For Global Peace with Social Justice in a Sustainable Environment

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Lessons from India

“And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain, and I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. So I’m happy tonight, I’m not worried about anything, I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the Glory of the coming of the Lord.”

The above quote is the last paragraph of Dr. King’s final speech. It was engraved into my mind sophomore year because I listened… Continue

Added by Fadi Quran on December 24, 2008 at 3:00am — 2 Comments

an idea called 'peace'

What do we really know about 'peace'?

Is 'peace' an idea, is it personal.....to be lived by in all areas of our lives?

Is 'peace' a way of thinking.....to approach others in a manner that appeals to the one being approached?

Is 'peace' national......an ideal way for one nation to interact with other nations?

Is 'peace' only an idea because of the lack of it?

peace.........what do we mean, why do we need it, how do we live it?

Added by Kelly Clark on December 7, 2008 at 8:53pm — No Comments

gaps in achievement.............ummmm

gaps in achievement...

what an idea. what a concept. what is it though?

Well, there are many definitions where 'experts' in their 'expert-isms' will carefully define what it is they are referring to when commenting on 'gaps in achievement'.

ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....I say, ummmmmmmm (my face frowns, eyes squint, my finger carefully rests between my two brows).... I say to myself......"Nope. These folks 'experts' are not absolutely wrong, but they are off base, there… Continue

Added by Kelly Clark on November 30, 2008 at 12:34pm — No Comments

Iron Jawed Angels

I recently saw Iron Jawed Angels, an HBO film about Alice Paul and the second wave of suffragists that ultimately won the vote. While it was no Gandhi, it was a great dramatization of the politics… Continue

Added by Gina Bianchini on November 29, 2008 at 4:00pm — 3 Comments

Nixonland

I'm reading the outstanding book, Nixonland, by Rob Perlstein. It's subtitle is "The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America" and does a great job of providing the larger context for the civil rights movement, the anti-war movement and, as the title says, the fracturing of America.

Sometimes I think with the lens of… Continue

Added by Gina Bianchini on November 29, 2008 at 3:30pm — No Comments

Why sJ for younger students

sJ for younger students.........the importance is basic, simple, and contingent.

If we absolutely wish for a more 'just' world, then our efforts in citizenship has to come through teaching sJ to a young audience. A younger audience gives a chance for ideas to grow through time.....

Focus on older students is nice, appropriate, but perhaps the late.

Added by Kelly Clark on November 27, 2008 at 12:34pm — No Comments

social Justice......

What does social Justice mean to the individual? How does sJ translate into your world, your daily interactions with others?

Added by Kelly Clark on November 22, 2008 at 10:00pm — 1 Comment

Gandhi for a Younger Generation Part II

Let me start by acknowledging Alice Bosley’s first posting and her thoughtful coverage of making Gandhi’s message accessible to a younger generation. I too believe that one of the most pressing Gandhian matters of the 21st century will be discovering new ways of presenting the ideas of Gandhi in order to make them accessible to the younger generation. This work is of vital importance because many of the pressing global issues that we face today (sustainability, reconciliation, prejudice,… Continue

Added by Jordan Hill on November 20, 2008 at 4:15pm — 1 Comment

Mayor Cory Booker: Nonviolence in Action

Earlier this year, Mayor Cory Booker of Newark, New Jersey came to speak about his time in office and the tactics he has used to change Newark from one of America’s ‘worst’ cities to an up-and-coming cultural center. A relaxed Stanford, grad, Booker has spent the last ten-ish years of his life working to enact change on the streets of Newark. I could write forever about how amazing Mayor Booker is, but instead I’ll just give some examples of how, by ‘being the change,’ Mayor Booker has shown us… Continue

Added by Alice Bosley on November 3, 2008 at 2:00pm — 2 Comments

Gandhi and the Younger Generation

When I was in India, I got the chance to have many long talks with Prasad Sarvodaya about whether many of Gandhi’s ideas of nonviolence were still viable in the modern world. Prasad believed that many of Gandhi’s strongly held beliefs, about homespun clothing, nonviolent lifestyles, city life, etc, could and should still be used in the modern day and by the younger generations. Is the best way to promote nonviolence in the younger generation encouraging them to spin their own clothes and live… Continue

Added by Alice Bosley on November 3, 2008 at 1:00pm — 2 Comments

"Great Man Syndrome"

One of the ideas that stuck with me the most from our India seminar was an idea that Professor Carson brought up during one of the speeches on Martin Luther King that he gave during the trip- the idea of ‘Great Man Syndrome’. There’s a tendency for us to remember the “great man” that was at the head of a movement rather than the grassroots movement that occurred simultaneously. This has happened for Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement, and it definitely happened for Gandhi and the… Continue

Added by Alice Bosley on November 3, 2008 at 9:00am — No Comments

Reflections on Gandhi in India

As I sit in my comfortable, (cool) American room reflecting on my three-week Overseas Seminar to India this summer, I find it not only hard to decipher what I came away from the trip with, but also to believe that the trip ever even happened. The days of Indian-style toilets, bucket showers, and constant stomach troubles seem so distant and out of place in the environment I’m in now that I find it hard to bring myself to remember those days. There is one thing I know for sure: I got more out of… Continue

Added by Alice Bosley on November 2, 2008 at 11:30pm — No Comments

In Pursuit of Gandhi: Ruminations on the Quest for Truth

2008 Stanford Overseas Seminar in India

Before departing for India, my expectations for an overseas seminar experience in Delhi and Gujarat ran high: living, breathing, and seeing the world in which Gandhi led the most powerful and influential nonviolent resistance struggle against oppression in the 20th century, I felt certain that I would have a transformative internal experience, a remarkable emotional, physical, and spiritual journey in which I would come to better understand the… Continue

Added by Jake Horowitz on October 6, 2008 at 9:00pm — 2 Comments

Lectures in India during September 2008 on "The Influence of Gandhi on the African-American Freedom Struggle"

Almost fifty years after Martin Luther King, Jr., visited the Gandhi Museum in Madurai on his 1959 tour of India, I laid a wreath on a statue of Gandhi before my lecture. While serving as co-instructor of the Stanford India Seminar, which consisted of fifteen undergraduates, I also lectured to various Indian audiences about Gandhi's influence on the modern African American Freedom Struggle. With the exception of my talk at Gujarat Vidyapith… Continue

Added by Clayborne Carson on September 16, 2008 at 12:00pm — 2 Comments

Essays on Camus and Gandhi by Lou Marin

My friend Reinhard (a German nonviolent anarchist who writes under the pseudonym Lou Marin) has recently published a essay that should be read by everyone with a serious interest in Gandhi's ideas. Appearing in the April 2008 issue Critical Currents, distributed by the Dag Hammarskjold Foundation, the essay is "Gandhi -- National Icon or Non-Modern Radical? On the Legacy of the Life and Writings of M. K. Gandhi in India and the World." It is…