Monday, June 30, 2014

June 30 Tip: Tonight: Watch "American Revolutionary" on PBS

Tonight: Watch "American Revolutionary" on PBS

(The June 30 Compassionate Living Tip from Interfaith Paths to Peace)

http://www.pbs.org/pov/americanrevolutionary/

Grace Lee Boggs, 98, is a Chinese American philosopher, writer, and activist in Detroit with a thick FBI file and a surprising vision of what an American revolution can be. Rooted for 75 years in the labor, civil rights and Black Power movements, she challenges a new generation to throw off old assumptions, think creatively and redefine revolution for our times. Winner, Audience Award, Best Documentary Feature, 2013 Los Angeles Film Festival. A co-presentation with the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM).

Sunday, June 29, 2014

July 3 Tip: Explore "Writing Down the Bones"

Explore "Writing Down the Bones"

(The July 3 Compassionate Living Tip from Interfaith Paths to Peace)

http://nataliegoldberg.com/books/writing-down-the-bones/

With insight, humor, and practicality, Natalie Goldberg inspires writers and would-be writers to take the leap into writing skillfully and creatively. She offers suggestions, encouragement, and solid advice on many aspects of the writer’s craft: on writing from “first thoughts” (keep your hand moving, don’t cross out, just get it on paper), on listening (writing is ninety percent listening; the deeper you listen, the better you write), on using verbs (verbs provide the energy of the sentence), on overcoming doubts (doubt is torture; don’t listen to it)—even on choosing a restaurant in which to write.  Goldberg sees writing as a practice that helps writers comprehend the value of their lives. The advice in her book, provided in short, easy-to-read chapters with titles that reflect the author’s witty approach (“Writing Is Not a McDonald’s Hamburger,” “Man Eats Car,” “Be an Animal”), will inspire anyone who writes—or who longs to.

June 29 Tip: Author plumbs the human psyche through "animal madness"

Author plumbs the human psyche through "animal madness"

(The June 29 Compassionate Living Tip from Interfaith Paths to Peace)

http://www.npr.org/2014/06/29/326669388/author-plumbs-the-human-psyche-through-animal-madness?sc=17&f=1008&utm_source=iosnewsapp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=app

Laurel Braitman's new book was born out of a near-tragedy: her frantic dog almost leaped to its death from a third-story window. She talks to NPR's Don Gonyea about mental illness and Animal Madness.

Saturday, June 28, 2014

June 28 Tip: Read about the event 100 years ago today that sparked the beginning of WWI

Read about the event 100 years ago today that sparked the beginning of WWI

(The June 28 Compassionate Living Tip from Interfaith Paths to Peace)

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/archduke-franz-ferdinand-assassinated

n an event that is widely acknowledged to have sparked the outbreak of World War I, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, nephew of Emperor Franz Josef and heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, is shot to death along with his wife by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on this day in 1914.
The great Prussian statesman Otto von Bismarck, the man most responsible for the unification of Germany in 1871, was quoted as saying at the end of his life that "One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans." It went as he predicted.

Friday, June 27, 2014

June 27 Tip: What kids can learn from a water balloon fight

What kids can learn from a water balloon fight

(The June 27 Compassionate Living Tip from Interfaith Paths to Peace)

http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2014/06/25/325218402/what-kids-can-learn-from-a-water-balloon-fight

While it's not the main point, this play has academic benefits as well. Children learn resilience and other cognitive skills by responding in the moment to rapidly changing situations. Onescientist found that how well and how much children engaged in roughhousing predicted their first-grade achievement better than kindergarten test scores.
It also "fills kids' tanks," Cohen says, with giggles and good feelings, creating a reserve of goodwill that can lead to more cooperative children at other times. Regular doses of roughhousing help children grow up calmer, healthier and better coordinated. And it's safe, as long as parents are paying close attention.
"I'm always encouraging parents, especially moms, to join in this kind of play. I think that when we join in the play we can transform it, but only if we're inside it."

