When I came to the Border Project for Human Rights, Mexico was under the chilly grip of winter. I left Baja California on March 1st, enchanted by the world of whales mating and dolphin pods leaping. In Magdalena Bay I traded my swimsuit for a scarf and wool hat. Baja...
How are prisons violent? Humans learn to reciprocate love and leverage power with each other. Like lumbering bears, we grow every day. Prisons stunt growth. A herd of humans can become a stampede that tramples each other. Humans howl—when threatened we snap our teeth....
What is power? Power lines carry dangerous levels of electricity. Queens use a scepter of power. Between you and me, all human power is finite. Yet most power is infinite. Where can I tap into power to change my rubbery life? To change trash blown onto my street? To...
I’m living these last ten days in Kathmandu, near Baktapur, Nepal. I’m living with a family—Pradip, Barsha and Prabel. The family works hard and sleeps in one bed. One night there were 5 people in a double bed. They are very sociable and close to their parents, often...
“Part of understanding Justice is to recognize the disproportions among which we live..." it takes an awful lot of living with the powerless to begin to understand what it is like to be powerless, to have your voice, thoughts, ideas and concerns count for very little....
Some proclaim that peace is possible. Really? Where? Does it last? Quakers and Amish and some intentional communities have islands of peace. Some scientists think we can abolish war. I certainly pray for it. I thought our economy depended on war. Certainly our...
I was in Ireland all of 20 days and I've been puzzling "why is the human race so violent and yet so loving?" How can this be? I can't find a kinder warmer people than the ones I met on Dublin streets. The Irish seem more active in their churches than other Europeans....
Six inmate AVP facilitators shared their personal journeys: “Though we may be in the gutters some of us still look at the stars” “In the past the people were afraid to approach me because of my reputation of violence, since I became an AVP facilitator people find it...
Why would 100 prisoners organize a hunger strike in Guantanamo? Did our Congress answer that question adequately before an army of doctors coerced force feeding? Force feeding is not the opposite of hungering for food. Feeding tubes down the mouth are dangerously...