“Those who have believed in peace through the sword have not hesitated to die… They have laid down their lives by the millions. Why do we think that our way will be less costly? Unless we… are ready to start to die by the thousands in dramatic vigorous new exploits for peace and justice, we should sadly confess that we really never meant the cross was an alternative to the sword. Making peace is as costly as waging war.”

The world assembly of Mennonites was stunned, and electrified. Ron Sider’s challenge, in 1984, led directly to the creation of a new experiment in the history of Christianity – Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT). Together with Fr. Alain Richard and Peace Brigades International in Guatemala, and Gene Stoltzfus and Witness for Peace in Nicaragua, CPT gave birth to the idea of unarmed civilian peacemaking. CPT has had peacemaking teams in Haiti, Chiapas, the First Nations of Canada, and the Arizona desert. We currently have teams in Colombia, Iraq, and Palestine.

Palestine was occupied in 1967. Since then the government of Israel has moved more than half a million “settlers” into Palestine, and done countless things to pressure the Palestinians to “transfer” out (their word, not mine). They have built four settlements on the rooftops, literally, of Palestinian homes and shops inside the Old City of Hebron. In 1994, a settler, Baruch Goldstein, shot and killed 29 Muslims inside the mosque at the Tomb of Abraham. In desperation, the city asked CPT to establish a team as part of their very conservative Muslim community. I have served seven summers as part of that team.

We spend time visiting Palestinian families and listening to their stories. An elderly Muslim couple live around the corner from us in a home with a Star of David carved into the keystone of its archway. A Palestinian Jewish community existed in Hebron for many centuries before the Zionists arrived.

When we visited, this couple told us that, for years, at the end of Sabbath, settlers often come, uninvited, inside their home. The settlers search the house, and frighten them. The couple offer coffee to their uninvited “guests” (such is Arab hospitality). When Rabbi Moshe Levinger, an American and the leader of the settler movement, comes, he accepts their coffee (at this point, our translator looked very confused and confessed, “This makes no sense to me”).

So we have sat outside their home at the end of every Sabbath, for five years. And the Israeli officers guarding the settlers have quietly told the settlers to not enter their home.

But this past summer, when I, along with several other internationals, was watching their home (we do not normally work without other CPT-trained teammates, but we have recently been stretched very thin) the officers suddenly allowed the settlers to enter. I was quite frightened (we have been spit on or stoned by settlers on many occasions), but even more frightened for the elderly couple. So I walked in with the settlers, past the soldiers guarding them. But none of my international companions came in. Thankfully, the settlers stayed in the courtyard and did not enter their living quarters.

Afterwards, I asked the internationals why didn’t they come with me . They said they tried to, but the soldiers would not admit them. When they asked why the soldiers let me in, they said, “We know CPT. We trust them.”

She didn’t want to amplify negative vibrations but the reality was that she was about to be in a very uncomfortable situation. The owner of the tea house wasn’t around but urged her to close early and/or to call the police, since this is the typical pattern experienced by the business in previous years before the robberies they have experienced.

Namaste dear beloved rebels!

May this email find you anchored in truth and courage.

We know that there are people who have joined us for different reasons. My intent in writing this email is:

• to acknowledge the tough reality (of brothers and sisters who haven’t “seen the light” yet and they work as spies to undermine the movement);
• to learn from past student/workers movements;
• to question why some of us are joining this movement;
• to honor the millions of lives sacrificed for our generation to be at this conjuncture;
• and to encourage our passionate, dedicated, resilient, loving, courageous people to stick around with love in the face of fear and to treat all people as human beings.

In the past and in the present, we have seen how our comrades in Mexico, Colombia, many other parts of the World and in San Francisco (a couple of weeks ago, at the arrestees benefit party), have been victims of infiltration. I certainly don’t intend of making this a thread and, for this reason, won’t respond to any follow-up emails here.

In some way this email is directed to all the persons who think that to lie is ok; that to create stress among each other is fine; that to sell our soul to the crumbling empire won’t hurt our family and interests; that this “spy job” won’t tax your spirit. For those of you who think as such, I encourage you to look at the examples of some former CIA/FBI agents, who served as tools for genocide and oppression when they were young, but that now they are choosing to redeem themselves.

There is a long list of agents who have resigned “after they saw the light”. People like John R. Stockwell (War on Humans) or Philip Agee (at age 25 doing CIA missions in Latin America, including the massacre of hundreds of students in Mexico in 1968 -you can read the context and how the whole community was involved on part 1-) or John Perkins or this sister, and the list goes on and on… [not to mention Daniel Ellsberg (The Most Dangerous Man in America and the Pentagon Papers) or Howard Zinn or Joanna Macy who had a short-lived stint with the CIA too. So there is hope!]

This is the time to chose which side of history we wish to stand for. And if we pay attention, you don’t even need to talk to the John Stockwells/Joanna Macys ot the World. Just know, that there is a category of neurons, called mirror neurons, that are our best informants. Violence (physical, psychological, structural and emotional), hatred, secrecy, all increase our level of stress. Our organs will secrete hormones that will tax not only our spirit but also our body. Next time you are in “a mission” to disrupt or to lie or to hurt or to kill, pay attention to the reactions of your body and your mind.

When our beings experience understanding, equanimity, courage, trust, transparency and enthusiasm, we also release hormones. Then, pay attention to your sensations and feelings. That’s our movement, that’s our fearless contagious movement always putting love over fear (as expressed by former Black Panther Kathleen Cleaver -or should I say Kathleen _Clever_ due to her true intelligence?-). We are making a living not a killing.

A beloved wise sister, who gave me some feedback for this email, just reminded me of a conversation between Emerson and Thoreau (his student), when Emerson visited Thoreau in jail (who was arrested for doing civil disobedience) and asked, “Henry, what are you doing in there?” Thoreau replied, “Waldo, the question is what are _you_ doing _out_ there?”

This is an invitation to you agent, a precious opportunity to start your healing.

Which side are you going to pick? The totalitarianism of corporate capitalism death machine or the side of the alive engaging uprising of the Earth Community?

I hope you can join us for real, not after a few decades, but now. Just think/feel about it.

Also, this is an invitation for our people: please don’t waste your time and energy to figure out who are the infiltrators. Just figure out what are they holding over you (including the education industrial complex and secret agencies all together) and renounce it for complete freedom. Let’s learn how to stick around with love in the face of fear and let’s treat all people as human beings, with respect. That’s who we are. Their intention is to divide us with distrust and fear. Love can’t be divided.

¡Pa’lante mi gente! March4 is right there on the next corner! (by the way March4, looks like MarchA!)

I love you all, and yes, that includes all readers.

If you want to be a rebel, be kind. Human-kind, be both.
In radical love,
Planetizing the Movement of the Ahimsa (R)evolution from some corner of our round borderless country…
Pancho

That’s the title of Howard Zinn’s autobiography (1994) and the title only says it all. If we are on board of the train of greed, privatization and ignorance, aren’t we part of the ride? The time to stop the totalitarian-corporate-capitalistic train has come, and if it is not stopping, we better get ready to jump. For some time I wanted to find a clear metaphor to remove apathy from people and I think this is it. This train of neoliberal governments, corporations and society based on fear, pollution, consumerism, violence and war is approaching a canyon and there is no bridge. To not be aware, to remain sat in the face of economic/environmental injustice and destruction, to leave our children in the hands of the blind machinist (“the system”) while we sit comfortably in the entertainment wagon, is not “neutral” but _suicidal_.

The good news is that many of us have spotted  a new rail road, with a slowly moving train, a silent solar powered train, a transitioner train, a victory-of-the-commons train, a Great Turning train, an inner (r)evolution train, that is waiting for us to smoothly transfer. If we pay attention and look at the poverty, the ignorance, the apathy and the violence all around us, including our minds, there is no choice but to do something about it.