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

June 26 Tip: Read the book (or see the film) "The Fault in Our Stars"

Read the book (or see the film) "The Fault in Our Stars"

(The June 26 Compassionate Living Tip from Interfaith Paths to Peace)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fault_in_Our_Stars

The Fault in Our Stars is a novel by author John Green. The story follows the main character, Hazel Grace Lancaster, as she battles cancer. Not only is Hazel trying to live the normal life of a 16-year-old girl, but she is also struggling with what it will be like for her parents after she dies. While Hazel attends a church support group for cancer survivors, she meets a boy that is one year older than her, Augustus Waters. While Augustus had a type of cancer that causes him to lose his leg and wear a prosthetic, it also has a survival rate that is much higher than Hazel's death sentence.
From the first day that Hazel meets Augustus, the two are practically inseparable. The basis of their relationship ends up being Hazel's favorite book, An Imperial Affliction. She requires Augustus to read it and in turn, he requires her to read the book that is the basis of his favorite video game. Hazel relates to the character in her favorite book, Anna, because Anna has a rare blood cancer. Augustus and Hazel bond over the book because both of them of a burning desire to find out how the story ends because the author stops the book before providing conclusion on what happens to each of the characters.
SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Augustus joins Hazel's pursuit of the book's author, Peter Van Houten, to provide the answers that they need. Augustus even uses a wish foundation to fly him and Hazel to Amsterdam, where the author lives, to talk with him in person. While Hazel is the one that is doomed to die, Augustus ends up telling Hazel that at his recent scan, the doctors discovered that his entire body is filled with cancer. Hazel spends the last months of Augustus's life caring for him and loving him.




June 25 Tip: Read Emily Dickinson's poem about Heaven

Read Emily Dickinson's poem about Heaven

(The June 25 Compassionate Living Tip from Interfaith Paths to Peace)

"Heaven"—is what I cannot reach!
The Apple on the Tree—
Provided it do hopeless—hang—
That—"Heaven" is—to Me!

The Color, on the Cruising Cloud—
The interdicted Land—
Behind the Hill—the House behind—
There—Paradise—is found!

Her teasing Purples—Afternoons—
The credulous—decoy—
Enamored—of the Conjuror—
That spurned us—Yesterday!

Emily Dickinson

http://www.poemhunter.com/emily-dickinson/


Monday, June 23, 2014

June 24 Tip: Listen to Fresh Air radio program about the 50th anniversary of "Freedom Summer"

Listen to Fresh Air radio program about the 50th anniversary of "Freedom Summer"

(The June 24 Compassionate Living Tip from Interfaith Paths to Peace

http://www.npr.org/2014/06/23/324879867/50-years-ago-students-fought-for-black-rights-during-freedom-summer

This summer marks the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer, a movement to open the polls to blacks in Mississippi and end white supremacy in the state.
Freedom Summer was organized by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which recruited 700 college students — mostly white students from the North — to come down to Mississippi and help African-Americans register to vote. The organizers, the students and the black people trying to register were all risking their lives — that's how pervasive racism was at the time.
A new documentary about the movement called Freedom Summer airs on PBS Tuesday.




June 23 Tip: View the Film "The Lunchbox"

View the Film "The Lunchbox"  (Now Playing at Village 8)

(The June 23 Compassionate Living Tip from Interfaith Paths to Peace)

http://sonyclassics.com/thelunchbox/home/

Middle class housewife Ila is trying once again to add some spice to her marriage, this time through her cooking. She desperately hopes that this new recipe will finally arouse some kind of reaction from her neglectful husband. She prepares a special lunchbox to be delivered to him at work, but, unbeknownst to her, it is mistakenly delivered to another office worker, Saajan, a lonely man on the verge of retirement. Curious about the lack of reaction from her husband, Ila puts a little note in the following day’s lunchbox, in the hopes of getting to the bottom of the mystery.

This begins a series of lunchbox notes between Saajan and Ila, and the mere comfort of communicating with a stranger anonymously soon evolves into an unexpected friendship. Gradually, their notes become little confessions about their loneliness, memories, regrets, fears, and even small joys. They each discover a new sense of self and find an anchor to hold on to in the big city of Mumbai that so often crushes hopes and dreams. Still strangers physically, Ila and Saajan become lost in a virtual relationship that could jeopardize both their realities.


