N E W S L E T T E R : S P R I N G / S U M M E R 2 0 0 4 : N U M B E R 2 2

Boston Research Centerfor the 21st Century

Inside:Director’s Message............................page 2

Education Commentary ..................page 3

BRC Online Resources ....................page 5

Guest Interview..............................page 6

Book Talk ....................................page 11

THE CENTER celebrated a decade of peacework in September 2003with a 10th Anniversary conferenceentitled Re-imagining Self, Other,and the Natural World cosponsoredby the Center for Respect of Life and the Environment and the Harvard-Yenching Institute. The inspiration for the conferencecame from Principle 16f of the Earth Charter:

“Recognize that peace is thewholeness created by right relation-ships with oneself, other persons,other cultures, other life, Earth, and the larger whole of which we all are a part.”

With this in mind, three philo-sophies of interconnectedness wereexplored through a range of speakers,

continued on page 8

“WE LOST OUR WAY,” science writer Janine M. Benyus told the audience of more than 160 people assembled tohear the Rachel Carson Lecture onEnvironmental Ethics in late February at the BRC. “Tonight I want to talkabout how we’re finding our way back.”

The author of Biomimicry: InnovationInspired by Nature (1997) delivered thethird lecture in the Women of CourageLecture Series cosponsored by the BostonResearch Center for the 21st Centuryand the Wellesley Centers for Women.Her remarks focused on the wisdom ofnature and adapting nature’s best ideasfor human use to enhance life on Earth.They were introduced by BRC president

Save the Date! Details on page 3.

OCTOBER 1-2, 2004: THE INAUGURAL IKEDA FORUM FOR INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE

......................

Masao Yokota in a spirit of respect, hope,and conviction: “This dialogue is a wayof changing a century of war to a centuryof peace.”

Virginia Straus, BRC executive director,reflected on the life and environmentalaccomplishments of the “fountainhead of the environmental movement,” Rachel Carson, who was “a revolutionaryspokesperson for the rights of all life.”Both Janine Benyus, who would beinspired by Carson and would follow in her footsteps, and Rachel Carson hada single mentor: Nature.

In a magazine article that RachelCarson later turned into a book,

RACHEL CARSON LECTURE LOOKS TO GENIUS OF NATURE

BRC CELEBRATESTEN YEARS

OF COMMITMENTTO PEACE

......................

Janine Benyus gestures to images of organisms asshe urged the audience to “Listen to the experts!”

continued on page 12

The Center’s 10th Anniversary conference, Re-imagining Self, Other, and theNatural World, led to an unexpected result: re-imagining the Center’s basicmission. Our first ten years involved an exploration of multiple religious andcultural perspectives on four fundamental values: human rights, environmentalethics, nonviolence, and economic justice. Through public conferences andbooks designed for college use, we engaged in an exciting process of networking,learning, and sharing.

This first leg of our journey has set the stage for deeper inquiry, an inquiry that has taken on evengreater urgency as the U.S. leads the world into an ever-escalating “war on terrorism.” Where does theBRC go from here? Certainly, learning to coexist creatively with the “other” lies at the heart of the matter.With this in mind, we explored the philosophy and practice of interconnectedness at our 10th Anniversarygathering last year and were impressed with Eastern, feminist, and indigenous understandings aboutthe interdependence of all life. We decided it was time to redraw the Center’s mission statement.

After much deliberation, we arrived at our new focus: to cultivate an inclusive sense of community —locally and globally — through education, dialogue, connection, and practice. To begin, we will convenea small group of community builders locally to create an ongoing community of practice from which wehope will emerge reflections that can be shared more widely. The BRC Learning Circle on Community-Building, as it evolves, will be chronicled on our website.

Our next public event moves from local to global community-building with the launch this fall of a new annual program, the Ikeda Forum for Intercultural Dialogue. The first in a series, scheduled for October 1st and 2nd and entitled Reawakening East-West Connections: Walden and Beyond, is a natural choice, since the Center’s founder, Buddhist teacher Daisaku Ikeda, has had a long-standinginterest in, and affinity for, Emerson, Thoreau, and the American Transcendentalists. The series honors Dr. Ikeda’s three-plus decades of extraordinary global effort, building bridges across culturaldivides through open-hearted dialogue. I hope you will join us to learn more about why and how the Transcendentalists looked eastward as they enlarged their spiritual vision, and to discover their legacy that lives on today.