That’s what Howard Zinn did after he removed the veil of war that was covering his eyes and that made him to drop the first napalm bombs. After serving as a shipyard worker and then an Air Force bombardier in World War II, Zinn went on to become a lifelong dissident and activist. He went to college under the GI Bill, received his PhD from Columbia. As a professor at Spelman College in the late 1950s and early 1960s, he was an early faculty supporter of student civil rights agitation. Zinn wrote  SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee): The New Abolitionists (1964) one of the first books on the student organizing of the sixties. He was active in the civil rights movement and many of the struggles for social justice over the past half-century. He taught at Spelman College, the historically black college for women in Atlanta and was fired for “insubordination”: for standing up for the women. Zinn was fired from his — tenured — position for siding with student activists against the administration. Little did they know that they encouraged him more to stand up for freedom and justice (as this short video shows: Empire or Humanity? What the classroom didn’t teach me about the American Empire). It only strengthened his satyagraha.

Satyagraha is the power unleashed from the depths of the human spirit. This is the force which is born of truth and love or nonviolence. It is far from passivity or submission to evil. Satyagraha implies a dynamic resistance to personal, social, economic and political exploitation. But we must use the weapon of love. We must expose the injustices to the apathetic population. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Structural violence (in the form of poverty and exploitation), physical violence (as police brutality) and psychological violence (i.e. consumerism) continue the fracture of community. So, yes, we stand up to the violation of community; yes, we stand up to the violation of personhood; but we don’t exacerbate the fracture of community with more violence. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Martin Luther King Jr.

Perhaps the great affinity I feel towards Howard Zinn comes from his nonviolent/anarchist perspective:

“The rule of law does not do away with the unequal distribution of wealth and power, but reinforces that inequality with the authority of law. It allocates wealth and poverty in such calculated and indirect ways as to leave the victim bewildered.”

As he said in the short video above (the one about civil disobedience): “The law is not holly.” In other words, as an anarchist, the only law he followed was the Law of Love, or in Gandhi’s words:

“Political power, in my opinion, cannot be our ultimate aim. It is one of the means used by men for their all-around advancement. The power to control national life through national representatives is called political power. Representatives will become unnecessary if the national life becomes so perfect as to be self-controlled. It will then be a state of enlightened anarchy in which each person will become (her)his own ruler. (S)He will conduct (her)himself in such a way that (her)his behavior will not hamper the well being of (her)his neighbors. In an ideal State there will be no political institution and therefore no political power.”

Howard Zinn physically died yesterday and his legacy is enormous. Published almost 3 decades ago, A People’s History of the United States (1980) is a book that has sold more than two million copies, continues to sell more copies each successive year and changed the lives of countless people. This classic changed the way many U.S. citizens look at history in this part of the Planet. Several actors and activists joined the effort to awake more hearts and consciousness and participated in the vibrant project: The People Speak. Also, here is a collection of his appearances in Democracy Now!

“We can not be secure by limiting our liberties, as some of our political leaders are demanding, but only by expanding them…We should take our example not from the military and political leaders shouting ‘retaliate’ and ‘war’ but from the doctors and nurses and … firemen and policemen who have been saving lives in the midst of mayhem, whose first thoughts are not violence, but healing, and not vengeance, but compassion.”

“What matters is not who’s sitting in the White House. What matters is who’s sitting in!”

“Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.”

These Zinn’s quotes might be Michael Nagler’s version of: “Ultimately the creation of a new paradigm in the contemporary society is not about putting the right kind of people in power, but the right kind of power in people.”

Howard Zinn, an inspiring satyagrahi who awoke millions of hearts will be always present in the Universal Love rebellions to come.

Are you coming? Are we transferring together to get on board of the Earth Community train? Then, Rise up! It is the next stop. Actually, some of us are already WALKing…

In radical love,
Planetizing the Movement of the Ahimsa (R)evolution from some corner of our round borderless country…

This is a letter landed in many of our inboxes this morning. The movement to not save, but to transform public education is getting stronger. It is necessary to expand the movement to other sectors of the class that are impacted by the crisis, because this is not an economic but a leadership crisis, a crisis of priorities. In Chinese, the pictogram for the word crisis is “dangerous opportunity”. The purpose of a crisis is to point us in a direction, to show us the danger and to point us to an opportunity.

So, parents, children, workers, students, teachers, faculty and citizens of the World: Awake, Arise and Act!

California Public Schools in Crises

We are writing you this letter to ask you to stand up for your sons and daughters, and the public education they must have to survive and thrive in the 21st Century.

Last year, the politicians cut public school funding by more than $5,300,000,000. This year they tell us they’re going to cut even more. They justify themselves by citing all sorts of statistics, but education is not about statistics, it’s about children. And most parents know that their kids in public school are not receiving the education they need. We don’t need to be mathematicians to know that:

• Class sizes are too large because there’s not enough money to hire teachers, and too much is being spent on managers and bureaucrats.
• Many schools are in such poor repair as to be unsafe, with not enough money for maintenance.
• There are constant and worsening shortages of materials, supplies, and equipment.
• Enrichment programs in languages, sports, art, music, and other areas being slashed or eliminated.
• Pre-Kindergarten and Adult Education programs areas being slashed or eliminated.
• Critical positions such as nurses, librarians, counselors, and janitors are being eliminated.
  

They tell us that these cutbacks are because of the current economic crisis, but that’s not true. They’ve been cutting public education for years, long before this latest crises. Proposition 13 was supposed to relieve citizens burdened by excessive property taxes, but most of the benefit went to big business and commercial landlords. Corporations used to pay the majority of education-related taxes, but their share has steadily been reduced so that now individual taxpayers have to carry most of the load, and there is no longer enough money to adequately fund public education even in the good times, let alone the bad.

They tell us that public education provides equal opportunity for all, but every parent in California knows that there are rich districts and poor districts, “good” schools and “bad” schools. And despite all the rhetoric and promises, everyone knows that public schools serving Black and Latino communities get the short end of the stick, that non-white students receive unequal punishment and discipline, and that educational inequality is part of a pattern that cannot be separated from job discrimination, inadequate housing, lack of health care, and unsafe streets. In the words of Dr. King, the promise of equality in America is … a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.”

They tell us that the only way to hold schools and teachers accountable is by imposing one-size-fits-all regulations decreed by distant bureaucrats. But children are not standardized assembly-line parts, and neither are individual schools or school districts. Who can best determine what each child needs, the parents and teachers who see them every day, or officials in Sacramento and Washington? Yes, kids have to be educated to meet the requirements of the 21st Century. And they also need an education that helps them grow into thoughtful and caring individuals capable of living productive, meaningful lives and function as empowered citizens in a democratic society. But teachers and parents must have a voice in how each school and classroom achieves those goals. Instead of centralizing total control in the capitol, local communities—parents and teachers together—need the power to hold the system accountable and to support those schools and programs that are succeeding, and to change those that fail to educate the children.

They tell us that charter schools are the answer to all our problems, but both charter and public schools get their funds from the same inadequate source. Pitting public and charter schools against each other in a losing battle for dwindling resources diverts us from the real issue—Sacramento’s refusal to provide a quality public education to all.

Now is the time to take action.

For more info: March 4th Strike and Day of Action

January, 2010

Download audio file (Martin-Luther-King-Jr-by-Aliza-Hava.mp3)

Dear President Mubarak,

We, representing 1,362 individuals from 43 countries arriving in Cairo to participate in the Gaza Freedom March, are pleading to the Egyptians and your reputation for hospitality. We are peacemakers. We have not come to Egypt to create trouble or cause conflict. On the contrary. We have come because we believe that all people — including the Palestinians of Gaza — should have access to the resources they need to live in dignity. We have gathered in Egypt because we believed that you would welcome and support our noble goal and help us reach Gaza through your land.

As individuals who believe in justice and human rights, we have spent our hard-earned, and sometimes scarce, resources to buy plane tickets, book hotel rooms and secure transportation only to stand in solidarity with the Palestinians of Gaza living under a crushing Israeli blockade. We are doctors, lawyers, students, academics, poets and musicians. We are young and old. We are Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists and secular. We represent civil society groups in many countries who coordinated this large project with the civil society in Gaza. We have raised tens of thousands of dollars for medical aid, school supplies and winter clothing for the children of Gaza. But we realize that in addition to material aid, the Palestinians of Gaza need moral support. We came to offer that support on the difficult anniversary of an invasion that brought them so much suffering.