Saturday, June 21, 2014

June 21 Tip: Join Terry Taylor at noon today for a Gallery Talk about his traveling photo exhibit

Join Terry Taylor at noon today for a Gallery Talk about his traveling photo exhibit

(the June 21 Compassionate Living Tip from Interfaith Paths to Peace)

A Pilgrim Lens 
Photo exhibit and Gallery Talk

Join Terry Sunday, June 22,  at Thomas Jefferson Universalist Church, 4936 Brownsboro Rd., following the Sunday Service for a Gallery Talk about his traveling photography exhibit called, "A Pilgrim Lens."
 
The photographs were taken by Terry (who is Executive Director of Interfaith Paths to Peace), during his sometimes sacred--sometimes secular--spiritual journeys throughout the US and around the world.




Friday, June 20, 2014

June 21 Tip: At 1:30 PM Sunday: Join the Louisville Drum Circle (Before the Summer Peace Walk)

At 1:30 PM Sunday: Join the Louisville Drum Circle (Before the Summer Peace Walk)

(The June 21 Compassionate Living Tip from Interfaith Paths to Peace)

Sunday at 1:30.  Part of a peace walk with Interfaith Paths to Peace  


SO....if you have a drum, a rattle, or something to pound then you're eligible to join us at Shine this Friday at 6:00 or so. (Even if you don't have one, come any way, we always have extras)   Always have extra drums so don't let that stop you
 
 Please check the Facebook site in case of any last minute weather problems. 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/188675911205557/

June 20 Tip: Attend Sunday's Summer Peace Walk with Christopher 2X, Interfaith Paths to Peace & Friends

Attend Sunday's Summer Peace Walk with Christopher 2X, Interfaith Paths to Peace & Friends

(The June 22 Compassionate Living Tip from Interfaith Paths to Peace)

Please Join Interfaith Paths to Peace, Christopher 2X, and Friends at the Big Four Bridge at 3 pm Sunday, June 22 for a one-hour Summer Peace Walk. 

Bring the family and join us as we work to bring peace to our streets.

COME EARLY AT 1:30 PM and join the Louisville Drum Circle  for musical fun in preparing for the Peace Walk.



Wednesday, June 18, 2014

June 19 Tip: From Pema Chodron: Not "Biting the Hook"

From Pema Chodron: Not "Biting the Hook"

(The June 19 Compassionate Living Tip from Interfaith Paths to Peace)

http://www.shambhala.com/practicing-peace-in-times-of-war.html?utm_source=bronto&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Image+-+Read+More&utm_content=Quote+of+the+Week+%7C+Not+Biting+the+Hook&utm_campaign=HA+6%2F18%2F14

In Tibetan there is a word that points to the root cause of aggression, the root cause also of craving. It points to a familiar experience that is at the root of all conflict, all cruelty, oppression, and greed. This word is shenpa. The usual translation is “attachment,” but this doesn’t adequately express the full meaning. I think of shenpa as “getting hooked.” Another definition, used by Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, is the “charge”—the charge behind our thoughts and words and actions, the charge behind “like” and “don’t like.” Here’s an everyday example: Someone criticizes you. She criticizes your work or your appearance or your child. In moments like that, what is it you feel? It has a familiar taste, a familiar smell. Once you begin to notice it, you feel like this experience has been happening forever. That sticky feeling isshenpa. And it comes along with a very seductive urge to do something. Somebody says a harsh word and immediately you can feel a shift. There’s a tightening that rapidly spirals into mentally blaming this person, or wanting revenge or blaming yourself. Then you speak or act. The charge behind the tightening, behind the urge, behind the story line or action is shenpa.

You can actually feel shenpa happening. It’s a sensation that you can easily recognize. Even a spot on your new sweater can take you there. Someone looks at us in a certain way, or we hear a certain song, or walk into a certain room and boom. We’re hooked. It’s a quality of experience that’s not easy to describe but that everyone knows well.