By January 2005, our book development program will have officially shifted gears from multi-religiousperspectives on global ethics to hands-on peace education with the publication, in association withTeachers College Press, of Educating Global Citizens (working title). This new book will suggest waysthat, even amidst all the emphasis on testing in American secondary schools, students can be inspiredto engage in profound thinking about what it means to be globally-minded, globally-connected, andglobally-responsible.

Early next year, our fourth annual Women of Courage Lecture will honor the great liberator, HarrietTubman. Alternating venues as we do with our cosponsor, the 2005 lecture will be held at WellesleyCollege.

As we set sail toward our newly re-imagined mission, I find my own aspirations reflected eloquently inthe words of Chilean biologist Humberto Maturana: “I want to contribute to a work of art in the domainof human existence. I want to evoke a manner of coexistence in which love, mutual respect, honesty, andsocial responsibility arise spontaneously, instant after instant.” (www.inteco.cl/articulos/metadesign.htm)

2

.

.

.

.

.

.

FR

OM

T

HE

D

IR

EC

TO

R

Virginia Straus, Executive Director

3

.

.

.

.

.

.

Our whole policy of compulsory education rises or falls with our ability to make school life an interest-ing and absorbing experience to thechild. In one sense there is no suchthing as compulsory education. Wecan have compulsory physical atten-dance at school; but education comesonly through willing attention to and participation in school activities.

JOHN DEWEY wrote these words in 1913 in Interest and Effort inEducation. Ninety years later, thegreat challenge of educators remainshow to engage students in meaning-ful, stimulating ways that will enrichtheir lives and foster a lifelong interestin learning. Unfortunately, today’sfast-paced and fragmented curriculum,which is often tied to high stakestests, flies in the face of cultivating a sense of purpose or interest in learning. This, as Dewey would say,limits the ability of students tobecome lifelong learners.

American education has mimickedsociety’s obsession with speed, effi-ciency, and convenience — from 20minute lunches to timed tests. Couldthe sheer pace of our framework forlearning be robbing students of thejoy of learning? Can learning occurwhen broken up into units and lessonplans by subjects, topics, and sub-topics, and taught in 40-50 minutetime blocks? When did we decide totailor lessons to time blocks, ratherthan to student interests or needs?

Among the antidotes to fast-pacedlearning are long-term projects thatengage students in slow, meaningfulexperiences. The Edible SchoolyardProject at the Martin Luther KingJunior Middle School in Berkeley,California, is an excellent example oflong-duration, project-based learning.

A little over an acre of asphalt pave-ment from an abandoned lot near the School was cleared and plantedwith a cover crop to enrich the soil in preparation for a garden. Then the School’s 70 year-old kitchen cafeteria was converted into a kitchen-classroom. The project involved yearsof planning, with students designingthe final garden in collaboration witha garden manager. Each year studentsplant an organic garden, tend it, harvest the food, and then prepare itin the kitchen, from “seed to table.”Students learn not only about natureand ecology, they learn to worktogether in an ongoing effort thatspans years.

Another good example occurredtwo years ago at the FayerweatherStreet School in Cambridge, Massa-chusetts. Students and staff decidedto build a small house on their play-ground. The entire school communitywas involved in the process, fromdrawing up design plans to buildingthe structure. Students, staff, and parents held weekly meetings as partof the “Little House Design Group.”The project took about a year tocomplete from design to construction.

Students not only learned aboutbuilding design and carpentry, theylearned about collaboration, coopera-tion, and being part of a larger com-munity.

Another example of a long-termexperiential project involved Fayer-weather students creating their ownschool handbook and school rules.Students learned first-hand about participatory democracy. They arealso far more apt to observe thoserules because they created them, thanto observe rules created and imposedon them by administrators.

Projects like these teach real lifelessons in building community and in learning how to work together toachieve common goals. Such projectsare likely to have lasting effects onstudents because they involve realexperiences, long-term commitments,and active student participation. Inshort, they take time and create a real opportunity for students to makeconnections, trace cause and effectrelationships, and create somethingthat matters. As educators, our job isto find ways to tap into the naturalcuriosity and interests of students.Slowing down the process longenough to involve them physically,emotionally, and intellectually in their own learning increases the like-lihood that the educational experiencewill be lasting and meaningful.

— Eric Olick

......................