The idea of the Gaza Freedom March—a nonviolent march to the Israeli Erez crossing– emerged during one of our trips to Gaza in May, a trip that was kindly facilitated by the Egyptian government. Ever since the idea emerged, we have been talking to your government through your embassies overseas and directly with your Foreign Ministries. Your representatives have been kind and supportive. We were asked to furnish information about all the participants—passports, dates of birth, occupations—which we have done in good faith. We have answered every question, met every request. For months we have been working under the assumption that your government would facilitate our passage, as it has done on so many other occasions. We waited and waited for an answer. Meanwhile, time was getting short and we had to start organizing. Travel over the Christmas season is not easy in the countries where many of us live. Tickets have to be purchased weeks, if not months, in advance. This is what all 1,362 individuals did. They spent their own funds or raised money from their communities to pay their way. Add to this the priceless time, effort and sacrifice by all these people to be away from their homes and loved ones during their festive season.

In Gaza, civil society groups—students, unions, women, farmers, refugee groups—have been working nonstop for months to organize the march. They have organized workshops, concerts, press conferences, endless meetings—all of this with their own scarce resources. They have been buoyed by the anticipated presence of so many global citizens coming to support their just cause. If the Egyptian government decides to prevent the Gaza Freedom March, all this work and cost is lost. And that’s not all. It is practically impossible, this late in the game, to stop all these people from travelling to Egypt, even if we wanted to. Moreover, most have no plans in Egypt other than to arrive at a predetermined meeting point to head together to the Gaza border.

If these plans are cancelled there will be a lot of unjustified suffering for the Palestinians of Gaza and over a thousand internationals who had nothing in mind but noble intentions. We plead to you to let the Gaza Freedom March continue so that we can join the Palestinians of Gaza to march together on December 31, 2009. We are truly hopeful that we will receive a positive response from you and thank you for your assistance.

Tighe Barry, Gaza Freedom March coordinator

Medea Benjamin, CODEPINK, USA

Olivia Zemor, Euro-Palestine, France

David Torres, ECCP, Belgium

Germano Monti, Forum Palestine, Italy

Ziyaad Lunat, Gaza Freedom March, Europe

Ehab Lotayef, Gaza Freedom March, Canada

Alessandra Mecozzi, Action for Peace-Italy

Ann Wright, Gaza Freedom March coordinator

Kawthar Guediri, Collectif National pour une Paix Juste et Durable entre Palestinens et Israeliens, France

Mark Johnson, Fellowship of Reconciliation

Thomas Sommer, Focus on The Global South, India

Open Letter from Concerned Members of the Faculty to Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau,

We, the undersigned faculty, are writing to voice our strenuous objection to the use of unwarranted violence by the police forces enlisted by the University of California  (UC) at Berkeley to patrol the student demonstration outside of Wheeler Hall on Friday, November 20th. It is now abundantly clear that in addition to UC Police, there were squads from the City of Berkeley and Alameda County, and that some of these police forces acted with undue violence at various points during the day, most conspicuously at mid-day and then again in late afternoon when they used batons against students and a faculty member. In some cases this occurred to defenseless people who had already been pushed to the ground, among them several who sustained injuries to hands, heads, and stomachs, and were forced to seek urgent medical care. These abuses of police power were captured on video recordings and in photographs, corroborated by numerous witnesses. They have now been widely circulated on the web and throughout the national and international media. We will send you a composite of those websites and testimonies under separate cover.

These documents clearly show that the students were acting in a nonviolent manner when their civil rights were abrogated by police harassment and assault. Such instances of unprovoked police brutality would be appalling and objectionable anywhere, but we find it most painful for these events to have taken place on the UC Berkeley campus, given the important tradition of protecting free speech that you, Chancellor Birgeneau, have only very recently defended. Hence we regard with dismay and astonishment your euphemistic reference to these Friday’s violence: “a few members of our campus community may have found themselves in conflict with law enforcement officers.” There is no doubt that our students and colleagues did find themselves subject to unwarranted and illegal police brutality. It is therefore incumbent on the Chancellor of UC Berkeley to condemn such actions unequivocally and to make sure that such actions are subject to comprehensive review and disciplinary action.

Accordingly, we the undersigned demand that the university assume full accountability for the actions of the police forces active on campus on Friday, November 20th. We call for the administration immediately to convene an impartial and comprehensive investigation of the abuse of police power that resulted, making broad use of available testimony on the part of victims and observers, including photographic images, video and personal narration of those at the scene in order to establish a clear record of the facts. We ask as well that you speak directly and honestly to the students about what has happened. They are entitled to know that the university does not condone acts of police violence such as these; as of this writing, they have received no word from the administration acknowledging accountability for such appalling actions. Indeed, the administration was markedly unreachable on Friday, when faculty were most pressed to take on a mediating role.

We ask that you widely publicize the current protocols governing police conduct at demonstrations, and ascertain whether protocol was followed or abrogated on Friday. The entire community is also surely entitled to know that clear steps will be taken to revise protocols regarding police conduct at student demonstrations–protocols that will be binding on any police force brought on campus. It should also make clear that disciplinary actions will be taken against police officers found guilty of assault. Finally we ask for a public statement reconfirming the University’s commitment to protect the rights of free expression and assembly for students on the Berkeley campus.

We want to underscore how important it is for the campus for you to convene an investigation and to take administrative responsibility for protecting the safety of students as well as their rights of assembly and expression. Friday’s failure to do so is a most painful public display of how far UC Berkeley has strayed from its historical responsibility as a national and international institution pledged to rights of free speech and assembly and to the ideals of social justice. It is surely difficult enough to see our reputation as an excellent and affordable university jeopardized through budget cuts and fee hikes. Must we see as well the dissolution of the ideal of protecting free speech for students for whom the very future of their education is at stake?

Signed:

Elizabeth Abel, English

Alice Merner Agogino, Mechanical Engineering

Norma Alarcon, Ethnic Studies

Albert Russell Ascoli, Italian

Paola Bacchetta, Gender and Women’s Studies

Jeanne Bamberger, Music and Urban Education

Patricia Baquedano-López, Graduate School of Education

Joi Barrios-Leblanc, South and Southeast Asian Studies

Brian Barsky, Computer Science

Lisa Bedolla, Education

Emilie Bergmann, Spanish and Portuguese

John Bishop, English

Déborah Blocker, French

Jean-Paul Bourdier, Architecture

Daniel Boyarin, Near Easteren Studies and Rhetoric

Karl Britto, French and Comparative Literature

Natalie Brizuela. Spanish and Portuguese

Wendy Brown, Political Science

Michael Burawoy, Sociology

Judith Butler, Rhetoric and Comparative Literature

Brandi Wilkins Catanese, Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies

Timothy Clark, History of Art Catherine Cole, Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies

Vasudha Dalmia, South and Southeast Studies

Prachi Delpande, History

Clelia Donovan, Spanish and Portuguese

Beshara Doumani, History

Robert Dudley, Integrative Biology

Laurent El Ghaoui, Engineering

Peter Evans, Sociology

Jerry Feldman, EECS

Keith Feldman, Ethnic Studies

Mariane Ferme, Anthropology

Mia Fuller, Italian

Peter Glazer, Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies

Evelyn Nakano Glenn, Ethnic Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies

