Peacemaker's Toolkit

The U.S. Institute for Peace lists a number of online publications in the Peacemaker's Toolkit, with more handbooks to come. So far, the Kit includes:

• Managing a Mediation Process
• Managing a Mediation Process Web Handbook
• Managing Public Information in a Mediation Process
• Integrating Internal Displacement in Peace Processes and Agreements
• Debriefing Mediators to Learn from Their Experiences
• Timing Mediation Initiatives
• Working with Groups of Friends

Soldiers against Torture

Soldiers against torture (Rodney Clapp, The Christian Century, 4 Oct 2010)

"Their stories are too little told—the stories of U.S. servicemen and women of devout religious faith who, often at great cost, stood up to protest the use of torture in the American open-ended war on terror." [full article]

Three Cups of Freshly Squeezed Ethical Juice

I posted the following item on my ethics class's forum. I'd thought I'd re-post here as well:

1) Smedley Butler, AKA "Old Gimlet Eye" (You just can't make this stuff up):

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler
• http://rationalrevolution.net/war/major_general_smedley_butler_usm.htm

War Is a Racket (By Smedley Butler)

• http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Is_a_Racket
• "[T]he title of two works, a speech [1930] and a booklet [1935]... in which Butler frankly discusses from his experience as a career military officer how business interests have commercially benefited from warfare."
• "War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes."
• "I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."

2) Narco Cinema

Want to disappear down a rabbits' hole of cultural and ethical surrealism? Then this be for you:

• INTRO @ CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/03/30/vbs.narco.cinema/index.html?iref=allsearch
• PART 1: http://www.vbs.tv/newsroom/mexican-narco-cinema-part-1-of-3--2
• PART 2: http://www.vbs.tv/newsroom/mexican-narco-cinema-part-2-of-3--2
• PART 3: http://www.vbs.tv/newsroom/mexican-narco-cinema-part-3-of-3--2

3) Zimbardo & the Prison Hoopla

I might not remember a lot from Social Psychology a decade and a half ago, but at least three things have stuck with me: marshmallows (Mischel), shocks (Milgram), and... prison insanity (Zimbardo).

Zimbardo's experiment shows that the power differential between those playing the roles of officers and inmates led quickly to social problems. In fact, the experiment was called off after just 6 days because the "experiment quickly grew out of hand. Prisoners suffered — and accepted — sadistic and humiliating treatment from the guards. The high level of stress progressively led them from rebellion to inhibition. By the experiment's end, many showed severe emotional disturbances" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbardo_experiment).

I.O.U.S.A.

After I finished a paper this weekend, we watched I.O.U.S.A., a documentary about personal and national debt. Sobering. Having been interested in this topic for the past decade and a half, I found a fair amount repetitive, but it laid a necessary foundation. If you haven't seen it, do.

You may call this a cop-out, but I don't intend it to be: "Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed" (1 Peter 1:13).

Movie Site

30-minute Version

Trailer:



Later we watched the "hybrid-documentary" Paper Heart (Wiki). If you haven't seen it, think When Harry Met Sally + Napoleon Dynamite.

And now I'm back to the books (or I will be after I post this).

CPT -- Palestine

Yesterday, David, my professor in Mission & Peace, told about an experience he had while working with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) in Palestine (Gaza or West Bank?). On the way to a Palestinian family's home for dinner, he noticed two piles of rubble. At dinner with the host family, the father introduced his son as his little terrorist weapon. David was confused so the man told the story.

The piles of rubble were their family's previous homes, which had been flattened by the Israeli army. In the middle of the night the army showed up with bulldozers and told the family they had 15 minutes to get out. After the military razed the house, the father took his young boy to a soldier and told him to take the boy since the father no longer had a place to shelter him. I presume it was done with a bit of emotion, and he was arrested for attacking the soldier with a weapon--his son.