EDUCATING FOR LIFELONG LEARNING

Re-Awakening East-West Connections: Walden and Beyond

THE IKEDA FORUM FOR INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE

Friday evening and Saturday all dayOctober 1-2, 2004

We will trace connections between the life philosophies of Transcendentalism and Eastern wisdom traditions, and explore

the relevance today of the unconventional approachesto lifelong learning and insight pioneered by the Transcendentalists.

Watch for your flyer in the mail!

4

.

.

.

.

.

.

humanistic approach centered onindividual responsibility and connec-tion with others: “No efforts will gainthe wholehearted support of peopleor succeed in bringing about lastingstability and peace without a spirit of self-mastery based on an acuteawareness of the humanity of others— something that I consider to bethe very essence of civilization.”

He defines “self-mastery” as aquality that grows within a personfrom the effort to “consider andunderstand the position of the‘other.’” It is this effort, based on adeep interest and awareness of the‘other,’ that must take precedenceover “hard power.” And it is thiseffort that must be combined with“the courage and the vision to addressthe underlying conditions of povertyand injustice,” if we are to overcomethe current climate of terrorism.

THE “INDISCRIMINATE VIOLENCE” that has characterized the beginningof the twenty-first century is thepoint of departure for Daisaku Ikeda’s 2004 Peace Proposal, InnerTransformation: Creating a GlobalGroundswell for Peace. As Ikedaexplains, the impact of such violence,combined with the ever-present threatof nuclear and chemical weapons,affects the hearts and minds of peopleworldwide. Furthermore, he points to the divisions within nations, andwithin the international community,that have become sharper as the warin Iraq continues. “The signal failureof military action to produce a clearprospect for peace has left many peoplewith suffocating feelings of powerless-ness and dread,” Ikeda states.

Considering the failure of “hardpower” to resolve conflict and makethe world safe, Ikeda proposes a

“It is vital that all parties reflect on their failings in the recent past and find a renewed commitment toconstructive dialogue. All should joinin the search for the kind of approachthat will constitute not symptomatictreatment, but fundamental cure,”Ikeda says. “What is needed is notsimply to repeat universal principles,that freedom and democracy are thefruits of civilization, for example. Our words need to be grounded inthe spirit of self-mastery, the willing-ness to learn from the example ofothers and correct our behavioraccordingly.”

To receive a complimentary copyof the 2004 Peace Proposal, contactthe publications office of the BostonResearch Center at 617-491-1090 or email us at pubs@brc21.org.

......................

2004 PEACE PROPOSALCONNECTS GLOBAL SECURITY

AND GLOBAL AWARENESS

WHEN LEETA WHITE

joined the BRCPublications Depart-ment as publicationsassistant in 2000, she was a graduatestudent at LesleyUniversity and anovice at marketingacademic books,

tracking course adoptions, preparingsales reports, and juggling thedemands of a fast-paced publicationsoffice. Earlier this year, she completedher Master of Arts in InterculturalCommunications and, well, let’s justsay she has learned to juggle.

“This has been an incrediblelearning experience,” Leeta said, asshe looked back on her years at theCenter. “I’ve had the opportunity toget to know some very special peopleand take part in some amazing eventsthat have heightened my awarenessabout what is going on in the world.”

Knowing Leeta has been “anincredible learning experience” for the BRC, as well. She is a talentedmusician, a film buff, and a yellowbelt in Tae Kwon Do. A true globalcitizen, Leeta has traveled to Africa,India, and Guatemala in the past fewyears and come back with insights

and souvenirs that will long beremembered. Her sensitivity to inter-cultural issues, which she has devel-oped by working with internationalau pairs and their host families, hascontributed to many lively discussionsat the BRC lunch table. At the sametime, her energy, wit, and knowledgeof popular American culture has kept us informed on everything fromiPods to Reality TV.

As Leeta makes a career move toNew York City, she leaves a circle offriends throughout the BRC commu-nity. We wish her the very best, andknow you do, too.

FAREWELL TO LEETA WHITE......................

5

.

.

.

.

.

.

HAVE YOU VISITED www.brc21.org lately? If so, you’venoticed how the BRC website has expanded to include awide range of educational resources for thinkers, activists,and teachers at all levels. You’ll still find this newsletter in.pdf format, up-to-date information on events, and orderforms for BRC books. But in addition, we’ve been busyadding interviews, articles, and other online-only materialsfor your personal or classroom use. A selection of ouronline resources is summarized below. Please explore themsoon, and help us spread the word by telling a friend.Please keep an eye on these and other resources by book-marking www.brc21.org on your computer. It is a pleasurefor us to connect with so many global citizens throughthis powerful medium.