Steven Goldsmith, English

Ramón Grosfoguel, Ethnic Studies

Suzanne Guerlac, French

Andrew Paul Gutierrez, Ecosystem Science

Angela Harris, Boalt School of Law

Gillian Hart, Geography

Cori Hayden, Anthropology

Tyrone Hayes, Integrative Biology

Lyn Hejinian, English

David Henkin, History

Charles Hirschkind, Anthropology

John Hurst, Graduate School of Education

Toni Johnston, Education

Andrew Jones, East Asian Languages and Culture

Alan Karras, IAS

Elaine Kim, Ethnic Studies

Patrick Kirsch, Anthropology and Integrative Biology

Georgia Kleege, English

Jake Kosek, Geography

Claire Kramsch, German

Chana Kronfeld, Near Eastern and Comparative Literature

George Lakoff, Linguistics

Katherine Lee, College Writing

Gregory Levine, History of Art

Michael Lucey, French and Comparative Literature

Richard Norgaard, Energy and Resources

Saba Mahmood, Anthropology

Francine Masiello, Spanish and Comparative Literature

Susan Maslan, French

Minoo Moallem, Gender and Women’s Studies

Davitt Moroney, Music

Carlos Muos, Ethnic Studies

Ramona Naddaff, Rhetoric

Rasmus Nielsen, Integrative Biology

Dan O’Neill, East Asian Languages and Literatures

Abena Dore Osseo-Asare, History

Stefania Pandolfo, Anthropology

Nancy Peluso, Environmental Science

Della Peretti, Education

Daniel Perlstein, Graduate School of Education

Kevin Padian, Integrative Biology

Kent Puckett, English

Robert Rhew, Geography

Christine Rosen, Haas School of Business

Ananya Roy, City and Regional Planning

Jeff Salbin, Boalt School of Law

Debarati Sanyal, French

Scott Saul, English

Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Anthropology

Sue Schweik, English

Ingrid Seyer-Ochi, Education

Katherine Sherwood, Art Practice

Kaja Silverman, Rhetoric and Film Studies

Jeffrey Skoller, Film Studies

Sandra Smith, Sociology

Katherine Snyder, College Writing

Janet Sorensen, English

Ann Smock, French

Shannon Steen, Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies

Alan Tansman, East Asian Languages

Estelle Tarica, Spanish and Portuguese

Barrie Thorne, Sociology, Gender and Women’s Studies

Sylvia Tiwon, South and Southeast Asian Studies

Soraya Tlatli, French

Linda Tredway, Education

Trinh Minh-Ha, Rhetoric, Gender and Women’s Studies

David Tse, EECS

Susan Ubbelohde, Architecture

Paula Varsano, East Asian Languages

Sophie Volpp, Comparative Literature

Anne Wagner, History of Art

L. Ling-Chi Wang, Ethnic Studies

Michael Watts, Geography

Leon Wofsy, Molecular and Cell Biology

Alexei Yurchak, Anthropology

On September 24th, called to direct action by university faculty, workers and students, thousands walked out of the classrooms, offices, and labs at the University of California, Berkeley. We stood shoulder-to-shoulder on Sproul Plaza, in numbers not seen for decades. Our message bears repeating: “Whose university? Our university!”

Now, in defense of our university, in defense of public education, and in defense of our community, we’re opening the doors—and opening the books! As the Daily Cal reported on Monday, many campus libraries are being forced to close on the weekends due to budget cuts. We aren’t only losing our study space; major staff layoffs across the UC system mean that people are also losing their jobs. These libraries are the symbolic heart of the university. And the university will simply not survive if its heart beats only six days a week.

In response to this attack on education we are calling a “study-in” On Friday, October 9, at 4:30 pm in the anthropology library in Kroeber Hall. On this crucial weekend before midterms, when the doors of many campus libraries are supposed to close, we will say NO! We will stay, we will keep the doors open—and we will study for our midterms.

But we want to be clear that we’re not “taking over” the library. We are actively consulting with staff to ensure that the library and its contents remain safe and our “cleaning commission” will make sure that we leave things are in even better order than we found them. We have considerable support from university faculty, who will be present to offer teach-ins and facilitate dialogue during the study-in. Together, we’ll be reclaiming our libraries as a creative space for learning and teaching the issues we face during this budget crisis.

By taking this action, we are stepping up to our responsibility not only as members of this university and this campus, but also as Californians—as the owners of the university—to have an earnest discussion coupled with strategic planning on what we want public education to look like.  And we already know what public education doesn’t look like: the UC administration.

So let us be very clear that the “real problem” isn’t just the elected legislature in Sacramento, but the unelected UC administration. The Board of Regents is an undemocratic body, directly appointed by the governor and not subject to university oversight. UC President Mark Yudof has invoked “emergency powers” to systematically ignore the input, demands and alternative proposals of faculty, students, and staff. At Berkeley, Chancellor Birgeneau hired consulting firm Bain & Company for the hefty sum of $3 million, to “streamline” the “business” of public education and concentrate even more power in the hands of the UC senior administration.

And let us not forget that privatizing our university has been on the UC administration’s agenda for years. Student fees have increased by over 300 percent in the last decade. In 1993 the faculty/senior manager ratio was 2.5:1, this year it is 1:1. This increase in senior management has added an estimated $791,981,440 to overall UC expenses. In 2004 a different (also overcompensated) UC President signed a compact promising to seek private funding to enable the state to continue defunding the University. While overall University funding is slashed, the UC administration continues to be richly rewarded for its oversight of these cuts.

The purpose of our walkout was to take power back from the UC administration, by shutting down the university and waking us up to a common cause. On Friday, we’ll be pulling an all-nighter to reopen a part of the university that has been closed to us. So we ask all students to join us—study for your midterms and transform the UC at the same time!

LETTER of a graduate student to the Chair of the Anthropology Department at UC Berkeley

Dear Prof. Joyce,

We haven’t had the chance to meet personally yet, but I’m a first-year Ph.D student in sociocultural anthropology. I’m also one of a number of students from various departments who has been working to organize a “study-in” this Friday through Saturday in the anthropology library. This Friday afternoon, prior to the library’s regular closing time, students, faculty, and staff will gather in the library with the intention of keeping it open from Friday until what used to be the closing time on Saturday.

I want to be clear that we’re not “taking over” the library. We’re in the process of consulting with staff to ensure that the library and its contents remain safe and in the same order we found them. Our decision to take action to keep the library open stems from a recognition of the immense value of this space and of the staff that tends to it, as well as its symbolic status as the heart of a thriving research university.

The university cannot survive if its heart only beats six days a week. This weekend — the crucial weekend leading up to midterms — students have been told that they can’t access their libraries. While the purpose of the walkout was to shut the university down in order to wake the people up, the purpose of this study-in will be to open up a part of the university that has been locked away from the students and the people of California.

We hope to create a space that is both conducive to studying and writing papers, as well as a creative space for learning and teaching about the issues we face during this budget crisis. It is our responsibility not only as members of this university and this campus, but also as Californians — as the owners of the university — to have an earnest discussion coupled with strategic planning on what we want public education to look like.

We have already garnered considerable support for this action. Approximately twenty faculty members have voiced interest in the study-in, and are currently deciding how they may best get involved. That includes members of this department who have offered teach-ins.

It is my personal hope as a new member of the Anthropology Department, that we — students, faculty, and staff — will have a visible presence at this weekend’s study-in. It is, after all, our library. I invite you, Prof. Joyce, along with the whole faculty, to support our efforts, to encourage your GSIs offer midterm study sessions the library, to join us, to offer teach-ins either inside the library or in front of it — to participate however you see fit.

If you are interested in holding a teach-in on the budget or related issues, please let me know of your availability before 10:30 pm tonight, when I will be working out the schedule. We are currently working on arranging childcare outside of the library if it will be helpful.

Thank you very much. I hope to see you this weekend.

Between Zero and ONE
I’m busy finding the infinite ways that I love you,
and if you listen carefully to the Milky Way,
you will hear, my angel, that she is busy loving you too.

I want you, my dear, to conceive the largest number your mind is capable of imagining…

How many cells have been nourished as units of life for humanity to exist?
How many minutes in silence have the still-minds of all the planet’s satyagrahis spent to continue the kindness revolution?
How many leaves have been kissed by the Sun?
How many molecules of air have been dancing in the atmosphere?
How many droplets of water have been flowing freely on the skin of the Earth?
How many worlds and stars and galaxies had stood over you all night keeping watch?
How many photons live inside the body of the Cosmos?
How many shining eyes are there in all the children of Nature?

If you listen carefully to the Milky Way,
you will hear, my angel, that she is busy loving you too, with all her stars as ONE;
she is busy loving you with each spark of life;
she is busy loving you and loving me and loving every single being that has ever inhabited this world;
she is busy loving us with a unified impermanent breath and with her intoxicating scent of oneness.

Then the multiverse of universes counts without counting and resets my soul,
because reducing ourselves to Zero is where we all converge to start again.

This is how we are still busy finding the infinite ways that we love you,
between Zero and ONE.

The Glorious Kiss
Wait patiently, My Angel,
sitting still at the edge of the non-observable universe.
Then, escaping from polarity, injustice, duality and gravity,
my action will travel at the speed of Love,
among black egos and supermassive fears.

Wait in complete trust, Beloved One,
in the field of supreme awareness and courage.
Then, the most tender kiss, the cosmic caress,
will kiss your soul and embrace your heart.

