?"

The judge may be out of the picture (although I do hope that his decision will be appealed if necessary), but there is not a member on that City Council who is laughing now.

The most convincing proof that the derision has stopped is the quote from the article in the L.A. Times about the bulldozing where Mr.
Horowitz deadpanned that "the plants needed pruning." He might as well have raised the white flag by saying that. His peers, his colleagues, his family members, the business community and others will recognize his humorlessness as resignation to the inevitable outcome.

So, finally on June 13th after ignoring you and laughing at you, Mr. Horowitz marshaled the authorities of the rich and forcibly evicted the nonviolent resisters. In fighting a publicly peaceful people with weapons and brutally bureaucratic minions, he openly declared his defeat. The bulldozing of July 6th and 7th was simply a tragically vain attempt to bulldoze the inevitable truth that the South Central Farm will rise again.

How do I know this to be true? Once in my broken Spanish I asked a campesino why they thought they could win this when they began the struggle three years ago and he responded in his broken English, "it was simply faith." At that moment, I understood everything about the South Central Farm and the faith that will always grow there.

When has the world ever witnessed the miracle of 44 nonviolent resisters arrested for the preservation of an urban farm? It has never happened before. And now the world has witnessed the additional arrest of the ten who threw themselves in front of a bulldozer - who chained themselves to a bulldozer - who stopped a bulldozer with a zucchini. It has never happened before.

And the world needs this powerful story of hope and change. Even at the height of the boycott of English-spun cloth, the unemployed mill workers of England understood and respected Gandhi's hope and courage and the need for change in India. The world needs the story of hope and courage and faith of the South Central Farmers now more than ever. It is a story of powerful human determination that combats the powerlessness of despotic wars and corporation-made global climate change.

Through your unfailing commitment to nonviolence and the selfless dedication and respect that all the supporters have for the campesino families and the incredible dignity of the South Central Farmers themselves, "truth and love" has grown from the soil of the farm and as Gandhi again taught "when I despair, I remember that truth and love always prevails." Truth and love always prevails.

Tragically, Mr. Horowitz has isolated himself onto a desperate precipice of his perhaps-once moral high ground. But I assure you that his legacy will not be one of moral failure. He will not be eulogized by friend or foe as the man who refused to sell to the South Central Farmers at any price. His family and friends, his colleagues and even his allies on the City Council will assist him to reach the only moral conclusion possible, regardless of the outcome of the court case on July 12th. I believe that your most important job right now is to help all those around Mr. Horowitz help him to find that one morally possible conclusion - to negotiate in good faith with the South Central Farmers. To mediate like a man with dignity and self-respect directly with the dignified and self-respecting campesinos and campesinas.

On June 13th, when the combined authorities of Los Angeles County and the City of Los Angeles swept unannounced with deadly weapons and bureaucratic brutality upon the sleeping, yet openly nonviolent, resisters, they were defeated by the truth and love and peace that pervades the South Central Farmers and is envied by all of their supporters the world over. On that morning, startled from their slumber the sunflowers of the farm let loose an intoxicating fragrance into the beleaguered neighborhoods of south central Los Angeles. It was, and still is, the smell of victory.

Let the sunflowers' fragrance of victory guide your plans and actions. Be magnanimous in recognizing your strengths and the changing of the tides of struggle. You are winning now. Truth and love, nonviolence and faith are your unwavering allies. Cultivate all of your relationships. Your victory will be final not when you've vanquished your enemies, but only when you have no enemies.

But don't take it from me; listen to the campesinos and campesinas, present and past. They told me this themselves...

love, peace, and respect,

Philip Koebel from Pasadena