Tag: social justice

New Year’s Resolution 3: Engaging New Leaders

Posted on by kathiemm
The four tenets of Leaderful Practice as against the traditional model of leadership. In the public domain. Author: Madhwani Vicky.

By Kathie MM

Selected New Year’s Resolution of the Day: Engage new leaders at every level of the political system.

The country’s government is a mess, has been so for ages , and is getting worse.  That’s why you frequently hear the term “populism” in regard to the last election.

Populist movements act to “disrupt the existing social order by solidifying and mobilizing the animosity of the “commoner” …against “privileged elites” and the “establishment”.[1]

Last year’s populist leader on the right won out over the establishment; the populist leader on the left was shut out by the establishment. And now, income inequality continues to grow, all the evil isms increasingly  contaminate daily life,  environment rape accelerates, and violence spreads its venom into all our lives .

But we’re still here.  Millions of people want greater equality, benevolent justice, environmental protections, nonviolent solutions to conflict—and an end to racialopathy, ethnicopathy, sexopathy, environmentalopathy, and all those other social pathologies plaguing our land.

What will it take to move us in a better direction?

Better leaders. Ethical leaders who will fight for peace and justice—inside as well as outside prevailing political structures.

Consider the image at the beginning of this post.  Does the “leaderful” profile fit your idea of the kind of leader we need?  If not, what characteristics would you seek?

Can you think of anyone in the country today who has the kind of qualities you would want in a leader?

I asked my friend Tony Marsella this question. Here are some of his nominees: Noam Chomsky, Andrew Bacevich, Chris Hedges, Helen Caldicott, Daniel Ellsberg, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Maya Soetoro, Johan Galtung, Robert J. Burrowes.

Who are your nominees for potential leaders who will seek  liberty and justice for all, promote democratic ideals, and act to sustain rather than destroy life on earth?

They’re out there.  Search for them and tell us about them.

And please support engaging peace. You can click here to donate

 

A POETICS OF PEACE

Posted on by kathiemm
Autumn comes. Photo by Kathleen Malley-Morrison.

by  Stefan Schindler

Autumn comes; the leaf falls from the tree.

Does the leaf release itself?

Or does the tree release the leaf?

The answer, my friend,

is blowin’ in the wind.

…………………………………………

 

 

Beauty before me; beauty behind me;

beauty above; beauty below.

Beauty all around.  I walk in beauty.

………………………………………………..

A quantum chorus of birdsong bright,

a golden, glowing, holy grail overflowing

with holy, healing, divine white light;

ecstasy of rainbows blanketing space,

empowered by love’s unconditional grace;

communing with creatures great and small,

happy to serve them one and all.

………………………………

 

Jesus, Buddha, Gandhi and King,

all said the same thing; their words fraught

with provocative jewels, hanging, or not,

from the head of the mule.  We, brought up

on Dylan and the Dead, heard the music and said,

Give peace a chance.

…………………………………………

Do you have faith in space?

Can you catch a moonbeam in a seashell?

Actually, the dream was never over,

because John never ceased to Imagine.

……………………………………………..

Let us go, make a start,

to the place where buffalo thunder

runs like a river through your heart;

sun rises, while the moon still sparkles on the dew;

song of the Tao calls to you, from the butterfly’s dream

of Chuang Tzu.

………………………………………………

Note from Kathie MM: Through countless generations, poetry has proved to have the power to stir the emotions, mobilize behavior, push towards peace and social justice.  Please comment on Stefan’s poetic post by sending us your own poems regarding peace and/or social justice.

 

  

CONGRATULATIONS DUE!!! HUGE HONOR FOR ENGAGING PEACE BOARD MEMBER!!!

Posted on by kathiemm

By Kathie MM

Engaging Peace is delighted to announce that Dr. Doe West, one of its newest Board of Directors members, has just earned major recognition for her accomplishments on behalf of social justice for the most oppressed members of our society. She has been named a Lifetime Achiever by Marquis Who’s Who.

In this post, we share some of the accomplishments that led to this honor. In our next few posts, we will be sharing her perspectives on violence, nonviolence, apology, and forgiveness in the wake of the recent Las Vegas mass shooting.

Dr. West received an MS from Boston University and a PhD in Law, Policy & Society from Northeastern University. As a Native American Scholar, she was awarded an Advanced Minority Fellowship for her dissertation, a widely respected work on bioethics.

In addition to her PhD in Law, Policy & Society, Dr. West also holds a Master of Divinity, and has nearly completed a doctorate in Religious Philosophy. The two doctoral degrees reflect her belief that work and faith in union are the foundations of social justice.

Dr. West wears many hats in her commitment to the generation of social justice. She is currently a full-time tenured professor and program chair in the human services department of the School of Public Service and Social Sciences at Quinsigamond Community College. She also serves in teaching and consulting roles at Bay Path University and Assumption College.

Dr. West has served in ministerial or pastoral roles at Quincy City Hospital and Charlton’s Overlook Lifespan Community; her home church is the First Congregational Church of Woodstock, CT.

Among Dr. West’s early achievements was work that led to the current Americans with Disabilities Act. Her work with the City of Boston’s Department of Health and Hospitals helped create national guidelines for reasonable accommodation and definition of undue hardship. She was the first Commissioner of Handicap Affairs and 504 compliance officer for Boston, and worked with Senator Edward Kennedy to ensure that  historic Faneuil Hall was accessible to people with disabilities.

As a social justice activist, Dr. West has served as executive director of Social Action Ministries. She has worked with the Massachusetts Housing & Shelter Alliance and provided “street ministry” for homeless individuals in the Boston Common area.

As a mental health advocate, she worked with the New England Family Study on familial schizophrenia, and coauthored the book Coping+Plus: Dimensions of Disability. Further publications can be found at her Marquis Lifetime Achiever website as well as https://doewestmsmdivphd.academia.edu.

Getting to peace and social justice

Posted on by kathiemm
Anti-nuclear arms protesters display a banner during the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance (OREPA) rally at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. April16,2011. Author: Brian Stansberry

By Anthony Marsella

Here  is a straightforward list of actions and policies to promote peace amidst the madness of pursuing destruction and war for the apparent rewards of empire, economic, and delight in immorality and illegality.

Productive Foreign Policy and Domestic Options, Choices, Alternatives: Paths to Peace and Social Justice

  • Acknowledge the national security of the USA is best secured by pursuing and modeling peace, not by engaging in constant accusations and enemification of nations, cultures, religions, and people;
  • Address and resolve domestic inequities and inequalities in wealth, power, and position. Create new policies for equity and opportunity;
  • Address and limit monopolies (e.g., Big Agro, Big Pharm, Big Health, Big Transportation, Big Education, etc.) because these monopolies concentrate power, and they become impossible to control – “Too big to fail.”
  • Address the reality of USA decline in reputation and image by stopping the pursuit of a global empire;
  • Adopt a “Never Again” policy and practices for all countries, by all countries. “Never again” must not be limited to a single group or nation;
  • Apologize and ask for forgiveness in a public forum. Express intention to no  longer pursue violence and war as national policy;
  • “Be the nation you want others to be;”
  • Build museums, monuments, holidays, and tributes to peace. Stop glorification of war;
  • Cease all vilification of Muslims and Muslim nations;
  • Condemn and prosecute apartheid;
  • Choose and support non-violent and non-killing protests and social changes;
  • Circulate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights  (UDHR) to all schools and governments as an accepted guide;
  • Close Guantanamo, and other “war on terrorism”  prisons, camps, and rendition sites;
  • Destroy all weapons of mass destruction Nuclear, Toxic, Gas, etc);
  • Develop Department of Peace as an official standing cabinet office separate from State or Defense Departments;
  • Develop a metric to assess and prosecute USA international abuses and crimes;
  • Develop metrics to assess USA contributions to advancing humanity and the natural sectors. Assess metrics constantly;
  • Develop, implement, and empower UN conflict resolution office;
  • Develop ethic/ethos of global interdependency;
  • Diplomacy dialogue, rather than military force or violent interventions;
  • Educate women and children, and re-educate men;
  • Empower UN, and improve its functions and roles;
  • End corporate political election influence, control, and dominance;
  • End global surveillance and restore privacy and constitutional rights;
  • Increase governmental transparency and accountability;
  • International loan forgiveness;
  • Join and cooperate with international courts;
  • Limit “imperial” president powers as reflected in abuses of signing statements;
  • Limit lobbyist influence and control of public offices;
  • Limit Presidential terms of office to six years;
  • Limit Congressional terms of office to eight years. End seniority system of power;
  • Limit military-industrial-congressional- education complex powers;
  • Non-Contingent humanitarian aid and assistance, rather than contingent aid;
  • Practice humility, apology, and forgiveness;
  • Prosecute American war and military crimes to national and international laws;
  • Public apology for violent and destructive national and international policies and actions (e.g. NATO);
  • Reconsider political and economic treaties that isolate and marginalize nations (e.g., TPP) and seek hegemonic control (e.g., Russia, China);
  • Resist military solutions to conflicts and disagreements – choose diplomacy;
  • Restore balance of power across executive, congressional, and justice sectors. Dominance of the executive branch under the auspices of protecting national security has been abused, and has proven a failure and crime;
  • Restorative justice to victims;
  • Restrict central banking model of financial control over nations’ debt;
  • Review immediate and long-term consequences of DHS/NSA Abuses;
  • Stop “for profit” prisons, and their associated judicial corruption;
  • Speak truth, do not distort or exaggerate, practice transparency;,
  • Use “Justice” as an arbiter for decisions;

From: A.J.Marsella (2014).Two Paths in the Wood: “Choice” of Life or War. First published in Transcend, 27 October 2014. TRANSCEND MEMBER

Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D., a  member of the TRANSCEND Network, is a past president of Psychologists for Social Responsibility, emeritus professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii, and past director of the World Health Organization Psychiatric Research Center in Honolulu. He is known nationally and internationally as a pioneer figure in the study of culture and psychopathology who challenged the ethnocentrism and racial biases of many assumptions, theories, and practices in psychology and psychiatry. In more recent years, he has been writing and lecturing on peace and social justice. He has published 15 edited books, and more than 250 articles, chapters, book reviews, and popular pieces. He can be reached at marsella@hawaii.edu.