Now, if you catch shenpa early enough, it’s very workable. You can acknowledge that it’s happening and abide with the experience of being triggered, the experience of urge, the experience of wanting to move. It’s like experiencing the yearning to scratch an itch, and generally we find it irresistible. Nevertheless, we can practice patience with that fidgety feeling and hold our seat. 

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

June 18 Tip: Was Stonehenge a Musical Instrument? Find out!

Was Stonehenge a Musical Instrument? Find out!

(The June 18 Compassionate Living Tip from Interfaith Paths to Peace)

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/17/science/older-than-the-rolling-stones.html?ref=science?src=dayp

Before dawn Saturday, thousands of revelers will again gather among the monoliths at Stonehenge to sing, bang drums and frolic beneath a solstice sunrise. Theories surrounding the monument’s intended purpose — temple? observatory? big sundial? — go in and out of fashion. But this year, the partygoers will show up outside Salisbury, England, with fresh evidence that the site was always intended to host such shenanigans. Specifically, making loud rock music. Researchers from the Royal College of Art in London have found that some of the monument’s rocks possess unusual acoustic properties; when struck, they make a loud, clanging noise. Perhaps, they say, this explains why these particular rocks were chosen and hauled from nearly 200 miles away — a significant technical feat some 4,000 years ago.

Could it be that Stonehenge was actually a prehistoric glockenspiel?

Monday, June 16, 2014

Jne 17 Tip: Listen to "On Being" program about the psychology behind morality

Listen to the "On Being" program about the psychology behind morality

(The June 17 Compassionate Living Tip from Interfaith Paths to Peace)

http://www.onbeing.org/program/jonathan-haidt-the-psychology-behind-morality/6341

The surprising psychology behind morality is at the heart of social psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s research. “When it comes to moral judgments," he says, "we think we are scientists discovering the truth, but actually we are lawyers arguing for positions we arrived at by other means.” He explains “liberal” and “conservative” not narrowly or necessarily as political affiliations, but as personality types — ways of moving through the world. His own self-described “conservative-hating, religion-hating, secular liberal instincts” have been challenged by his own studies.

Sunday, June 15, 2014

June 16 Tip: Read "Martin Luther King: the Inconvenient Hero" by Vincent Harding

Read "Martin Luther King: the Inconvenient Hero" by Vincent Harding

(The June 16 Compassionate Living Tip from Interfaith Paths to Peace)

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2617738-martin-luther-king

In these eloquent essays that reflect upon King's legacy over the past two decades and the meaning of his life today, a portrait emerges of a man constantly evolving and going deeper into the roots of violence and injustice--a man whose challenge remains as timely and necessary as ever.

Saturday, June 14, 2014

June 15 Tip: Listen to Bob Dylan perform "With God on Our Side"

Listen to Bob Dylan perform "With God on Our Side"

(The June 15 Compassionate Living Tip from Interfaith Paths to Peace)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfHLYIms97A&feature=kp

Lyrics: Oh my name it is nothin'
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I's taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that the land that I live in
Has God on its side

Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side

Oh the Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
l's made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side

Oh the First World War, boys
It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting
I never got straight
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don't count the dead
When God's on your side

When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side

I've learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war starts
It's them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side

But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we're forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God's on your side

Through many dark hour
I've been thinkin' about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you
You'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side

So now as I'm leavin'
I'm weary as Hell
The confusion I'm feelin'
Ain't no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God's on our side
He'll stop the next war 


Friday, June 13, 2014

June 14 Tip: Read David Halberstam's "The Children"

