Culture

Can the Prison System Be Transformed? Shaka Senghor and #Cut50

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#Cut50 aims to reduce the incarcerated population of the U.S. by 50 percent over the next 10 years by convening ‘unlikely allies,’ communicating a powerful new narrative, and elevating proven solutions such as restorative justice and youth empowerment programs that provide jobs and skills. Recent successes in both ‘red’ and ‘blue’ states prove that it is possible to reduce incarceration rates successfully while achieving better outcomes, saving money, and protecting public safety.

Culture

Admissions: A Peace-Oriented Film About Israel/Palestine

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In 2011, the script for Admissions was given to Academy Award nominee and peace activist, James Cromwell, who graciously agreed to play the lead role. Admissions has won 26 international awards, been translated into Hebrew, Arabic, Farsi, and Spanish, and broadcast to 80 million people worldwide. As a result of the positive response, a number of peace organizations coalesced around the film’s message and several efforts were synergized. The result was a new mission to create Ministries and Departments of Peace in governments worldwide.

Healing Israel/Palestine

Then You Win: What Swarthmore Means For Open Hillel

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It is good for the Jewish people, as for all people, to be engaged in struggles for justice, and bad for us to be either complacent or antagonistic in the face of systemic oppression. But Hillel’s position does not simply discriminate against Jews; it prevents Jews from entering into active solidarity with certain suffering groups, and thereby asks us to be complicit in the unfolding of injustice.

Non-Violent Communication (NVC)

Collaboration, Willingness, and Leadership – Now and in the Future

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Certainly, those of us who want to put collaboration at the center of how we function are swimming upstream. Everything is stacked up against us… What’s most needed, in my mind, is the empowerment of all to be able to express their needs and perspectives and, simultaneously, be interested in the needs and perspectives of others and in finding a solution that works for all.

Empathy

Wielding Truth and Nonviolence in the Fight of Our Lives

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The fact that the conservative (so-called) narrative is dead wrong matters not a bit if there is no alternative. Some would have us believe that there simply is no coherent progressive narrative: we’re just on the wrong side of reality. Though this may be true, the fact is that this implicit foundation story of our civilization is dead wrong, and does not admit of progressive reasoning, or progressive values.

Non-Violent Communication (NVC)

Abundance, Inequality, Needs, and Privilege

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I am immensely curious to understand the obstacles to having gift economy experiences be the norm rather than the exception. In this post, I am writing about one piece of this huge puzzle that fell into place for me: why the idea of “deserving” might have come into existence, and how it’s related to the difficulties in establishing gifting and collaboration.