Feel the soft lips, Divine One, of our kind insurgent stars,
our supreme source of freedom and light,
the magnificent delight,
that comes from tasting the oneness nectar of life.

What’s her name?
Only when her loving eyes pierce you to the bone of your fearlessness;
only when her kindness invites you a tea of reflection;
only when her irresistible smile illuminates the Himalayas of your potential;
only when her solitude meets the sunlight of your soul;
only when her refreshing waters quench the thirst of your boredom;
only when her powerful presence encourages your abundance in the garden of life;
only when her generous service sweeps away your ego from the floor of justice;
only when her celestial silence attracts the hummingbird of your innate beauty;
only when her gracious walk resonates with the lights, and shadows and colors of the branches and leaves of your creativity;
only when her soft arms of Bay hug and embrace the Ocean of your being;
only when her divine goodbyes kiss the welcomes of your stillness.
Only then, you will know her name.
Her name is Freedom.

Uprising of Souls
You are our revolution who started in the wombs of our mothers.
The communion of colorful-fresh-local-organic acts of kindness
reflected in an historic sunset,
a landscape of the conjunction of Venus, the Moon and Justice,
a celestial date that inspires lovers, poets and rebels,
who count the mix of emancipated photons as ONE, with each subversive kiss…
with every kiss of every lover of all the lovers that have ever lived.

Once the land and freedom have called you with a: ¡Ya Basta!
your heart, Beautiful One, can no longer live without real love,
because how do we sell the land that people walk upon?
How do we sell the precious liquid compound that keeps us alive?
How do we sell the air?
How do we sell our Mother?
How do we sell the Sun?
How do we sell the Moon?
How do we sell the stars?

Your joyous God will give all as a gift with no strings attached.
Even the engagement rings of Saturn
with their astonishingly beauty,
worn on your community fingers,
as a cooperative, locally rooted, self-organized movement marriage.

That’s your true nature.
The independence you have been waiting for…
and the Galaxy has laid her ancient love at your feet
to witness, in service and solidarity,
the courageous mass awakening of the peoples
living on the pale blue diamond.

The blazing upraising of souls
seeking for the beautiful warmth
of your heart’s fire.

Would you like to WALK with an Angel?
It is your force born of truth and love.
You come from silence, and you speak your truth.
You cannot be quieted, because your voice is within everyone.
What I experience and seek is glorious
beyond compare, something far beyond anybody’s capacity
to render into thoughts and words.

The overcast of the soul
an Angel converts
into a shinny present moment.
It is incredible that you, My Angel, cleared the sky of injustice
and the joyous forest of my heart was happy to feel
your gentle but firm freedom sunlight steps
on the fertile ground of fearlessness.

And I heard millions of tears of joy, falling from above,
I smelled a symphony of inspiration,
in a feast of redwoods witnessing our awakening
while telling us that life is a Cosmic intervention in every detail.
Then the resistance gardens of my lungs
were filled with the oxygen of courage and compassion.

What is more full of life?
The after-rain in the green dense growth of trees,
another Universe’s party sharing the surplus, or
the alive Amazon in your kind eyes,
and the droplets of hope hanging for just one more second
onto the beautiful flowers and leafs and dreams
for they never give up what they believe in?

And even a dying bush is a miracle
seen by the light of your forgiving eyes,
those drops of satyagraha defying the authority of the gravity of poverty…
millions of mirrors hanging in there, alive, with their transparency,
in a revolution of beauty and generosity,
reflecting your face in every direction.

The equanimity of generations of thirsty citizen ferns
who have patiently waited for the rain of justice
and have learnt the lesson of billions of years of cooperation
while observing competitive aggressive species
coming and going.

The soft fresh carpet of colorful green mosses
capturing the awe of our moistening evolution,
kissing the trunk of a graceful Ahimsa oak
in the winter of scarcity.

Then the roaring of the wind and a choir of crisis
intimidating for its invitation to fly above the crumbling structures…
a majestic concert of percussions of molecules
knocking the resistance drums of our skin
embracing our two times 30 trillion cells…
and we stop WALKing and pretend that we fly with open arms
and then the wise red tail hawk shows us the way:
unperturbed by the currents of change,
sees the clouds passing by in stillness, flying in stillness,
sharing the secret of how the divine reveals to life.

My Dear you say it is just the flow of life
and I only surrender to the Angel of My Angel.
because there is no way I can get lost,
there is no way I can fall,
with your love as support
in this impermanent World.

Because the beauty lies
in the realization that
when we WALK with an angel,
you will fly in stillness
within the Cosmos of your being,
and you will loose all notions of boundaries
to join the timeless universality of our Clear Light.

Nothing in the Universe can prevent the collapse
of the luminous star before a supernova,
as my love for you, and for humanity, My Angel,
is unstoppable.

WALK with an Angel and feel the radiation of the explosion of the New Renaissance;
WALK with an Angel and create the building blocks of community;
WALK with an Angel and let our own light shine;
WALK with an Angel and feel how we are liberated from our own fear;
WALK with an Angel and witness how our presence automatically liberates others;
WALK with an Angel and understand that we are not leaderless but leader-full.

Your Angel awaits in the mantram of your breath,
and in between your inhale and exhale,
I will join you in our Cosmic celebration.

Please WALK with your Angel, Our Angel, and fly with us.

1Music2Unify and the TREEvolution
You just awakened the poet and rapper in me,
the soul-force and satyagraha said Gandhiji

The longest night 
gives way to the stronger lights 
so that I prolong this fight 
to what’s wrong it’s right.

‘cuz the Universe is a communion of subjects
not a collection of objects.
Be the change and feel life’s interconnectedness
while weaving solidarity, truth and kindness.

We are planetizing the movement
with every action, in every moment,
with the peoples of the Earth, 
and every revolutionaries’ breath,
with the emancipated borders,
with the courage of the warriors and the passion of the lovers.

And Mohandas awoke, and Cesar fasted, and Rosa sat, and Martin walked, and Barack ran and Yes! We can!

And this is our core, our strength and unity:
to evolve from consumerism to community,
and it’s not new, it’s as ancient as Astronomy
Do you feel me bro? It’s just the old gift-economy! ;-) 


Fearless Service
Be kind to your sleeping heart,
take it out to the vast fields of light
and let it breathe.
I used to have an armor
around my spirit
and then I learnt
that clad in the panoply of love
human hatred cannot reach you.

Now the Universe is hiding again in my heart
and I cannot cease to celebrate.

Bring the face of your Beloved before you
as I do when I see your face
in the sky of your dancing joy.
Then you put your lips on my lips
and lit another holy lamp inside my heart.

It is ecstasy to discover
that your unbearable Divine Light,
My Angel, is inside of me too.
I don’t know more than you do,
because I am your other you
and you are my other I,
the balanced Cosmic Communion of WE,
in service for all.

The Inner Revolution
After a deep meditation,
I felt the sweet breath of Mahatmaji,
surrounding me…

He wiped the cold tear in my cheek
and he whispered his advise in my ear:
“In the middle of a warm hug
and her gorgeous smile,
tell her: I love you, I forgive you, I bless you,
I’m still committed to you
and, I trust you and your higher-self”.

As I was delivering the message to My Life,
his astronomical magic appeared
and never left my stronger heart in bliss
because each heartbeat is the softest kiss.

Awakened Flight
It is our responsibility to try to persuade our people to not walk over the cliff.
If we fail to show them the different paths of light to change their belief,
it is also our responsibility to construct, for all,
a net of kindness, love and compassion for their fall.

Love and Life: The Quintessential Symbiosis
Our star, blind is
to the beauty of Earth without sunlight
and futile are the attempts of life
to survive without these unconditional love rays.

…the radiant glorious Full Moon
is just a fierce mirror of the source of life;
and the humble New Moon
loves the right time for action to eclipse your heart…

in between thoughts;
in between the sighs of the photons of love;
your presence, my dear, immersed when exhale becomes inhale…
that’s when we know that the best revenge is forgiveness
when in the silent-passionate-song of the spirit
we understand that the exquisite rhapsody of souls
converge in the infinite silence
where we are not “we” but ONE.