Read David Halberstam's "The Children"

http://diverseeducation.com/article/8584/

Review by Patricia Reid-Merritt

I approached the reading of David Halberstam’s The Children with a
great deal of trepidation. Here was yet another book written by a White
journalist, that focused attention on some of the most significant
events in the early Civil Rights Movement. As a lifelong student of the
Black struggle, and as a scholar firmly grounded in an African-centered
perspective, I doubted that I could gain any new insights from this
volume’s nearly 800-page retelling of the Movement. I was wrong.
Halberstam, a Harvard-trained, Pulitzer-Prize winning author,
offers an emotionally gripping story of the life and death experiences
of eight ordinary young Black students who were “propelled into the
leadership of the Civil Rights Movement, as the movement — and America
– entered a period of dramatic change.” Their achievements proved
nothing less than extraordinary as they successfully challenged a
system of racial apartheid. Halberstam uses his exceptional writing
ability and analytical talents to convey the meaning and implications
of what happened during the critical first years (1960-65) of the
Movement’s development. He carefully separates fact from fiction and
the truth is delivered with remarkable clarity of vision.
While the book is meticulously researched, Halberstam also speaks
from first-hand experience. Part of his credibility stems from the fact
that as a young, 25-year-old journalist for the Nashville Tennessean,
he was the leading reporter to cover The Movement as it unfolded in
Nashville. However, the strength of this volume lies in the fact that
while Halberstam is the author, it is the voices of the courageous
Black students and their mentor that provides the fertile ground from
which the story springs forth.
We learn a great deal about the lives of the student leaders –
Diane Nash, John Lewis, Marion Barry, James Bevel, Curtis Murphy,
Gloria Johnson, Bernard Lafayette, and Rodney Powell — during their
formative years as social activists. We also be come familiar with
those who nurtured and supported their cause, as well as those who were
adamantly opposed to it.
Rev. James Lawson serves as their mentor, and he is the catalyst
for the movement that is about to take place. In the late 1950s, he
arrives in Nashville. A former student of Mahatma Gandhi and an admirer
of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Lawson is on a mission to
introduce the philosophy of Christian love and nonviolent social change
to the citizens of Nashville.
Lawson’s seminars on civil disobedience and draft resistance
attract the eight area college students whose lives — and that of the
nation — would be forever transformed by his teachings. With
unshakeable moral convictions and a profound sense of spirituality, it
is “The Children” that embrace Lawson’s philosophy. Undaunted by
threats to their physical and spiritual being, they begin to risk their
lives in pursuit of social justice.
Halberstam’s use of the term “The Children” is a metaphor to remind
us of the innocence, youthful exuberance, idealism, courage, and
vulnerability of those who were willing to lead the most dangerous
movement in American history. But the book is not limited to a
descriptive account of infamous events. As the various incidents are
recounted, the personal fears, struggles, anxieties, and developmental
issues that confront all young people are also brought into focus.
It is the retelling of these personal stories in such rich detail
that provides the reader with a deep appreciation for these young
people who were so steadfastly committed to their cause.
The Children bears witness to some of the Black community’s social
insecurities as well. There are times when the telling of the truth
made me squirm. Super-egos, petty jealousies, and superficial Black
student values stalled efforts to develop a cohesive movement. I felt a
sense of shame and embarrassment as the students conveyed their
experiences with class and color discrimination among their peers.
Gloria Johnson’s description of questionable teaching practices at
Meharry Medical School was chilling. And Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion
Barry’s roller coaster rise and fall from power read like a dirty
little smut novel, providing a vivid, unsettling reminder of the Black
community’s latent potential to engage in its own self-destruction.
Halberstam takes great pains to carefully document every aspect of
this story. Some of the factual information is presented repeatedly,
for added emphasis, as he continues to follow the students through The
Movement and into adulthood. However, this minor infraction does not
detract significantly from the overall exceptional quality of the book.
As the story concluded, I still wanted more.
A colleague of mine suggested that we should develop a course
around this book. That, perhaps, we should use this book to teach a
generation of young people about the power of student activism, social
idealism, and a collective commitment to social justice and equality.
What a magnificent idea.
Dr. Patricia Reid-Merritt is the author of Sister Power: How Phenomenal Black Women Are Rising to the Top.
COPYRIGHT 1998 Cox, Matthews & Associates



June 14 Tip: Learn about Freedom Rider Bernard Lafayette

Bernard Lafayette Jr.

