This is the week in San Antonio when we celebrate the life of César Chávez, the labor activist and civil rights leader, born on March 31, 1927. The events here started last Thursday with a mayoral proclamation and ends next Saturday with the 13th annual César Chávez March for Justice. Tonight I am one of… Read More »
The Parable of the Hungry DogBuddhist, 600 B.C. There was a wicked tyrant; and the god Indra, assuming the shape of a hunter, came down upon earth with the demon Matali, the latter appearing as a dog of enormous size. Hunter and dog entered the palace, and the dog howled so woefully that the royal… Read More »
This is another page from Upton Sinclair’s “The Cry for Justice.” We would use it near the beginning of the Class of Nonviolence, probably in the sessions on Gandhi, King or Day, as it adds a Muslim perspective to the discussion of justice, power and empathy. Rebuking a TyrantBy Sa’adi In a certain year I… Read More »
I enjoy Joan Baez’s essay, “What Would You Do If?” in lesson seven of the Class of Nonviolence. Written as a dialog between Joan and “Fred,” it starts off, “What would you do if someone were, say, attacking your grandmother?,” modeling with humor and clarity the give-and-take we have with people baffled by our commitment… Read More »
Upton Sinclair published an updated version of his 1915 anthology of social protest literature, “The Cry for Justice,” in 1963. I’m glad he did, because it gave him the opportunity to include Franklin Roosevelt’s 1933 Inaugural address, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” I was struck by how fresh and current it is.… Read More »
I found this little parable in “The Cry for Justice,” Upton Sinclair’s 1915 anthology of social protest literature. Mencius was a 4th Century BCE Chinese moral philosopher, a follower of Confucius and contemporary of Plato. Because of his concern with human nature—are people inherently good or evil?—a study of Mencius would be a good fit… Read More »
One of the new essays included in the 16-week “University Class” of Nonviolence is The Art of Loving, by Erich Fromm. Fromm (1900 –1980) was a social psychologist, psychoanalyst, humanistic philosopher and peace activist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory. These three videos were recorded with Mike Wallace in 1958, shortly after publication… Read More »
One of the strengths of the Class of Nonviolence is its use of original writings: you don’t read about Gandhi – you read what he wrote. Even better, I think, is to peek at original documents. I stumbled into the FBI’s online “reading room,” where the heirs of J. Edgar Hoover archive photocopies of some… Read More »
This is another little gem I found in Upton Sinclair’s anthology “The Cry for Justice.” John Lawson entered the mines as a pit boy when he was eight years old. By the time of the Ludlow Strike and Massacre (1913-1914), of which he writes, he was an organizer for the United Mine Workers. The unnamed… Read More »
To a Nine-Inch GunBy P.F. McCarthy (1915) Whether your shell hits the target or not,Your cost is Five Hundred Dollars a Shot.You thing of noise and flame and power,We feed you a hundred barrels of flourEach time you roar. Your flame is fedWith twenty thousand loaves of bread.Silence! A million hungry menSeek bread to fill… Read More »