10th Anniversary Summarywww.brc21.org/tenth/

JOIN US for a two-day exploration of indigenous, Eastern,and relational philosophies and practices of interdependencein an in-depth summary and video excerpts of our 10thAnniversary conference, Re-Imagining Self, Other, and theNatural World. Enhanced by color photos and speaker bios,this three-part overview addresses many aspects of peace-work and sets the tone for the next era of BRC programs.Among those quoted in the online summary is BRCfounder, Daisaku Ikeda, whose 10th anniversary messageincluded a reminder that “Open dialogue is the only waypeaceful coexistence will occur; it will transform prejudiceto understanding, mistrust to empathy, and conflict toharmony.”

Restorative Justice Seminar Serieswww.brc21.org/resources/restore_ justice/restore_justice.html

IN THE SPRING OF 2003, the BRC held several seminarsexploring the growing field of Restorative Justice. Througha series of interviews with and reflections from a selectedgroup of local practitioners, these informative sessionstouched upon issues relating to trauma, crime, and heal-ing. The participants’ areas of expertise varied from localcommunity-building to international conflict resolution.In her interview entitled Redefining Justice, Dr. CarolynBoyes-Watson, director of Suffolk University’s Center forRestorative Justice, aptly described the restorative approachas one focused on “who is responsible for repairing the harmand what is needed to address the harm.”

Curriculum Resources for Global Citizenship Educationwww.brc21.org/resources/res_crgce.html

IN CONJUNCTION with our forthcoming book Educatingfor Global Citizenship (working title), the BRC has devel-oped a list of over 30 programs (many web-based) for educators at the High School and Middle School levels.This resource provides descriptions of progressive curriculaand summarizes available tools, guides, and teacher train-ing opportunities. We’ve also listed contact informationand links to organizational websites in an effort to connectyou with alternative approaches to teaching and learning.

Perspectives on Terrorism and Nonviolencewww.brc21.org/resources/res_ cmnt.html

SHORTLY AFTER September 11, 2001, the Center created a webspace devoted to commentaries often unavailablethrough mainstream media outlets. In the Resources section of the BRC site, we began collecting articles andessays by Arun Gandhi, Barbara Kingsolver, DaisakuIkeda, and a host of others. What developed over a periodof two years has become a rich resource of several hundredarticles that have now been used in college and universityclassrooms, as well as by individuals. While we have ceasedto update the Perspectives page in order to focus all ourenergy on other BRC programs, this resource remains easily accessible by date and author.

Tsunesaburo Makiguchi: A Bibliographywww.brc21.org/resources/res_makiguchi.html

THE MOST RECENT addition to the BRC’s online resourcesis a bibliography highlighting works by and aboutTsunesaburo Makiguchi (1871-1944), a Japanese educa-tor. A relentless advocate of student-centered teaching,Makiguchi pushed for education reform in 1930sImperialist Japan. He felt strongly that “The realization of happiness is the primary purpose of education and alleducational plans and programs must begin with this basic understanding.” Makiguchi founded a lay Buddhistassociation (Soka Gakkai International), which is currentlyactive in 187 countries and territories. His theory of value-creating pedagogy inspired a series of K-12 schoolsin Japan, Malaysia, and Hong Kong, as well as universitiesin Japan and the United States.

— Kevin Maher

......................

RESOURCES FOR ALL SEASONSAT WWW.BRC21.ORG

PM: Tell me about your childhood.

SP: I was raised in Honduras and left by my mother when I was two. I was born out of a rape so there wasa lot of drama and trauma around my birth.

PM: What are your first memories?

SP: When I was about three or four I was at the ocean in an inflatableinner tube. I looked down into thewater and I fell into the ocean. It wasdeeper than I thought, so I ended upat the bottom and no one noticed.

PM: How did you get back to the top?

SP: I remember sitting on the bottomof the ocean and looking up at thesun. I remember the sand and waterand emptiness. I looked up and Irealized that I couldn’t breathe and Ididn’t know what to do. Then I heardthe voice that said, “Calm down.”

PM: Calm down?

SP: Yes, because I was starting topanic. I heard a woman’s voice say,“Calm down.” Then she told me tostand up and I stood up. She told me

to move my arms and I moved myarms and finally she told me to justreach up.

PM: It wasn’t an actual person callingto you?