Two videos on Palestine:

• CPT (I can't find the video I want now. These are available from '05.)
• 60 Mins

Headlines

In the news:

• International Court issues arrest warrant for Sudanese president (Nic Robertson, CNN.com, 4 Mar '09)
• Sudan soldier: 'They told me to kill, to rape children' (Nic Robertson, CNN.com, 4 Mar '09)
• ICC: Bashir Warrant Is Warning to Abusive Leaders (Human Rights Watch, 4 Mar '09)
• Spring breakers skip Cancun for volunteer work (Elham Khatami, CNN.com, 4 Mar '09)
• Democrats seek 'Truth Commission' probe of Bush (Larry Margasak, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 Mar '09)
• Obama releases Bush secret terror memos (Manilla Bulletin, 4 Mar '09)
• The Tortured Memos (Editorial, The New York Times, 3 Mar '09)

State = State

David Cramer posted this thoughtful article at Young Anabaptist Radicals. Click on the link below for the entire article.

Yesterday was truly a big day in U.S. history. The inauguration of the first African-American President is truly a turning point for our nation, especially given our abysmal history on race. Moreover, it was encouraging to hear Senator Dianne Feinstein’s reflections on the nonviolence of Martin Luther King, President Obama’s message that we need not choose “between our safety and ideals” and his call to diplomacy and international aid over sheer violent force and military power, and Reverend Joseph Lowery’s prayer that one day we will “beat our tanks into tractors.”

Nevertheless, I had a difficult time getting too emotional or excited over this change of guard.

Read his concerns in the complete post here.

In the News

1) More evidence from the Middle East that Marvin Gaye was right, war is not the answer:

"Despite Israel's intense bombardment of Gaza, the deaths of more than 1,300 people (a majority of whom appear to have been civilians), the wounding and maiming of more than 5,000 more, the destruction of thousands of buildings, including ministries, hospitals, U.N. facilities, even Gaza's American International School, Hamas is still in business" (After the war, an uneasy peace, Wedeman, CNN.com, 21 Jan '09).

2) And Obama is already moving on the detention issue:

"In one of his first acts in office President Obama has ordered the U.S. government to suspend prosecutions of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay for 120 days, military officials said Tuesday."

We'll hear more about this quote from the same article, "The retired judge in charge of determining which prisoners should face trial told The Washington Post last week that she refused to send one prisoner before the tribunals because 'his treatment met the legal definition of torture.' (Obama calls for halt to Gitmo prosecution, Candiotti and Ure, CNN.com, 21 Jan '09).

3) Yes, we have not heard the last of the torture issue yet. There are many considerations yet to be determined. For example, Binding U.S. law requires prosecutions for those who authorize torture (Greenwald,Salon.com, 18 Jan '09).

4) And, finally, Who killed Flipper? (O’Hehir, Salon.com, 22 Jan '09???). Sounds like an intense follow-up to Earthlings.

Political Philosophy

Sometimes we just need to slow down and consider the deeper questions of power and class:

Department of Peace

In 2006 I posted this short article about the Department of Peace. Then today I received this email:

Thank you Jeff for posting a link supporting the Department of Peace bill in Congress.

Just FYI, there is a website www.Change.org that is holding an online event through Jan 15th calling for the "Ideas For Change in America." The idea to "Appoint Secretary of Peace in Department of Peace and Nonviolence" is in the category of other and currently in first place.

We need your help retaining that position all the way till Jan 15th. This idea will be given to President Obama, and be featured on networks like MySpace helping it reach millions of people. I am requesting your support in anticipation of the upcoming 10 day run off.
http://www.change.org/ideas/view/appoint_secretary_of_peace_in_department_of_peace_and_non-violence

"Our planet, our media , our social interactions, our homes all suffer from the epidemic of inter-personal violence and warfare that plagues America. With the establishment of a Department of Peace and Non-Violence, with a respected Secretary of Peace in the President's Cabinet, and a program to reduce violence in cities, nations, and even in our homes, we will all benefit from the growth of a culture of peace ."

Would you be willing to quickly vote for this idea and share the link below in an email to your networks, mailing lists, friends, groups you know, blog it, bulletin it or just post the widgety thing on your website??

I really appreciate your attention to my request and truly honor the peace work all of us are doing! Keep up the great peace work!

With Appreciation,
Ana Campos
South Florida State Organizer
U.S. Campaign for a Department of Peace and Nonviolence
Phone: (954) 793-3279

National Website: www.ThePeaceAlliance.org
MySpace: www.MySpace.com/DepartmentofPeaceFlorida
Florida Photo Album: www.Picturetrail.com/DepartmentofPeaceFlorida
Videos: www.Youtube.com/DOPFloridaCampaign

Spectrum Magazine

From Monte Sahlin's article at Spectrum Magazine (17 Dec '08)--Adventist Action Against Torture--I learned about this current campaign to impress the Obama administration with the need to abolish torture and ensure justice--Help Obama End Torture (sponsored by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture).

