People Power, Then and Now
1. To advocate human conversation as the means to restore hope to the future is as simple as I can get. But I’ve seen that there is no more powerful way to initiate significant change…
Category: People Power
An Exemplar of Gramsci’s “Optimism of the Will”
My optimism rests on my belief in the infinite possibilities of the individual to develop non-violence. The more you develop it in your own being, the more infectious it becomes till it overwhelms your surroundings…
Refusal (Muhammad Ali)
I came across the following when preparing tonight’s session of our reading circle of Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States (the chapters on the Black Freedom struggle and the Vietnam War). Why should…
The Right of Jim Crow to Defend Itself
“We do not believe the flotilla is a necessary or useful effort to try to assist the people of Gaza,” [Hilary] Clinton told reporters at a news conference with the visiting foreign minister of the…
For Hedy/By Mev/Via Mark
Dianne and I drove Hedy to the Missouri Scholars Academy in Columbia at Mizzou on Sunday, where she spoke for the 17th straight year to 300+ gifted students from across the state. She shared her…
A Hard Rain: Afghanistan, St. Louis, and How to Make Peace
Join us for a round table discussion with Andrew Wimmer on his article, “A Hard Rain: Afghanistan, St. Louis, and How to Make Peace” (Karen House Round Table, Winter 2011) … Monday 28 February 2011…
Subversives
1. The very definition of democracy is the right to innovation, invention, and imagination. Since nothing in the current social organization is sacred, democracy becomes subversive by nature. Subversion is the driving force of social…
Free Palestine/Cairo
Michelle Conley sent me the following while traveling: Picture from a Palestine support rally in Cairo…the police asked where we were from and we said America, but quickly said we supported Palestine. He asked “are…
The Same Fate as the Palestinians
1. Archbishop Oscar Romero once stated, “Christ invites us not to fear persecution. Believe me, brothers and sisters, Anyone committed to the poor Must suffer the same fate as the poor. And in El Salvador…
Friends in Cairo en route to Gaza
My friend Pat Geier from Louisville sent this update from her friends in Cairo… Friends, Mid-afternoon (Louisville time) I spoke with Sharon, Ibrahim, Russ and Ira. I tried but was unable to reach Mateo and…