SP: No.

PM: Do you believe in angels?

SP: I believe in spirits. I believe thatwe are not alone.

PM: What was your home like?

SP: I have a brother who grew upwith me and three cousins, who werealso left by their parents. We lived in grandma’s house. My aunt was anurse so she worked to sustain thehousehold. We grew up in a lowermiddle-class neighborhood in a townthat developed around the bananaplantations. It’s a mile away from theairport where all the U.S. planes werelanding, loaded with weapons thatpoured into Honduras to help controlwhat was happening in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. Hondurasis a very strategic place for the UnitedStates so there has always been thismilitarized presence.

PM: How did the civil wars going onaround Honduras affect daily life?

SP: There were refugees. There wasalso a clear investment in making surethat Honduras didn’t go towards theleft. That meant a lot of social control;people lived in fear. For example, wedidn’t have freedom of the press until1992.

PM: How did you experience thisatmosphere as a child?

SP: There was a fair amount of violencein the community and because I grewup in a household with no men, itwas a vulnerable household. I am asurvivor of sexual abuse and rape. Theeducational system was very control-ling as well. I have always been a littlebit of a rule breaker, so I experienceda lot of punishment around freedomof expression.

PM: Your grandmother, HerminiaPinto, was the center of your house-hold. What did you learn from herthat has helped you in your adult life?

SP: She was in a wheelchair, so wehad to find a way to take care ofgrandma every day. But she created asense of connection that we otherwisewould not have had.

6

.

.

.

.

.

.

GU

ES

T

MAKING THE WORLD WITH SAYRA PINTO

......................I N T E R V I E W

SAYRA PINTO is an advocate for social justice and the former director of the VIAProject, a unique “street school” of Roca,Inc., a community-building organization inChelsea, Massachusetts. Sayra’s childhood in Honduras and youth as an immigrantteenager in America helped to prepareher for her career. She is a graduate ofMiddlebury College and attended graduateschool in Spanish language and literature.Sayra was interviewed by BRC publicationsmanager Patti Marxsen.

I think my cultural background helped me beopen and remain innocentfor a very long time becauseof our appreciation of thesacredness of each being.

......................

PM: It’s interesting that a person whomight be considered helpless wouldprovide the connection that kept youall together.

SP: She was indigenous, and we weregrowing up in an environment wherethings were changing. She was almostlike the voice of the elders for us. Shecommanded respect.

PM: Did you go to church?

SP: My brother and I ended up in a Catholic school; there were manydynamics that were really painfulabout that because we were orphansand there was a perception of orphansas damned.

PM: When did you learn the story ofhow your mother rejected you and,ultimately, abandoned you becauseyou were a child of rape?

SP: I was 24 when my mother told me.

PM: You were 12 years old when you came to the United States to bereunited with your mother. Then youmigrated to the Boston area whereyou had other family members. Whatspecial problems have you faced as aLatin-American woman in Americansociety?

SP: “Latin-American” refers to such a varied group of people. You havepeople who have legal status and people who don’t. You have peoplewho become citizens and people whoare born citizens. Then you have cultural differences, depending onwhere you come from. For example,Central-American people are deeplyconnected to their indigenous inheri-tance, and there are some fundamen-tal differences in the way indigenouspeople move through their lives, asopposed to Western ways of movingthrough life. Values are different, families are different. It’s not necessar-ily about political practice, but aboutsimple ways of being.

PM: Can you share an example?

SP: Central-American culture is veryformal and relies on an honor system.In Latino-Caribbean culture, peopleare far more relational. People tend to feel more connected if they havefun together, as opposed to very formal ways of building relationships.There is a real clash because of that.You might be really nice and youmight have a lot of fun, but thatdoesn’t mean you are gaining respectand prestige in a community whereformality matters more than fun.

PM: How have your own indigenousorigins helped or hindered your adap-tation to American culture?

SP: I think my cultural backgroundhelped me be open and remain inno-cent for a very long time because ofour appreciation of the sacredness ofeach being. I don’t believe my culturalbackground hindered any adaptationprocess, though American culture’strend of intolerance, xenophobia, andrejection has damaged me . . . andcontinue to exert pressure on me as I keep choosing to remain open, versus materialistic, untrusting, andjudgmental of people in this country.I think I feel this pressure most whenI make decisions based on principlesand values versus personal gain.

PM: And yet you feel committed tocarving out a place for yourself, andfor your people.