And one comment on that post brought this New York Times editorial to my attention:

The Torture Report (17 Dec '08)

"Now, a bipartisan report by the Senate Armed Services Committee has made what amounts to a strong case for bringing criminal charges against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld; his legal counsel, William J. Haynes; and potentially other top officials, including the former White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and David Addington, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff." [more]

Conscientious Objectors in Israel

Sojourners has been highlighting the plight of non-combatant youth in Israel recently:

Support Israeli Conscientious Objectors — Free the Shministim (Howard Zinn 12-03-2008)

Israeli Intelligence Official’s Daughter Jailed for Refusing Military Service (Omer Goldman 12-16-2008)

"My name is Omer Goldman. I am 19 years old. I am one of the Shministim. I need your help.

"I first went to prison on September 23 and served 35 days. I am lucky; after two times in jail, I got a medical discharge, but I’m the only one. By the time you read this, many of my friends will be in prison too: in for three weeks, out for one, and then back in, over and over, until they are 21. The reason? We refuse to do military service for the Israeli army because of the occupation."


Read those articles for ways to get involved.

What do I believe in strong enough to go to jail for?

Power to the peaceful.

Ordinary Killers

What lurks in the human psyche? To what level of depravity would I personally descend given the right (wrong) situation? It's a hard question to ask, but I believe it's worth the effort if we let the answer lead us to a commitment to peace and nonviolence.

As an undergrad psychology major, I was astounded to learn about Stanley Milgram's shock experiment and Philip Zimbardo's prison experiment. "Normal" people would do amazingly disturbing things to other humans with shocking expediency. Unbelievable. (Read more on Milgram: Milgram Experiment, Would I Pull That Switch?, Perils of Obedience.)

Recently, CNN.com published an article that again looked at this issue--They killed their neighbors: genocide's foot soldiers (Courtney Yager, 10 Dec '08).

The article begins, "Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot, Slobodan Milosevic. They are household names, infamous for masterminding genocide. But who were the foot soldiers who did the dirty work?"

"In many cases they were equally notorious in their communities because they were the friends, neighbors and co-workers of those they raped, slaughtered and buried alive."

It continues, "Experts have reached a troubling conclusion: It was actually very easy for the architects of genocide to find more than enough ordinary people to do the killing.

"Genocide is often the result of a 'perfect storm.' A country reeling from political and economic turmoil, a fanatical leader promising to make things better and a vulnerable population targeted for blame -- all combine in a blueprint for mass murder."

Read the full article and think about it for yourself. What attitudes and commitments would keep you from taking the easy path toward violence? How can we work for peace and justice for those in need of advocacy today?

"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
for the rights of all who are destitute. (Proverbs 31:8)

Howard Zinn -- You Can't Be Neutral

For Memorial Day 2008, we went shopping. We wandered up and down the dusty paths at the local flea market looking at antique bottles and bookcases, homemade knick-knacks, and Amish rugs. We neither bought nor sold.

Then we came home and finished watching a documentary about Howard Zinn, You Can’t Be Neutral on Moving Train. Interviews with Zinn are interlaced with archival footage, commentary from his colleagues, and readings from his various books by Matt Damon. While documentaries like The U.S. vs. John Lennon and Why We Fight are more engaging (entertaining? up tempo?), this one is still enlightening and well worth watching.

The dialogue and readings are full of excellent quotes, and I’ll finish this post with the one Matt reads as the film comes to and end:

“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

“And if we do act in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents. And to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”

Stop Waterboarding

"WASHINGTON - President Bush is poised to veto legislation that would bar the CIA from using waterboarding — a technique that simulates drowning — and other harsh interrogation methods on terror suspects. " (Bush to veto waterboarding bill, Jennifer Loven, AP/Yahoo News, 8 Mar 2008).

Let your representatives and senators know that you support this bill, that you want to ban heavy-handed tactics that are below the ideals and values of our country.

