practical peace

Steve Bannon (Literally) Calls for War Against Islam

Feb 1, 12:44 pm

Word for word, these are remarks Steve Bannon made at a conference of Catholics meeting in the Vatican in 2014.

“If you look back at the long history of the Judeo-Christian West struggle against Islam, I believe that our forefathers kept their stance, and I think they did the right thing. I think they kept it out of the world, whether it was at Vienna, or Tours, or other places… It bequeathed to use the great institution that is the church of the West….”

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"I need peace right now"

Jan 22, 11:55 pm

The acute alarms of fear, frustration, rage, and outrage are a necessary and healthy response to the recent election of a braggart sexual predator as president and his appointment of white supremacists, voter suppressors, public school eviscerators, petroleum executives, radical anti-contraceptionists, and purveyors of lies and doublespeak to his cabinet and staff.

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Practicing Peace in the World as It Is

Dec 22, 12:11 pm

This seems like a good time to share again some of the things I have learned in many years as a nature mystic, student of the sciences and of wisdom traditions, and activist for peace and justice. Practical peace, as I call it, is both a working model of how change happens and a set of practices for living it out.

Practical peace is about living with eyes open to injustice, heart open to suffering, mind open to take in the complexity of the forces and systems that shape our world. It is not an ideal about a future perfection. It is not an abstract that can turn into an absolute and be used as a dogmatic hammer.

This is a moment to moment practice, a tool that does not desert me in the face of fear or anger as it allows me to be flexible, creative, and effective as a force for justice and peace.

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More than Hurt Feelings

Nov 15, 10:08 pm

Overt racism is easy to spot. The cotton balls, feces swastikas, and racial epithets at Mizzou (among many other campuses) are ugly. They intend to be demeaning and to strike fear. They mean to establish that there are the “people like us,” and the “others.” That they are not acceptable is obvious.

Institutional racism is more subtle

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In Case We Have Forgotten MLK's Vision of the Power of Nonviolent Direct Action

Aug 13, 03:36 pm

“To dislocate the functioning of a city without destroying it can be more effective than a riot because it can be longer-lasting, costly to society but not wantonly destructive. Moreover, it is more difficult for government to quell it by superior force. Mass civil disobedience can use rage as a constructive and creative force. …
To have effect we will have to develop mass disciplined forces that can remain excited and determined without dramatic conflagrations.”

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Cameras to the People

May 9, 02:23 pm

All the talk I hear about cameras on police gives me pause.

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Miracles

Apr 28, 02:29 pm

I was walking on a city sidewalk the other day and happened to look up. There, silhouetted against the gray sky, a lilac branch held a small head of buds. The flower buds were still tightly furled, the leaf buds open just a crack. I stopped for the briefest of seconds to take it in. A miracle, I thought, the ceaseless turning from bud to flower to death to rest and then bud again.

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Ferguson Activists: A Whole New World

Mar 20, 11:17 am

Last night I went to a discussion with Johnetta Elzie and DeRay Mckesson, two young Ferguson organizers. Their passion and disciplined commitment were impressive, of course. But it’s their self-awareness, skill with non-violent language, and practice of radical democracy that made it seem like a whole new world. A few examples:

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