Please join us at the Metta Center for another exciting and convivial Hope Tank (being in receptive silence from 730 to 830AM, then the potluck breakfast and discussion from 830AM to 11AM) this coming Friday, March 19, when activist, visionary and social entrepreneur Pano Kroko will be visiting us to explore Human Rights in the Age of Climate.

We are honored to be able to learn about Pano’s perspective on the matter: “opposing views and coexistence, on my experience of religious tolerance in a time of murderous conflicts on a siege mentality of a choked-to-death city and people exercising basic human rights in practice – against all odds.  It was my ‘finest hour’. From my Sarajevo peace work experiences and elsewhere – and in my humble opinion – great conflicts breed greatness of the human spirit. Where you see the incredible lows, you can see the amazing heights of life…“

If you would like to learn more about Pano, we invite you to read his blog where you can find pragmatic ideas ranging from Global Commons to Free Wireless to Citizenship of the World:

• “So after creating mobile innovations and numerous companies, wireless pioneering businesses and common wealth – I recycle it all and share the wealth with the network of need. A far more satisfactory pursuit as you also discover every time you give with meaning.”
• “… not only because capital and intelligence have no home land and recognize no borders – but mainly because today Data and Information as well as labour and the Environment and those pesky CO2 molecules ppmv recognize no borders either. We live and die in a closed loop ecosystem. Let’s act as if we understand the entropy of it.  Because there exists a great need specifically for the informed global public to understand that.”
• “Citizens of the Earth without a national flag are the future of our survival.”
• “Inspiration will surely hit as to what You can do to better your own Life – and by virtue of your positive choices – our lives shall improve too.”
• “Let’s build the International_Ocean_Station together, developing open-source technologies to intelligently inhabit the oceans. [Open Sailing]“

Hope Tank Ahoy! :-)

Download audio file (2010_0312_HT.mp3)

Download audio file (2010_0314_RandallAmster.mp3)

Please see the rest of the original event announcement, below, for more information and related resources!

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Anarchism & Nonviolence: Exploring Common Ground

Recommended Reading/Food for Thought:

Anarchists & Nonviolence: http://spot.colorado.edu/~chernus/NonviolenceBook/Anarchism.htm

Nonviolence Definition (Metta Center): http://www.mettacenter.org/nv/nonviolence/intro

Is Anarchism Pacifistic?: http://www.infoshop.org/page/AnarchistFAQSectionA3#seca34

Anarchism Primer: http://question-everything.mahost.org/Socio-Politics/BasicAnarchy.html

In Defense of Anarchism: http://wagingnonviolence.org/2010/01/in-defense-of-anarchism-what-kind-of-peace-does-government-provide/

Was Gandhi an Anarchist?: http://www.calpeacepower.org/0201/gandhi_anarchist.htm

Gandhi & Anarchism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism_in_India#Gandhi_and_anarchism

Tolstoy’s Anarchism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy#Religious_and_political_beliefs

The Metta Center is happy to announce the call for applications for the 2010 Metta Mentors Nonviolence Immersion Program. Yes, to all of you who have been asking: it’s time to apply!

If you’re interested, you can do two things that will help us get the word out effectively:

1) Learn more about the program by browsing and reading over the site (or consider applying). Contact us at mettamentors@mettacenter.org with any questions or suggestions for ways in which we can make the program information as clear and comprehensive as possible.

2) Share this message with everyone you know! We are looking for applicants from 18-35, and as in previous years we are hoping to invite both US and international students to our program. A call for applications follows this message, which you can forward easily, so please do so and help us get the word out!

If you were involved in any way with Metta Mentors last year, you will know that the 2009 program was an unqualified success. We hosted an amazing group of twelve mentees, and in the process our lives were transformed, even as we worked to transform the lives of those who came to participate. Many, many seeds were planted that we hope will blossom wildly this year as an even more transformative and unique program.

Note: though we have secured enough funding to run the 2010 program at a bare-bones level, we are still seeking funding; the number of mentees that we can accept this year has yet to be determined as a result. For more information about donating to the program, see the Metta Mentors post on our home page.

…and now for the announcement…

For more information, or to apply, please visit the Metta Mentors section of the Metta Center website, at:

http://www.mettacenter.org/mc/projects/metta-mentors

Metta Center has gift copies of Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words available for anyone who would like one. Please drop by our office to pick up a copy if you are interested. And in the meantime, enjoy the poem!

Peace Pilgrim, You Are Still Walking

on the long roads, late at night. So many years

after you died, you’re not off the hook, you’re keeping

the pace, swinging your strong arms.

Who among us found a clearer way?

I shall not accept more than I need

while others in the world have less than they need.

We can work on inner peace and world peace

at the same time. Little people of the world,

may we never feel helpless again.

I marveled at your many-layered pinecone heart

and 3 possessions: toothbrush, postage stamps, comb.

Walk till given shelter, fast till given food.

Still, you’re starting before dawn,

pausing at a roped-off trail that says,

THIS IS NO LONGER A FOOTPATH,

shaking your head. I’m sorry you can’t rest yet.

One day I woke thinking, it’s good you’re dead.

We’re still fools in a world of war.

Then I recalled the navy canvas of your suit,

how it always felt fresh, not tired.

We listened as hard as we could. What can’t we learn?

I would establish a peace department in our government.

Under the swollen orange moon.

On the rim of the sad city, in a cardboard box under the overpass,

you held the calm and the strong conviction.

Oh Peace. Dear Peace.

Don’t give up on us. Don’t leave us stranded, please.

- Naomi Shihab Nye

Mildred Norman Ryder, the woman known as “Peace Pilgrim,” began walking in 1953 for the termination of the Korean War, a U.S. Department of Peace, and for nuclear disarmament. She counted the miles she had walked until she reached 25,000 in 1964, but she continued making pilgrimages across the country until the time of her death by car accident in 1981, according to the Friends of Peace Pilgrim Web site.

Peace Pilgrim spoke often of the “freedom of simplicity” and urged those who wished to contribute to world peace to first abandon material desires and achieve peace within themselves, says www.peacepilgrim.org. You can hear Peace Pilgrim’s voice and feel the power of her personality in this (1 hour) inspiring documentary.

(Photo: Meanest Indian / Flickr)

Hey Metta Readers –

Check out this super post by Peace Academic-Activist Randall Amster that was just posted on Truthout, his article “What the Muslim World Can Teach Us About Nonviolence.” This is the kind of information and reminder we need to get out, again and again, in a world that often confuses nonviolence with pacifism, and more frighteningly, continues to confuse Islam with terrorism. Thank you, Randall, for your scholarship and your passion. Keep spreading the word!

In solidarity, The Metta Team

P.S. Randall will be giving a talk at Metta Center in the coming weeks. Watch our email list for an announcement soon. If you haven’t yet signed up for the email list, you can do so on our contact page. We would love to connect with you!

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

Bringing Down A Dictator documents the spectacular defeat of Slobodan Milosevic in October, 2000, not by force of arms, as many had predicted, but by an ingenious nonviolent strategy of honest elections and massive civil disobedience.

Milosevic was strengthened by patriotic fervor when NATO bombed Yugoslavia in early 1999, but a few months later, a student movement named Otpor! (“Resistance” in Serbian) launched a surprising offensive. Audaciously demanding the removal of Milosevic, they recruited where discontent was strongest, in the Serbian heartland.

Trained in nonviolent action and partially financed by the US and western Europe, they forged a unified political opposition, fought to stop vote fraud, and systematically undermined police and army loyalty. When Milosevic refused to accept defeat at the polls, the opposition called a general strike. As normal life ground to a halt, Serbs by the hundreds of thousands poured into the capital on October 5 to seize the Federal Parliament in a dramatic triumph for democracy. The one-hour documentary is narrated by Martin Sheen. (from A Force More Powerful Films’ website)

Orange Revolution Regime-controlled media claimed victory for Viktor Yanukovych, handpicked by the corrupt sitting president. But credible exit polls showed Viktor Yushchenko, the opposition candidate, had won.

It was shocking enough that Yushchenko had been poisoned — and nearly killed– while on the campaign trail. When reports came in of blatant voter intimidation and damaged ballots, people were outraged. When they realized election officials were in on the fraud, the people had had enough.

In freezing temperatures, over one million citizens poured into the streets of Kyiv and took up residence there. They marched in protest and formed human barricades around government buildings, paralyzing all state functions. Restaurants donated food, businessmen sent tents, and individuals brought blankets, clothing, and money. At night, rock bands energized the protesters.

For 17 days, a group of ordinary citizens engaged in extraordinary acts of political protest. Capturing the songs and spirit of this moment in history, Orange Revolution tells the story of a people united, not by one leader or one party, but by one idea: to defend their vote. (from www.orangerevolutionmovie.com)

Burma VJ Going beyond the occasional news clip from Burma, the acclaimed filmmaker, Anders Østergaard, brings us close to the video journalists who deliver the footage. Though risking torture and life in jail, courageous young citizens of Burma live the essence of journalism as they insist on keeping up the flow of news from their closed country. Armed with small handycams the Burma VJs stop at nothing to make their reportages from the streets of Rangoon. Their material is smuggled out of the country and broadcast back into Burma via satellite and offered as free usage for international media. The whole world has witnessed single event clips made by the VJs, but for the very first time, their individual images have been carefully put together and at once, they tell a much bigger story. The film offers a unique insight into high-risk journalism and dissidence in a police state, while at the same time providing a thorough documentation of the historical and dramatic days of September 2007, when the Buddhist monks started marching. (from www.burmavjmovie.com)

Please see poster for details!