SP: Yes, because the world needs us.Us, from the heart out. This is riskybecause we have had to learn to hideto save ourselves from the savageactions of people who are part ofAmerican culture and subscribe to the idea of Western expansion. Yet,given the state of the world, it’s alsorisky not to unleash our voices, ourhearts, and our hopes. So we arewalking a tightrope, along with therest of the world.

PM: Does being a woman make a difference when it comes to culturaladaptation?

SP: Within my immediate family andcultural milieu, I’ve had to justifybeing publicly engaged because theproper women’s role is private in myculture. The other complication isthat I am openly lesbian. My familyhas reflected upon my experience andtranslated that into their lives. It hasbrought us closer and this has madethem happier in their own personallives. The women in the family, andeven my brother, have become morefree as a result of my coming out. It’sbeen liberating for them.

PM: In so many ways it sounds as ifyou are leading your family along thepath. You are the trailblazer.

SP: It’s a more complex picture thanthat. I think each of the five of uswho grew up in my grandmother’shouse and then came to this countryis trying to figure life out. As we dothis, we are liberating the elders inour family.

PM: Who have been your mentors,and do you think it’s important foryoung people to have mentors?

SP: My fourth grade teacher was thefirst man who treated me kindly andwho encouraged me to use my voice.The aunt who raised me was in lovewith her work and was passionateabout helping others, so I learned

7

.

.

.

.

.

.

continued on page 10

Mentors are importantbecause they can help

young people to sustain a sense of newness about

the world and, so, to maximize their creativity.

......................

8

.

.

.

.

.

.

Rachel Carson Lecture Looks to Genius of Naturecontinued from page 1

later years, the sterile preoccupationwith things that are artificial, thealienation from the sources of ourstrength.” Both Carson and Benyushave been gifted with the ability toexperience wonder and to communi-cate to others the beauties of Naturethat inspire wonder.

Susan McGee Bailey, executivedirector of the Wellesley Centers forWomen, confided that she could nothelp but think of her own mother onthis evening. Her mother was alwaysenvironmentally sensitive, and shewould have loved the opportunity to honor Janine Benyus as a womanof courage and an environmentalactivist. Reflecting on her mother’slove of Nature, Bailey quoted her as having said, “There’s no need tointerfere with Nature. Just find waysto work with what is in front of you.”Likening this spirit to that of RachelCarson and Janine Benyus, Baileywelcomed the speaker.

“I am honored to be mentioned inthe same breath with Rachel Carson,”Janine Benyus said. “I go to her forguidance. She taught me to be braveenough to put poetry into sciencewriting.”

As she showed slides of organismsof all sizes and shapes, Benyus spokeof biomimicry as a guide “to find ourway home.” She stated firmly that“We need the ideas of the winged, the furred, the four-legged, the single-celled. In order to be open to theirideas, it takes a change of heart andstance.” She has no doubt that we can live on Earth and enhance Earth,adapting to it rather than depleting it. After all, she declared, “We arenature. We’re trying to figure out howto live gracefully here.”

Among the questions JanineBenyus placed before her listeners was this fundamental one: Is ourtechnology well-adapted or mal-adapted for life on Earth over thelong haul? As she discussed her slidesof Nature’s wonders in the eco-system, the author underscored oneof her themes: “There are clues every-where we look. Living well in place:this is what these organisms knowhow to do.” She observed that wehave to learn not just about Naturebut from it. We must learn to borrowNature’s own strategies. We could, forexample, learn from the structure ofplants and end by building better“skins” for our buildings. We couldlook to slugs, which travel on slimethat they continually create, to learnabout lubricants. Nature itself willlead us to better designs for filtrationsystems, if we will simply take thetime to decipher what she has toteach.

There are three levels to bio-mimicry, Benyus indicated. Wemimic form and ask: What’s thedesign? We mimic process and ask:How is it made? We mimic ecosys-tems and ask: How does it fit?Further, she said, “We have to learnto mimic at a community level.”

Life thrives, the author remindedher audience, in surprising ways. Ifwe are diligent students of Nature,

The Sense of Wonder, the preeminent environmentalist wrote: “A child’sworld is fresh and new and beautiful,full of wonder and excitement. It isour misfortune that for most of usthat clear-eyed vision, that trueinstinct for what is beautiful and

“We are surrounded by genius.

And there are clues everywhere

in the 30 million species willing

to gift us with their best ideas.”

— Janine Benyus

awe-inspiring, is dimmed and evenlost before we reach adulthood . . .If I had influence with the good fairywho is supposed to preside over thechristening of all children I shouldask that her gift to each child in theworld be a sense of wonder so inde-structible that it would last throughlife, as an unfailing antidote againstthe boredom and disenchantment of

Susan McGee Bailey, director of the Wellesley Centers for Women, participates in thegroup discussion following the lecture.

9

.

.

.

.

.

.

we can learn to clean without deter-gents, to color without dyes, and tooperate pumps, fans, propellers, mixers, and turbines without friction.We can learn to make objects adherewithout glue, and we can learn whatthe abalone has to teach us so that we can make ceramics as tough as the mother-of-pearl of the abalone.We can learn to make fiber opticsthat self-assemble. If we learn bio-production, we can move away froman oil economy. From the prairies, we can learn how to grow a variety of species on the same plot of land.“We are surrounded by genius,”Benyus said. “And there are clueseverywhere in the 30 million specieswilling to gift us with their best ideas.”

“The more we function like thenatural world, the more likely weare to fit in,” the founder of theBiomimicry Guild declared. UsingNature as a model, we must learn toask: What would Nature do? Whatwouldn’t Nature do? Why? Why not?

Janine Benyus reminded the audience of Yeats’s observation that“the world is full of magic thingspatiently waiting for our senses togrow sharper.” She concluded herremarks by returning to her mentor,Rachel Carson: “She woke us up and gave us hope.”

To provide a bridge from Benyus’slecture, Echoing Nature: Lessons fora Sustainable Future, to the questionand answer portion of the evening,Sarah Conn, director of theEcopsychology Institute, provided aguided reflection on connecting withthe web of life. She suggested theaudience reflect on the ways in whichwe can know ourselves as part of thewhole.

When asked about political actionand biomimicry, Benyus asserted thatwe should not look to other speciesfor our moral bearing because we are

a very different kind of organism. What biomimicry provides isa set of strategies for survival and an aware-ness of limits. As shesays, toward the end ofher book: “Restraint isnot a popular notion in a society addicted to‘growing’ the economy,but it is one of the mostpowerful practices wecan adopt at this pointin history ... we are ultimatelydependent on the existing naturalpattern, a pattern that we only partially understand.”

The author welcomed personaldiscussions with guests as she signedcopies of Biomimicry after the lecture.

WHAT IS BIOMIMICRY?

NATURE AS MODEL

Biomimicry is a new science that studies nature’s models and then

imitates or takes inspiration from these designs and processes to solve

human problems, e.g., a solar cell inspired by a leaf.

NATURE AS MENTOR

Biomimicry uses an ecological standard to judge the “rightness” of

our innovations. After 3.8 billion years of evolution, nature has learned:

What works. What is appropriate. What lasts.

NATURE AS MEASURE

Biomimicry is a new way of viewing and valuing nature. It introduces

an era based not on what we can extract from the natural world, but

on what we can learn from it.

— From Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, Janine Benyus (1997)

For further information, go to www.biomimicry.org. For an in-depth

summary of the lecture, go to the 2004 Events section of www.brc21.org.

Janine Benyus

......................

Like Rachel Carson, Janine M.Benyus has sounded a wake-up callfor all of us and has become aspokesperson for another way of seeing and of being that is guideddirectly by Nature.

— Helen Marie Casey

10

.

.

.

.

.

.

from her to take the harder journeyfor peace of mind. Molly Baldwin,Roca’s executive director, helped meunderstand the price of leadershipand dedication to those who are atthe margins of our society. And BudTackett, Judy Brown, and GrandmotherGeorgina Larocque ushered me into anew understanding of the indigenousin all of us, and into the courage ittakes to be value-driven and faith-based. I have been very blessed by all their contributions to my life.Mentors are important because theycan help young people to sustain asense of newness about the worldand, so, to maximize their creativity.

PM: In addition to the wonderful mentors you just mentioned, there is something about your character or your spiritual outlook that allowedyou to open yourself to all the posi-tive changes that have come aboutfor you. What do you think thatsomething is?

SP: I had a very strong base with myaunt and with school. School wasvery important. Then there’s also this sense of having been meant to do great things. I don’t know wherethat came from but it has always been there.

PM: Let’s talk about your work withthe VIA Project. First of all, what is it?

