The legacy of Mahatma Gandhi goes well beyond the Indian Freedom Struggle. He has influenced countless movements and struggles for freedom and democracy around the world, decolonization struggles, including the civil rights movement within the United States. We speak with P. Anand Rao who is a professor of Communications and Digital Studies at the University… read more
Posts by Stephanie Van Hook
A Door Into Ocean
“Share the Day” – this is a translation of a greeting from the ocean world of Shora which was a world created by Joan Slonczewski. She’s a science fiction writer and professor at Kenyon College. This is from her 1986 novel, A Door Into Ocean. The book describes a society of people who are committed… read more
Bystander Intervention is only the beginning
How Hollaback! is Creating a Culture of Community Accountability and Mutual Respect: An Interview with Emily May. In the two weeks immediately following the Georgia attack that killed 8 people, 6 of them Asian women, over 40,000 people signed up for trainings in bystander intervention with an incredible organization called Hollaback! They’re really leaders in… read more
Film Screening Thurs. Dec.10
You can catch a screening of the Third Harmony film at the Camera As Witness film event out of Stanford. When: Thurs. Dec. 10, 2020 Time: 4 pm PST What: Screening of film and panel discussion to follow. Camera as Witness program presents POWER OF EMPATHY series co-presented with the Freeman Spogli Institute for International… read more
We cannot love our “enemies.”
I once believed, rather naively, the literal truth of the words of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount, “Love your enemies.” Over time, as I’ve grown older, I’ve come to realize that this is impossible. We cannot love our “enemies.” When we make others into the enemy, there is no room for love. The… read more
Training for Post-Election Violence Scenarios
An Interview with Eli McCarthy from DC Peace Team Over the past decade there has been a quantitative growth in organized unarmed civilian protection groups and violence de-escalation trainings within the United States. As people begin to awaken to the fact that the best way to defend democracy and achieve mass-participation in a democratic struggle is… read more
Third Harmony Screenings
The Third Harmony tells the story of nonviolence, humanity’s greatest (and most overlooked) resource. “To be nonviolent is be an artist of your humanity,” says Palestinian nonviolence leader and founder of the Taygheer Movement, Ali Abu Awwad, in a new documentary about the power of nonviolence and a new vision of human nature. Drawing on… read more
What Gandhi Means to Me
I didn’t learn about Gandhi until I was in graduate school. I joined a Master’s program in Conflict Resolution at Portland State, after spending two years in the United States Peace Corps (Benin 2005-2007). Nothing in my education before then, nothing in my upbringing in the Shenandoah Valley, rural Virginia, mentioned him. When I was in… read more
Imagination, NV, Nuclear Weapons
There have been cataclysmic changes in the world. Do I still adhere to my faith in truth and nonviolence? Has not the atom exploded that faith? Not only has it not done so but it has clearly demonstrated to me that the twins constitute the mightiest force in the world. Before it, the atom bomb… read more
We are all part of one another.
Howard Thurman in his sermons on Jesus and the Disenfranchised poses an interesting dilemma about valuing country over life. In his words: “During times of war hatred becomes quite respectable, even though it has to masquerade often under the guise of patriotism.” Let us not become haters of one another–haters of our shared humanity– under any guise at… read more