This deep silence, a serenade to the soul,
as shivers tingled down the length
of the essence of my essence
and your music, Beloved One,
transcend senses and generations,
because our uncovered Self is clearly infinite
in the great and in the small.
That’s the everlasting changeless nature of impermanence:
the wellspring of life.

How can I love life so intensely without grasping it at the heart?
How can I make truth real without living it at thought, word and action?
How can I serve all life without feeling inseparable from the Universe?
How can life manifest without your sunlight?
How can life be brought to clear focus without the awareness of death?
How can truth be transmitted without touching one another’s soul?

Who would not welcome us, my angel, when our heart is filled with nothing but love?

Love and Life,
as the non fragmented existence of our collective being,
as a fractal of compassion, courage and wisdom,
is the Quintessential Symbiosis.


The Generous Photon
How do you thank the persistent photon whose 150-million-kilometer pilgrimage,
in the middle of the winter,
ended up in your skin with a warm kiss?

Or the historic ones who traveled 5 times that distance and more,
during the obscurantism show,
to illuminate those glorious moons
that brought Humanity’s Renaissance four centuries ago?

Have you ever welcomed, with the windows of your soul,
those pieces of light who have bounced off from the rings of Saturn?
What did you say? What did you feel? What is your almighty role?

Have you assimilated, my angel,
that letter of love from the Universe
describing a brave photon from Andromeda,
who left his home in a poetic verse,
2.5 million years ago,
and traveled for trillions of dark miles
with the only purpose
to greet your fascinating eyes
immersed in astonishment with the Magnificent Divine?

Thus, Beloved One, your millions of tenacious photons of love and courage
permeate every corner of this planet.
It is their unstoppable loadstone task,
to reach your charming beating magnet,
and more sooner than later, those photons of The Great Turning
will merge with your servant heart, my darling.

Even if it is just one, wouldn’t you be grateful?

The existence of a photon satyagrahi,  
dispel darkness and brings light.
She says to my ear:
“Light is my nature… what else but light could there be in me?”
For she to be, means to shine.
Giving light is natural for a star. So what’s your star my dear?

Then is when I realized that a photon lives in community too.
Individual photons, from the same source, become ONE wave, not we, not two.
A quantum mystery for your continuous divine path.

It is our collective co-creation of magical light,
a chain of generous photons
moving in stillness at the speed of love
producing smiles.

The illegal lover
The Moon shines in my body 
and so is the Sun and the planets and the stars and the galaxies.
The beautiful light of eternity is within me
but my blind eyes cannot see it.

Then I decided to become your lover…

My love for you, my angel, is written in the history of time
and I need no papers to show it.
My home is everywhere I go, including your heart,
and I need no permission to stay in this part of the planet,
because I adore you.

Bureaucrazy asked for a green card 
but I only have a red heart 
saying your name, Beloved One, in every heartbeat.

And you might build prisons, and borders and walls
but how does the air know the difference?
How do the stars stop shining in the side of your country?
How do the currents in the Oceans stop flowing in between imaginary lines?
How do the magical meteor showers discriminate the non-real divisions below?
How does the Earth pass customs to enter into the SOULar System?
How does the Moon can be chased by “la migra”?
How does the Milky Way get deported from the night sky?
How does the Sun show her passport?
How do the undocumented clouds are blocked from flying to your town?
How do you know the nationality of the oxygen molecules visiting your lungs?
How does the fierce hurricane of my love can be delayed to reach the coasts of your heart?

This is my immigrant illegal love for you:
to block the gates of weapons of hate
to liberate libraries
to emancipate public spaces
to work the land
to nourish your body 
to cherish your soul
to conquer your heart 
with my unconditional love for you, your children and the children of your children.

My illegal love has existed since the beginning of time…
and, as the letters of a lover, as your first kiss, 
you will remember us as new worlds to be discovered.

As citizens of the World,
our illegal love has existed since the beginning of time… 
when you look into our eyes, my dear, 
when we look into each other sunshines 
you will understand how much we love you,
because this is an unconditional timeless borderless love 
that has crossed the entire Universe with the only purpose to hug you.

As citizens of the World,
our planetary letters will penetrate the walls of prisons 
to tear down the imperial dehumanization 
with hope, truth, detachment and love.

As citizens of the World,
our visa is that of the disobedient-servant-cross-pollinating monarch butterflies 
or that of the subversive meditative gray whales.
We will cross the oceans to heal your children
and to bring smiles to your communities.

In an illegal Big Bang of service in stillness, 
our humble love for you, my angel, 
is filling your Supreme Soul 
with an ever expanding happiness, aliveness and joy.

About Radical Love
So, Beloved One, you asked what does it mean to love you subversively?

To serve with no strings attached, just for the sake of giving, that’s subversive.
To call you my family in the optical delusion of separateness, that’s subversive.
To greet you with a kiss and a hug in the isolation paradigm, that’s subversive.
So, my dear, feel my lips, my arms and my unconditional service holding you tight, 
embracing you in community.

To walk and to ride a bike when the sweating-spiraling-pale-blue pearl already passed 350, that’s subversive.
A community garden in the midst of the asphalt jungle, that’s subversive.
To plant a tree not for us but for future generations to rejoice, that’s subversive.
So, my angel, enjoy the fresh-organic-superlocal honey of our dreams, shadows and juicy fruits of harmony.

To visit 2 million flower homes to extract a pound of sweet smiles, that’s subversive.
To cook once a week for more than a decade while opening the doors of your home to everybody, that’s subversive.
A Wednesday, a kitchen, a clinic, a farm stand, a magazine, a museum, a filmmaker… 
all ran by love in a materialistic society, that’s subversive.
So, my dear, make prophets not profits, and be subversive.

To listen emphatically when everybody talks, that’s subversive.
To be in silence in the urban brazen din and noise, that’s subversive.
Ildefonso, a 27 year old deaf languageless brother who wasn’t able to understand the concept of “country”, that’s subversive.
The same brother asking why in “dark skin land” he starves but in “light skin land” he doesn’t, that’s subversive.
So, my dear, with tears of joy in my eyes, following Ildefonso’s music,
I’ll meet you there in the Colorless Skin Land 
where we all converge to Be In Receptive Silence, 
where we all are pure, happy, brave, still… ONE.

To be still in the middle of the rushing city, that’s subversive.
To be courageous and kind in the midst of violence, that’s subversive.
To strive for the soul of life in perfection, that’s subversive.
So, my Love, live in ultimate perfection: wholeness.
Ultimate perfection, my angel, has a way of protecting itself 
by always showing us there are a few more details to finish.

To let the stars and the galaxies kiss your skin, that’s subversive.
To send a wholesome hand written love letter in the email era, that’s subversive.
To love all living beings with no strings attached, that’s subversive.
To have fun in the insurgence learning movement, that’s subversive.

Thank you Beloved One, 
now we know that another name for subversive 
is radical love.

This sky where we live
is no place to lose our wings
so love, love, love!

Awake, Arise and Act
now is the time 
it’s time to join together
it’s time to love as ONE
to find a place to park your spirit
and fly
silence within silence
but there’s scattered energy 
living without purpose
in violence, in noise, in disrespect…
hatred dissolves in the presence of love
souls in receptive silence
the new paradigm
space between space
reflection of the best of us
saluting peace officers
climbing the slippery mountain of impossible
for a painful success of shining eyes
our bare foot love
carried by an unstoppable soul
of the Feminine Divine 
determined to make it
ONE step at a time

a poet on the clouds
rooted in his heart
a fierce mom radiating joy
in the landscape of fearlessness
a Ramadan faster in solidarity with Iraqi widows
embodying the spark of life from the other side of the Planet
a permacuturalist of the heart
planting more dreams already reality
a homeful isolated heart 
ignored by many
invited to a delicious schizophrenic dinner:
a feast of radical love

experiments 
growing in generosity and courage
a happy welcome minister in stillness
being kind to each other
peace having done the right thing
a pen of inspiration
home-made harmony fortune
a love drive
a love muffin
a love cookie
a love warrior
a server named smile
a singer on fire
abundance of inspiration
abundance of excitement
abundance of enthusiasm
abundance of (r)evolution
abundance of fun
abundance of insurgence
abundance of ONEness
abundance of abundance

tears of hope
tears of happiness
tears of harmony
tears of possibility
tears of carpe diem
tears of Ahimsa
tears of Satyagraha
tears of tears
all in our eyes 
working as lenses
to amplify love
to magnify truth
to host light
as telescopes do
to receive 
the love from the stars

so open up your eyes and see
there’s only ONE humanity
open up your heart and know
there’s only ONE soul
return to love 
return to forgiveness
a wake up call
a wake up song
a wake up concert
a wake up symphony 
that is loving you,
my angel,
between Zero and
ONE.

Again
How do you know if I really love you, my angel?

Look at the blue sky 
as the Sun warms your heart… 
Feel the sound of waves
as the Ocean caresses your mind…
Honor the starry night
as a shooting star crosses the firmament of your spirit… 
My love for you, my angel, will be there again and again and again…

You’ll never know, 1000 years from now
if it’s going to be a cloudy day
nor what’s the shape and outreach of the next wave reaching the shore
nor the exact time for the next shooting star to appear…
but worry not, my Love,
I’ll be there for you, again and again and again…

Live with the material poor
as they enrich you with their millionaire soul wealth…
Rise up with courage 
as injustice and men’s laws are melt down by the heat of fearless satyagrahis…
Lead an inner and outer (R)evolution
as you serve with ONEness, compassion, atonement and forgiveness…
My love for you, my angel, will be there again and again and again…

You’ll never know how the generous spirit 
of humble people will transform you
nor if the stillness of your heart and your means will be challenged enough
nor the immediate success of the fruits and ripples of the Total (R)evolution of the Human Spirit…
but worry not, my Divine Lover,
I’ll forgive but not forget and my love for you will be there, again and again and again…

Enjoy the slow compassionate science
as the precision of its predictions reveal the secrets of the Cosmos…
Be astonished by the generositree of plants
as they create free oxygen for our survival… 
Mimic the wholeness of life
as you copy the principles, organize from the bottom up, reward cooperation, promote diversity and foster resilience…
My love for you in Unity, my dear, will be there again and again and again…

You’ll never know the sense of awe and wonder
from the new discoveries to come
nor the uncountable ways Nature acknowledges interdependence 
nor the creativity to run with light from the closest star
but worry not, my angel,
I will share the surplus of my Biomimicry, inspiration and love with you, again and again and again…

Read the verses
as my soul embraces your being…
Praise the bee flying
as she collects nectar for your sweet tea…
Smile at a baby
as he shares his unconditional love with you…
My love for you, my angel, will be there again and again and again…

You’ll never know which bee 
shared the honey you are eating
nor the color of the eyes of the next new born smiling at you
nor the power of the next poem flowing through me…
but worry not, my angel,
My love for you will be there, again and again and again…

Like the Milky Way appearing in the bed of the night sky 
Like the Sun kissing the elder Redwood 
Like the Air sighing in your lungs 
again and again and again…

Any time, any where, I’ll be waiting for you 
to make love to you in receptive silence 
again and again and again…

So it is true Beloved One!
The Cosmos bends towards justice
and Our Universal Love
will reach you in infinite ways
as we love you
again and again and again…

Elizabeth Snowing
I dreamed about you, pregnant with the liberated daughter of the World.
The umbilical cord of understanding was around her neck
but the peaceful flexible womb of your compassion disentangled all conflicts
and the yogi gave birth to the most profound attentive happy eyes I ever seen…
they are the expression of Nature’s love.
She looked at me and pierced my spirit so deeply
that only oneness was left on our bodies.
The feeling of becoming a father.

On the fourth day,
I asked to the Universe of Love
to see the Cosmos as it is.
The answer, among impermanence,
were thousands of graceful big cold snowflakes
flying and disappearing, coming and going…
melting away as soon as they were kissed by the warm ground or by my skin.

You were, once again, everywhere…You were snowing.

A perfect snowflake
became a droplet on my palm in a magic landing.
The moistened total awareness of the mouths of my pores invited you to infiltrate in me.
As the thirst of the soul was quenched,
I equanimously recalled once more, Elizabeth Snowing,
that you and I are not we,
but you and I are ONE.

The True Red Pencil
Emerged from the kisses of your eyes
was my need to be in love with all life;
the kind of love and the will
that come when the mind is still.

I didn’t know what real love was
until I loved all.
When my mind is still
I see everybody as my own self,
as my own blood.

At the still center within the heart,
same spot where the dagger pierced,
is where I found you, Beloved One.

Painful if we resist,
joyful if we surrender
to its petals
to its divine flow
to its detached nature.

We can never know what real joy is
until the mind is still…
a mind at rest and a heart full of love
is the true red pencil that panted
these verses from above.

A Butterfly living on the Moon
When silence replaces the truth
the silence itself is a lie
break the silence!
be a citizen of consciousness

drink from the fountain of present
it clears the regrets from the past and future fears
for today prepare?
after tomorrow stare?
the happiness and power of stillness is not here nor there!

the only deserts are lack of  imagination, lack of enthusiasm
bath in the lake of now and rekindle the creative spirit
be attentive as when your sibling bled
there is no place for only the intellectual head
because we all know the heart is red
and go further so that the soul is fed

You are not just a star in the galaxy, you are also the mighty galaxy in the star
You are not just a soul in the Universal Love, you are also the mighty Universal Love in the soul
Speak up and join us to be in receptive silence
Learn the art of simplicity
To rejoice our moral grandeur and spiritual audacity

Gracias Luna! For loudly kissing your winged daughter
with the roots, the branches, the fruits and the flower
altogether strengthened her soul force: our real power.

The Eternal Cloth
Your being, Beloved Angel, fills
my spirit with courage to cross the highways of injustice
my heart with compassion to eradicate the abyss of indifference
my mind with understanding to discover there are no enemies.

(Y)our love, Beloved One, is an eternal shield of truth
witnessing mountains as slow waves
listening in-between Big-Bangs as rest note in the song of the Cosmos
caressing the Milky Way as soft canopies of our ancestors flying through space
tasting oceans and lakes and rivers as tea of evolution
smelling the stars as dust of life…

your eyes impossibly loving
your ears impossibly attentive
your touch impossibly gentle
your mouth impossibly smiling
your smell impossibly fragrant.

But our still minds,
merged in the glory of silence as ONE,
tapping into the impermanence of all,
generous with all sensations,
imagining our expansive joy,
are divine power and the possibility for Freedom.

Let’s walk side by side towards the Moon of United Souls in the path of community!
Let’s kiss Justice on the lips!
Let’s bow to each other bending the body of service with the-palms-together of love and respect!
Let’s feel the tears of gratitude from a being overflowing with love!
Let’s embrace in a sublime equanimous Planetary hug!

Beloved One, it is through the patient cotton of fearless kindness,
and its indescribable beauty,
that our hearts are warmly weaved forever.

On Thursday, President Obama made his speech to the Arab world in Cairo, a speech that did what he does so well,  expressing contradictions and nuances in clear, simple poetic language that calls on everyone to be better than we are.  My first reaction, reading it, was “This speech makes us all safer, and does a better job of it than a thousand drone attacks or military forays.”  By so clearly expressing respect for Islam, and knowledge of its history and contributions, he drains extremist venom of its potency.

Obama also tackled head-on the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian problem:  Israel’s continued building of and support for illegal settlements.  I suspect many people are still unclear on the concept of ‘settlement’: the word creates an image of a stalwart, noble outpost in the wilderness.  In reality, settlements are more like gated suburbs plunked down in the midst of Palestinian territory, villages, farms and cities that have always been in Palestinian hands and that the Oslo agreements and the Road Map define as destined for a Palestinian state.

Settlements are created on land quite simply stolen—taken from Palestinian farmers and villagers with no compensation.  In order to protect the settlements, Israel maintains military control over vast reaches of the Palestinian territories, builds a separate set of roads Palestinians are banned from, that carve up an already tiny land base into miniscule islands, separated by a network of checkpoints that make daily life for ordinary Palestinians untenable.  Imagine if, in the U.S., everyone who lived in a suburb of Chicago or New York or San Francisco could only get into the center of the city by passing through a military checkpoint that might or might not be open each day, where lines might regularly back up for hours, where the soldiers might detain you on a whim or a breath of suspicion for hours or summarily place you in ‘administrative detention’ for months with no trial or appeal, where your land and home might be seized at any time by an occupying power.  And this is in the West Bank, where conditions are relatively good.  In Gaza, the Israeli’s have simply sealed the border, refused to allow in rebuilding supplies and many of the necessities of life, and turned the place into one giant, open-air prison.