Red Letter Christians

The full name of Tony Campolo's new book is Red Letter Christians: A Citizen's Guide to Faith and Politics. This is not merely a list of candidates' voting records with suggestions for helping the Republican party retain the White House. Far from it! But it is also not a call to build a Religious Left to counter the Religious Right as he explains in this BeliefNet article.

With a call similar to that of Jim Wallis of Sojourners, Tony expresses the need to support values and issues, not partisan politics with a complete allegiance to a given party.

Tony explains, "Believing that Jesus is neither a Republican nor a Democrat, we want to unite Christians who are concerned about what is happening in America. We are evangelicals who are troubled by what is happening to poor people in America; who are disturbed over environmental policies that are contributing to global warming; who are dismayed over the increasing arrogance of power shown in our country’s militarism; who are outraged because government funding is being reduced for schools where students, often from impoverished and dysfunctional homes, are testing poorly; who are upset with the fact that of the 22 industrialized nations America is next to last in the proportion of its national budget (less than two-tenths of 1 percent) that is designated to help the poor of third-world countries; and who are broken-hearted over discrimination against women, people of color, and those who suffer because of their sexual orientation" (BeliefNet, accessed 2 Mar 2008).

While I have only read sections of this book while standing in the bookstore, I can say that I really appreciate the parts I did read. Chapters are devoted to topics such as government waste, crime, the environment, The war, AIDS, gay rights, immigration, minimum wage and SO much more.

If you read this and want more, start a Jim Wallis library with these:

• The Great Awakening (2008)
• Living God's Politics (2006)
• God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It (2006)
• The Soul of Politics: Beyond "Religious Right" and "Secular Left" (1995)

And if you feel like a revolutionary or just an "ordinary radical," check out Shane Claiborne's new work of art, Jesus for President (2008). I just started reading this one. Good stuff. Hardcore.

Waco: The Rules of Engagement

Waco: The Rules of Engagement was our film of choice this past week. I didn't remember much from the 1993 conflagration, but I had a general sense that David Koresh taught that he was Jesus Christ and that the Branch Dividians were a weird cult that collected arms and blurred traditional boundaries of healthy sexuality. Though not a clearly formed opinion, I figured that whatever had gone wrong was the fault of the religious extremists.

I had no idea how far back the Branch Dividian movement went. The movement broke from the Seventh-day Adventist church in 1929 and began to grow in the early 1930s. A major split occurred in 1955, and Vernon Howell (David Koresh) joined the group in 1981. While the documentary gives some of this background, the emphasis is on the initial ATF raid on February 28, 1993 and the firey stand-off conclusion on April 19.

Through congressional hearings, expert interviews, forensic evidence, film footage made by the Branch Dividians, and survivor testimonies, the documentary paints a very different picture than I had previously understood.

One significant question is who fired first during the initial raid. Because videos of the event and the front doors themselves are missing, this question cannot be conclusively decided. Despite this ambiguity, several questions remain: Why didn't the authorities arrest Koresh while he was in town or outside of the community? Why did they turn it into a stand-off? Why was it handled in this way? Why is evidence missing? It is also noteworthy that all of the survivors were acquitted of conspiring to murder federal agents, though other charges brought convictions.

The disparity between the original claims about the April 19 raid and subsequent evidence demonstrate that the federal agency was looking for a fight and was planning to kill as many Davidians as possible. This is demonstrated by agents firing on a burning building in back areas where members could have otherwise escaped the flames. This area was not readily visible to the media who were kept on the front side of the community. Heat sensitive footage taken from the sky ultimately revealed this atrocity.

I have not read the various books on the events at Mount Carmel in Waco, so my general knowledge of the event is very limited. However, at this point I conclude that inappropriate sexual behavior and odd religious beliefs were met with bad music, weapons, gas and fire. If the facts are even close to my present understanding, then both sides have serious explaining to do. If not in this world, then on the way to the next.

The group of us who watched this film had also seen The End of the World Cult together. One significant difference I noticed between these two films was the mannerisms of the various members. Even if you didn't listen to the audio of The End of the World Cult, you would notice that their gestures, eye movements and other mannerisms were odd. Something was wrong. Something was off. By contrast, the interviews with Branch Dividians during the siege showed "normal" people with normal speech patterns, normal topics of discussion, normal mannerisms. I don't know what conclusions can be drawn from the differences in appearance between the two groups, but the difference was clear.

