The Values of Peace & FreedomLiving our truest values, individually and collectively, asks us to let go of systems and processes that interfere with our ability to create peace and freedom. To be who we truly are—to discover who we can really be—that’s what freedom is all about. May we all be free, may we all be peaceful.
The Second Amendment to the US Constitution is clear: the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed upon.The US is the only country in the world to have a constitutional amendment meant to protect the right to bear arms. However, in the twenty-first century, with advances in technology and science, guns have more capability to harm and destroy lives than ever in the history of the world.
If the second amendment is America’s first right, I exercise my right NOT to bear arms. (more…)
The India Center in Charleston, West Virginia celebrates Gandhi Jayanti, (Spinning Wheel Day, in honor of Gandhi’s birthday, October 2) each year by inviting a guest speaker to talk about a different theme relating to Gandhi and nonviolence. The celebration also includes dinner, interfaith prayers, songs by the children’s choir, and a poster and essay contest for school-aged youth.
I was really impressed with the entries and how much the children were taking Gandhi’s message to heart. To paraphrase Gandhi paraphrasing Maria Montessori, if we are to have peace, we must begin with the children, and these children give much hope in their early studies and appreciation of Gandhi’s life and legacy of nonviolence. (more…)
Gatto calls this The Bartleby Project, and the title comes from the story “Bartleby the Scrivener,” by Herman Melville. In the story, Bartleby, through his use of the simple phrase, “I would prefer not to,” elects not to work, not to have his own home, and eventually not to eat. This behavior confounds the other characters in the story, who expect and explain that Bartleby must and should conform to the expectations presented to him by society. Gatto says we can all exercise our “Bartleby power” to say we prefer not to with standardized testing: “The simple exercise of free will, without any hysterics, denunciation, or bombast, throws consternation into the social machinery—free will contradicts the management principle.” (more…)
Nonviolence as Artful WorkNonviolence does not belong to a single group or kind of work; it belongs to all of humanity and has a place in everything we do. When asked about the vocation of her Sisters, Mother Theresa said that it went beyond wearing the white sari habit. “Our vocation,” she replied, “is love.” Wherever we are and whatever we do, our real vocation is nonviolence.
As I listened to the interview, I kept circling back to parallels that can be seen as much today as then: our police forces are not made up of members from the communities they serve. Many police officers do not live in the places changed through their policing, and their kids don’t go to school in these areas either. This is especially the case in sprawling urban areas like the Bay Area and Los Angeles. This community disconnect fundamentally changes the nature of policing, especially when racism and privilege enter into the mix. (more…)
He goes on to explain that the stereotypes and assumptions others make about blindness, from other people to the blindness organizations that serve them, create the criteria and beliefs in the minds of blind people about how blind people are supposed to be. Or, to put it another way, “How they function is a process of learning, not imposed by their condition,” Scott says in the podcast. Then the hosts use the example of Daniel Kish, a blind man who learned how to ride a bicycle though echolocation, to prove their point. While so often people who are socialized into blindness say, “Blind people can’t do those things,” there are blind people like Kitsch who prove them wrong. (more…)