Freedom RiderTampa, FL

Twenty-year-old Bernard Lafayette hailed from Tampa, FL and was enrolled as an undergraduate at Nashville's American Baptist Theological Seminary. A veteran of the Nashville sit-ins, Lafayette had already staged a successful impromptu Freedom Ride with his close friend and fellow student activist John Lewis in 1959, while traveling home for Christmas break, when they decided to exercise their rights as interstate passengers by sitting in the front of a bus from Nashville, TN to Birmingham, AL. 

As part of the May 17 Nashville Student Movement Ride, Lafayette endured jail time inBirmingham, riots and firebombings inMontgomery, AL, an arrest in Jackson, MS and jail time at Parchman State Prison Farm during June 1961. 

After the end of the Freedom Riders campaign, he worked on voting rights and helped to coordinate the 1968 Poor Peoples Campaign. He completed a doctorate in Education at Harvard University and for several years was the Director of the Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies at the University of Rhode Island. He currently teaches at Emory University and conducts nonviolent workshops worldwide.


Sent from my iPhone

Thursday, June 12, 2014

June 13 Tip: Read about the "Mayors for Peace" Anti-nuclear Weapons Campaign

Read about the "Mayors for Peace" Anti-nuclear Weapons Campaign

(The June 13 Compassionate Living Tip from Interfaith Paths to Peace)

What is the Mayors for Peace?
In August 1945, atomic bombs instantaneously reduced the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to rubble, taking hundreds of thousands of precious lives. Today, more than sixty years after the war, thousands of citizens still suffer the devastating aftereffects of radiation and unfathomable emotional pain. To prevent any repetition of the A-bomb tragedy, the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have continually sought to tell the world about the inhumane cruelty of nuclear weapons and have consistently urged that nuclear weapons be abolished.

On June 24, 1982, at the 2nd UN Special Session on Disarmament held at UN Headquarters in New York, then Mayor Takeshi Araki of Hiroshima proposed a new Program to Promote the Solidarity of Cities toward the Total Abolition of Nuclear Weapons. This proposal offered cities a way to transcend national borders and work together to press for nuclear abolition. Subsequently, the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki called on mayors around the world to support this program.

The Mayors for Peace is composed of cities around the world that have formally expressed support for the program Mayor Araki announced in 1982. As of June 1, 2014, membership stood at 6,084 cities in 158 countries and regions. In March 1990, the Mayors Conference was officially registered as a UN NGO related to the Department of Public Information. In May 1991, it became a Category II NGO(currently called a NGO in "Special Consultative Status") registered with the Economic and Social Council.

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

June 12 Tip: Learn about the "US Department of Peace" Campaign

Learn about the "US Department of Peace" Campaign

(The June 12 Compassionate Living Tip from Interfaith Paths to Peace)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Peace

The peace movement in the United States has a proposed legislative history that dates to the first years of the republic:
1. Let a Secretary of Peace be appointed to preside in this office; . . . let him be a genuine republican and a sincere Christian. . . .
2. Let a power be given to the Secretary to establish and maintain free schools in every city, village and township in the United States; . . . Let the youth of our country be instructed in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and in the doctrines of a religion of some kind; the Christian religion should be preferred to all others; for it belongs to this religion exclusively to teach us not only to cultivate peace with all men, but to forgive—nay more, to love our very enemies. . . .
3. Let every family be furnished at public expense, by the Secretary of this office, with an American edition of the Bible. . . .
4. Let the following sentence be inscribed in letters of gold over the door of every home in the United States: The Son of Man Came into the World, Not To Destroy Men's Lives, But To Save Them.
5. To inspire a veneration for human life, and an horror at the shedding of human blood, let all those laws be repealed which authorize juries, judges, sheriffs, or hangmen to assume the resentments of individuals, and to commit murder in cold blood in any case whatever. . . .
6. To subdue that passion for war . . . militia laws should everywhere be repealed, and military dresses and military titles should be laid aside. . . .
  • 1925: Carrie Chapman Catt, founder of the League of Women Voters, at the Cause and Cure for War Conference, publicly suggested a cabinet-level Department of Peace and secretary of peace be established.[3]
  • 1926/1927: Kirby Page, author of A National Peace Department, wrote, published and distributed a proposal for a cabinet-level Department of Peace and secretary of peace.[4]
  • 1935: Senator Matthew M. Neely (D-West Virginia) wrote and introduced the first bill calling for the creation of a United States Department of Peace. Reintroduced in 1937 and 1939.
  • 1943: Senator Alexander Wiley (R-Wisconsin) spoke on the Senate floor calling for the United States of America to become the first government in the world to have a secretary of peace.
  • 1945: Representative Louis Ludlow (D-Indiana) re-introduced a bill, S. 1237,[5] to create a United States Department of Peace.
  • 1946: Senator Jennings Randolph (D-West Virginia) re-introduced a bill to create a United States Department of Peace.
  • 1947: Representative Everett Dirksen (R-Illinois) introduced a bill for “A Peace Division in the State Department”.
  • 1955 to 1968: Eighty-five Senate and House of Representative bills were introduced calling for a United States Department of Peace.[6]
  • 1969: Senator Vance Hartke (D-Indiana) and Representative Seymour Halpern (R-New York) re-introduced bills to create a U.S. Department of Peace in the House of Representatives and the Senate. The 14 Senate cosponsors of S. 953, the "Peace Act",[7] included Birch Bayh (D-IN), Robert Byrd (D-WV), Alan Cranston (D-CA), Daniel Inouye (D-HI) and Edmund Muskie (D-ME). The 67 House cosponsors included Ed Koch of New York, Donald Fraser of Minnesota, and Abner Mikva of Illinois, as well as Republican Pete McCloskey of California.
  • 1979: Senator Spark Matsunaga (D-Hawaii) re-introduced a bill, S. 2103, "Department of Peace Organization Act of 1979" to create a U.S. Department of Peace.[8]
  • 2001: Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) re-introduced a bill to create a U.S. Department of Peace. This bill has since been introduced in each session of Congress from 2001 to 2009. It was re-introduced as H.R. 808 on February 3, 2009 and is currently supported by 72 cosponsors. In July 2008, the first Republican cosponsor, Rep.Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD) signed on.
  • 2005: Senator Mark Dayton (D-Minnesota) introduced legislation in the Senate to create a cabinet-level department of peace a week after Dennis Kucinich introduced a similar bill in the House.


Tuesday, June 10, 2014

June 11 Tip: Learn about Novel Peace Prize Winners Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan

Learn about Novel Peace Prize Winners Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan

(The June 11 Compassionate Living Tip from Interfaith Paths to Peace)

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1976/

In Western Europe the situation in Northern Ireland represented the bloodiest ethnic-national conflict. The Peace Prize for 1976 was awarded to Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan for their efforts to end that conflict through a popular mobilization against violence. In Norway the Nobel Committee was strongly criticized for being late in recognizing the two women; they had in fact been given a Norwegian people's peace prize before the Nobel one. 

Monday, June 9, 2014

June 10 Tip: Explore "Who was the Badshah Kahn?"

Explore "Who was the Badshah Kahn?"

(The June 10 Compassionate Living Tip from Interfaith Paths to Peace)

http://wagingnonviolence.org/2013/07/who-was-badshah-khan/

Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, later known as Badshah, or King, was born in 1890 in the town of Utmanzai — not far from Peshawar, in what was then the Northwest Frontier Province of India. His father was a khan, or village headman, widely respected for his honesty and more grudgingly, perhaps, for his somewhat independent approach to the Islam of the Mullahs of his day — as well as his coldness toward the code of badal, or revenge, that was a prominent cultural feature among the Pashtuns.
Ghaffar Khan’s early years ran a roughly parallel course to Gandhi’s: He was passionately devoted to the uplift of his people, had a deeply spiritual bent and, at first, accepted British rule as a matter of course, but saw the light when he was deeply offended by certain insults that are the inevitable concomitant of domination. Inevitably, too, his village work, which mostly took the form of establishing schools, put him on a collision course with both the mullahs and the British authorities for similar reasons: educated people are harder to oppress. He came to realize that his educational work, like Gandhi’s constructive program, was “not just service, but rebellion” — a point that must have gone home powerfully with Malala Yousafzai.
The Servants and their adored leader — who had come to be known, over his objections, as the “Frontier Gandhi” — were shot, tortured, humiliated and (in his case) jailed; but not before they had played a signal role in liberating their country and helping Gandhi give “an ocular demonstration” to the world of the power of nonviolence.Shortly after meeting Gandhi in 1919 — to make a very long story short — Khan founded the Khudai Khidmatgars or “Servants of God” to expand his revolutionary work. Their dedication to him and to nonviolence flummoxed the British, who responded in the only way they knew how at that time: with brutal repression. But Khan was not easily repressed. After perpetrating a terrible massacre in 1930 in Peshawar, the British saw the ranks of the Servants swell from several hundred to 80,000 — an improbable fact if you are not familiar with nonviolent dynamics.
Khan’s incredible life is one of the great untold stories of our time. His “ocular demonstration” went beyond Gandhi’s in evaporating five myths that are commonly held about nonviolence, even today:
  • that it is a recourse of the weak: The British never brought the Pashtuns territories under subjection in a hundred years of violence. When Khan once asked Gandhi why his Pashtuns were staying the course when many Hindus lost their nerve and fell back on violence, the Mahatma said, “We Hindus have always been nonviolent, but we haven’t always been brave.”
  • that it only works against a ‘polite’ opponent: The British were terrified of and therefore ruthless toward the Pashtuns, whom they regarded as “brutes, to be ruled brutally by brutes.” In the Northwest Frontier, as in Kenya, the empire showed its true colors.
  • that it has no place in war: 80,000 uniformed, trained and indomitable Pashtuns were the world’s first “army of peace.”
  • that it has no place in Islam: Malala, in his footsteps, pointedly referred to the tradition of peace and nonviolence that is in Islam, as in all world religions.
  • that nonviolence means protest and non-cooperation: It includes that wing, but, as with Gandhi’s constructive program, it often gains even more traction with self-reliance, constructive work and “cooperating with good,” where possible.
Yet, outside of Eknath Easwaran’s great biography, Nonviolent Soldier of Islam and a few other resources (including a documentary) there is scant material widely available on Khan and he remains little known in the West. Young Malala Yousafzai may have done the world a greater service than she realizes by honoring his name at the august body of the UN General Assembly.

Sunday, June 8, 2014

June 9 Tip: Watch video of MLK: Nonviolence is the most powerful weapon

Watch video of MLK: Nonviolence is the most powerful weapon

(The June 9 Compassionate Living Tip from Interfaith Paths to Peace)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74XJJ3Tq5ew&feature=youtu.be

Watch this tv interview with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who talks about why nonviolence is the most powerful weapon available to anyone who wants to change the world.


Saturday, June 7, 2014

June 8 Tip: Learn about the Buddhist Peace Fellowship

Learn about the Buddhist Peace Fellowship

(The June 8 Compassionate Living Tip from Interfaith Paths to Peace)

http://www.buddhistpeacefellowship.org/about-bpf/

Vision

Aware of the interconnectedness of all things, the Buddhist Peace Fellowship cultivates the conditions for peace, social justice, and environmental sustainability within our selves, our communities, and the world.

Mission

The mission of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship (BPF), founded in 1978, is to serve as a catalyst for socially engaged Buddhism. Our purpose is to help beings liberate themselves from the suffering that manifests in individuals, relationships, institutions, and social systems. BPF’s programs, publications, and practice groups link Buddhist teachings of wisdom and compassion with progressive social change.
The Buddhist Peace Fellowship works for peace from diverse Buddhist perspectives.
Buddhist Peace Fellowship embraces a triple treasure of compassionate action – learning, speaking, and doing.
Speaking/Communication: Our public voice brings Buddhist teachings into conversation with situations in the world, inspiring and informing action for peace.
Learning/Community: Our trainings strengthen Buddhist leadership for peace, and build socially engaged Buddhist communities.
Doing/Collaboration: As part of the mandala of social change, we act in collaboration with other organizations and individuals, working together to cultivate the conditions for peace.