Wild film; give it a go, but be warned of graphic footage.

U.S. Federal Budget Proposal

I have shared the questions I would like to ask the current round of presidential hopefuls. These questions reveal my priorities. The 2009 budget proposed by President Bush reveals his.

Why is this on a blog about justice? I do not believe it is right to spend $650 billion on defense, more than the next 168 countries combined, while we continue to fail to support the Millenium Development Goals with our repeatedly promised .7% of GDP (.15% currently). We have the opportunity to help over a billion people gain access to food, water and housing, but instead we build tanks, missiles and machine guns. Are we any different from the Rich Man who neglected Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31)?

Thumbs Up

• Increases for abstinence education, Pell Grants for college students from low-income families and grants to school districts.
• Almost $20 billion increase in State Children's Health Insurance Program over the next five years, still falling short of plans passed twice by Congress.
• 10.3 percent increase (total of $22.7 billion) in foreign aid with increases for HIV/AIDS programs, anti-drug and -crime programs, development aid, and security packages. Some of these proposals are not my foreign aid priorities, and this is still FAR short of the .7% of GDP we have promised for meeting the Millenium Development Goals (The End of Poverty).

Thumbs Down

• Additional $36 billion for defense, an increase of 8% to over $650 billion. This does not include additional funding ($70 billion) for the Iraq war. Read more about U.S. expenditures on the military here--military budget, world military spending, countries and military expenditures.
• $18.2 billion cut in Medicaid, nation's single largest payer of children's health care for working families.
• $700 million cut from discretionary health programs that children depend on, ranging from poison control hotlines to funding for training children's doctors.
• Eliminates $283 million federal program to help make homes more energy efficient. Cuts energy aid to poor households by $500 million, a 22 percent drop.
• Over $400 billion budget deficit.

It will be interesting to watch how the debate over the budget progresses. I do hope some priorities will be changed. Voices needed.

Sources

• Bush budget would bring record deficits (Yahoo News, 4 Feb '08)
• Bush Budget Cuts Federal Health Programs Vital to the Health of All Children (Fox Business, 8 Feb '08)
• Department of Defense (Accessed 11 Feb '08)

The End of Poverty (Jeffrey Sachs)

I cannot encourage you enough to read The End of Poverty. Just do it. Promise yourself that you’ll find a way.

The first few chapters relate Sachs’s own evolution as a development economist and advocate—a process that leads him from Harvard University to countries around the world and eventually to Columbia University where he helped found The Earth Institute. We follow him along the journey of gaining insights into the roles that geography, population growth, and disease play in the poverty trap.

The subsequent chapters describe the needs of the poor, the misconceptions most of us have regarding what is being done and what the real problems are, and finally the way forward.

Sachs quantifies, maps, deconstructs, and personalizes the problems. Thankfully, he does not end there. He also quantifies the needed response, demonstrates the possibilities we have over the next couple of decades, and offers policy advice on increasing capacity and accountability.

For less technical, but more spiritual analyses of the same topics, see Walking with the Poor (Bryant Myers), Red Letters (Tom Davis) and Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger (Ron Sider).

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr., is celebrated today. I'm in favor of living his wisdom, rather than just honoring his life with words.

King lived the third way, rejecting both violent revolt and passive acceptance of injustice. He taught and lived the way of nonviolent activism. Government leaders will attend photo ops today at African-American churches and ceremonies for King, but they seem less likely to bring King's philosophy to bear on the "war on terror."

In addition to his revolutionary efforts for civil rights, I also respect that King worked to end the Vietnam War and economic inequality. Justice, he was a man of justice.

My memorial to King will be his own words:

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.

At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.

If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.

Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.

Life's most urgent question is: what are you doing for others?

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.

Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation.

Means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek.

Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.

Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.

Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.

Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.

Pity may represent little more than the impersonal concern which prompts the mailing of a check, but true sympathy is the personal concern which demands the giving of one's soul.

Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.

The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But... the good Samaritan reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?"

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.

The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.

The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.

The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important.

The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.

To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.

We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the postive affirmation of peace.

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.

We must use time creatively.

We who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive.