Underground Railroad hero Harriet Tubman deserves a song and a poem!
So the Peace Song of the Day for January 9th is “Harriet Tubman” by Walter Robinson. This is a powerful song, bringing the listener into the moment. It starts, “One night I dreamed I was in slavery, ’bout 1850 was the time”. You can find the lyrics and chords to this song in the Rise Up Singing songbook on page 60.
The peace poem for today is “Harriet Tubman” by Eloise Greenfield (from her book, Honey, I Love). This poem is a fun and spirited celebration of history. It could be used as a mantra or anthem or jump rope rhyme for anyone seeking to overcome personal or political obstacles. (See various video versions at the bottom of this post.)
Legendary antiwar priest Father Daniel Berrigan has died just short of his 95th birthday. Berrigan was a poet, pacifist, educator, social activist, playwright and lifelong resister to what he called “American military imperialism. Continue reading Remembering Fr. Daniel Berrigan→
Poetry fills me with hope and inspiration. So, I was very happy to have stumbled across this poem while sorting through a National Geogrpahic Society anthology of world poems. The poem is from South Africa. Though, it sounds like words that Martin Luther King, Jr. might have sang in his heart.
Our findings show that major nonviolent campaigns have achieved success 53 percent of the time, compared with 26 percent for violent resistance campaigns. There are two reasons for this success. First, a campaign’s commitment to nonviolent methods enhances its domestic and international legitimacy and encourages more broad-based participation in the resistance, which translates into increased pressure being brought to bear on the target. Recognition of the challenge group’s grievances can translate into greater internal and external support for that group and alienation of the target regime, undermining the regime’s main sources of political, economic, and even military power.
Second, whereas governments easily justify violent counterattacks against armed insurgents, regime violence against nonviolent movements is more likely to backfire against the regime. Potentially sympathetic publics perceive violent militants as having maximalist or extremist goals beyond accommodation, but they perceive nonviolent resistance groups as less extreme, thereby enhancing their appeal and facilitating the extraction of concessions through bargaining.
Our findings challenge the conventional wisdom that violent resistance against conventionally superior adversaries is the most effective way for resistance groups to achieve policy goals. Instead, we assert that nonviolent resistance is a forceful alternative to political violence that can pose effective challenges to democratic and nondemocratic opponents, and at times can do so more effectively than violent resistance.
Every year, 15th May is International Conscientious Objectors day.
Around the world campaigners will be remembering the generations who refused to go to war, and raising awareness of the many who continue to be persecuted and imprisoned for refusing to kill and be part of military structures.
Please join an event (they will be listed here nearer the time), hold your own, and spread the word about the day!
Pleasesend us your events so we can list them here!
You can use the hashtag #CODay (o #díaOC en español)
Reflections from December 2012, excerpt from “The Genius of Alice’s Restaurant”
… I realized a little after 12 noon this Thanksgiving that Arlo Guthrie has had a much broader cultural impact in terms of bringing a progressive message to the general population than his father, Woody Guthrie…
Occupy Wall Street celebrates its 4th Anniversary in New York City with a full day of protests, marches, speakers, and music.
Thursday, September 17, 2015
Some FaceBook links and a schedule with events and speakers is below.
Summary: Stuff is happening in NYC all day today. Most events are at Zuccotti Park. Be at Zuccotti at 5pm for the big Assembly visioning meeting. Then, at 7pm at Zuccotti, gathering and special speakers. (But, check other schedules, and stay alert for all the actions going on!)