It is in this context that Obama presses for a two-state solution. The positive alternative: one, democratic state in which all people have equal rights, regardless of religion, is so unacceptable to the current Israeli regime that they are attempting to make it illegal for anyone to suggest that Israel be anything but an explicitly Jewish state.  The less positive alternatives are simply genocide of one or another of the region’s peoples, a horrific outcome whether the ultimate victims are Palestinians or Israelis.

A two-state solution cannot succeed if Israel continues to eat away at Palestinian land.  It cannot succeed if the current settlements remain, with their network of exclusive roads, checkpoints and military control that make free movement impossible for Palestinians within their own territory.  Netanyahu has proclaimed his intention to continue building and expanding settlements.  If Obama’s speech signals a true commitment to reign him in, to use America’s enormous influence and power to constrain Israel’s destructive and ultimately self-destructive course, then we will have a slight hope of achieving some small measure of peace and justice in that region.

Obama also called on the Palestinians to renounce armed struggle and embrace nonviolence.  Now, I’m a passionate believer myself in nonviolence.  I share his assessment that a powerful, nonviolent movement could advance the cause of justice in a way that violence can never do.  However, there is something disingenuous about the man who is ordering troops into Afghanistan and drones to bomb Pakistan telling another people ‘Violence is a dead end.’  I credit Obama with a distaste for violence and a strong preference for diplomacy, and truly, I like the guy. I think he’s a great leader in a rotten time, and a brilliant man of real integrity.  But there’s no denying that, from the moment he took office, he’s had blood on his hands.  For the powerful to demand that the less powerful renounce violence, without making the same demands on themselves or on their allies, is simply to say: “I reserve the weapons of death for myself and my friends.”

I would have like Obama to urge nonviolence on all of us: Americans, Israelis, and Palestinians alike.  I would have liked him to at least acknowledge that
indeed, many Palestinians have chosen nonviolent means of struggle, that for years now, villages have resisted the confiscation of their land for Israel’s ‘security wall’ with peace camps, nonviolent demonstrations and civil resistance.  He might have also mentioned that some courageous Israeli supporters regularly cross the line to stand with them and share the risks, along with internationals from groups like the Christian Peacemaker Teams, the International Solidarity Movement, the International Women’s Peace Service and more.

On Friday, the day after Obama called on Palestinians to practice nonviolent means of struggle, the Israeli army fired on the weekly demonstration in Ni’ilin, a West Bank village protesting the wall.  Five people were shot with 22 caliber ammunition. Yousef Akil Srour, age 36, died from his wounds after being shot in the chest. Mohammed Mouslah Mousa, age 16, may be paralyzed.  Three others were wounded but will survive.  This is not an unusual response to the practice of nonviolence in Palestine—it is so common for Palestinians to lose their lives that it rarely even makes the news unless an international supporter is killed or wounded.

I’ve worked in that movement, I’ve trained Palestinians, Israelis and internationals in nonviolent resistance.  I’ve stood in those demonstrations.  There’s always a squirrely feeling in the pit of your stomach when you stand up against police and state power.  But when that power is unrestrained, when you know that live bullets may thud into your body, that attendance at the protest may cost you a limb or your brain functioning, your freedom or your life, well, let’s just say the squirrels run Nascar races in your gut and your knees literally shake.

That people do take that risk is a cause for wonder and celebration of the human spirit.  A few do so because they are Gandhi-like in their saintliness, but most are simply ordinary people who have come to believe that nonviolence is a more moral and a more effective means of struggle.   They take that risk because they have seen small successes and slight glimmers of hope.

Obama has the power to increase that hope—hope is his trademark, after all.

The civil rights struggle in the American South succeeded because the nonviolent resistance of Freedom Riders and marchers and sit-ins caught the attention of the world and outraged a larger public opinion. Laws were changed, and the pressure of the Federal government was brought to bear.

For nonviolent resistance to succeed in Palestine, it needs the United States to exert its influence to restrain Israel’s disproportionate response to protest and its military assaults on Palestinian populations, to stop its incursions into Palestinian Territory and to end the siege of Gaza. It needs the support of global outrage that cannot be silenced by shrill cries of ‘anti-semitism’ every time Israel’s policies are challenged.  Then we will also be able to silence the hoarse shouts of extremist propaganda, ground the rockets and still the hands of suicide bombers that menace Israel’s children, by bringing about a fair and just solution that can allow everyone in that region to live a life of dignity and freedom.   Ultimately, justice is the true counter to violence, for only on a foundation of justice can peace be built.

The coalition forming in Europe under the banner “The Strength of Nonviolence” is  comprised of a group of women and men who don’t want to remain passive in the face of blatant advocacy of violence by those in positions of power (totalitarianism of corporate capitalism) and  threaten the present and future of all. They believe that change is possible, but all the positive people must converge in common actions, maintaining the differences that enrich the whole. They write: “We have found inspiration in the great ideals and guides of nonviolence, examples that should be studied, expanded and put into practice. With this spirit in 2007 we have set in motion the campaign Europe for peace, for a Europe free from nuclear weapons and today we launch this on-line petition against the installation of a U.S. radar base in Czech Republic, a dangerous project that has already increased the international tensions and unleashed a new arms race.” See the powerful short video they made during Barack Obama’s recent visit to Prague.

The word Swadeshi derives from Sanskrit and is a conjunction of two Sanskrit words. Swa means “self” or “own” and Desh means country, so Swadesh would be “own country”, and Swadeshi, the adjectival form, would mean “of one’s own country,” but could be loosely translated in most context as “self-sufficiency.”

Like many of Gandhi’s terms, it has both an inner, psychological meaning, and a secondary meaning in a more outward context. In the psychological sense, swadeshi is the principle that one acts from a position of strength if one focuses on solving one’s own problems, draws on one’s own capacities, and addresses one’s own weaknesses. One person cannot solve another person’s problems or recommend that someone else do something that one has not done themselves.

In the other, more common usage, swadeshi is the focus on acting within and from ones own community, both politically and as a consumer.

In other words, it is localism, self-sufficiency but at the same time interdependence and, in Gandhi’s time, finally leading to independence (swaraj), as British control of India was rooted in control of her indigenous industries. From Gandhi’s perspective, swadeshi was the key to the independence of India, and it was represented by the charkha or the spinning wheel, the “center of the solar system” of Gandhi’s constructive programme. He said:

“The cleanest and the most popular form of Swadeshi is to stimulate hand-spinning and hand-weaving and to arrange for a judicious distribution of yarn and cloth so manufactured.”

“Swadeshi is an eternal principle whose neglect has brought untold grief to mankind. It means production and distribution of articles manufactured in one’s own country… Swadeshi is a constructive programme.”

“Swadeshi is that spirit in us which restricts us to the use and service of our immediate surroundings to the exclusion of the more remote…  In the domain of politics, I should make use of the indigenous institutions and serve them by curing them of their proved defects. In that of economics, I should use only things that are produced by my immediate neighbours and serve those industries by making them efficient and complete where they might be found wanting. It is suggested that such Swadeshi, if reduced to practice, will lead to the millennium, because we do not expect quite to reach it within our times, so may we not abandon Swadeshi even though it may not be fully attained for generations to come.”

It seems that Gandhi’s prediction is becoming a reality. Swadeshi is what the progressive movement of the XXI century is calling: think globally, act locally. Swadeshi is a call to the consumer to be aware of the violence he/she is causing by supporting those industries that result in poverty and harm to workers and to humans and other creatures. In a world moving towards decentralized, localized organization, we might adapt Gandhi’s strategy, replacing mass production and consumerism with community, and then form the community of communities: the Earth Community.

Resources:

• The Gospel of Swadeshi by Mohandas K. Gandhi.

• In the excellent issue of  YES! Magazine: Go Local!, you can explore more on the current swadeshi that is happening on the Earth Community.

See also:

charkha

constructive program

trusteeship

swaraj

sarvodaya

Oceanic Circle

khadi