SP: The best way to explain it is tosay it’s a street school that no one can get kicked out of, a learning spacefor gang members and street kids.VIA stands for vision, intention,action. It offers a continuum of learning capacity from the street tothe classroom and to work.

PM: How did you get kids off thestreet and into a classroom?

SP: It’s a long process depending ontrauma, substance abuse issues, learn-ing styles, skills, street involvement.You have to build relationships first

and then, little by little, we ask peopleto think about what they need to dofor themselves.

PM: What have you learned aboutempowering young people?

SP: It’s about listening and beingopen and loving them. It’s aboutdoing what you say you are going to do, so they can trust you and learn to trust themselves.

PM: Yes, but what are you empower-ing them for?

SP: I would not say I am “empower-ing youth.” I am sharing my journeywith young people and they are shar-ing and enriching mine. Young peo-ple are making choices all the timeand most of them want to live. Theywant to know what clean air is, andwater, and earth. They want to seeanimals and be connected to the lifeof this planet. They need adults towalk with them and share knowledge,stories, love, and compassion, so theycan learn how to sustain the world inthe future.

PM: What will the next step on yourjourney be?

SP: I’m inviting various communitiesto launch a new organization that will focus at first on Latino youthdevelopment and the use of indige-nous practices for community build-ing. Ideally, it will become a learningground for other communities. We’re calling it the Praxis Project.Praxis is a word coined by my biggestintellectual mentor, Paolo Freire, todepict the process where theory andpractice merge.

PM: You have said that if you werenot doing what you do now, youwould be a professor of literature.What purpose does literature serve in the world?

SP: I think of it as a repository ofmemory. I’m really fascinated withthe connection between time andspace in literature. That comes fromMikhail Bakhtin, who spent the bulk of his life in prison in Siberia.His idea of a novel has to do withcarnival. When you have a societywhere you have carnival, everythinggets suspended for the purpose of thecarnival. The sense of time and orderand social customs get suspended forthe activities of carnival. One of thethings that happens in carnival is that under-the-surface expressions ofculture come to the surface and areexpressed in very dramatic, artistic,and theatrical ways. Think of MardiGras in New Orleans or of carnivalsin the Caribbean islands and just ingeneral. You have a suspension of thenorm. Yet, the things that inhabit carnival are the most real of all things,and the true impulses of humannature come out in the mix. Thenovel is really one of the few spacesthat reminds me of community spacebecause, although measured in itsintent, source, and form, the life ofthe novel extends beyond ordinaryframeworks and interacts differentlyin the minds of both reader(s) andauthor(s). This effect reminds me verymuch of the nature of ongoing life in community, where change occursalso in relationship to time/spacedynamics. This creates a baselineinstability that extends beyond what-ever systems of monitoring, policing,or control the government and/or any other institutions place uponthese very fluid networks.

PM: If you could put a message in the pocket of every kid on the planet,what would it say?

SP: You make the world.

Guest Interviewcontinued from page 7

I would not say I am“empowering youth.” I amsharing my journey withyoung people and they are

sharing and enriching mine.......................

11

.

.

.

.

.

.

Teachers College Press to Publish BRC’s Forthcoming Book

WHAT IS GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP? Is itprimarily a matter of economics?How can we protect the Earth as ourhome and that of future generations?What sort of diversity should we tryto preserve, and can we encourageunity while we maintain diversity?What role should peace educationplay in cultivating global citizenship?

These are the key questionsaddressed in Nel Noddings’Introduction to Educating GlobalCitizens (working title), the Center’sforthcoming book to be availablefrom Teachers College Press inJanuary 2005. With the help of sevenother scholars and practitioners,Noddings leads a provocative inquirythat seeks to define and describe themany facets of global citizenship edu-cation. While words like “citizen” and“citizenship” once referred to nationalidentity, global citizenship refers tocommon problems, universal values,and a deep awareness of others vitalto human flourishing in a global soci-ety. Is it the responsibility of teachersto “teach” the values of global citizen-ship? If so, how should we go aboutthis? And what is at stake if we don’t?

While the underlying thesis ofEducating Global Citizens is that weneed to educate young people for newkinds of citizenship, there are manyquestions to explore. As BRC execu-tive director Virginia Straus pointsout in her Preface, the intention isthat “this book support teachers inawakening young Americans to gen-uine global concerns.” With that inmind, the contributors hope to open

a conversation with the future begin-ning with the chapters listed below:INTRODUCTION —Global Citizenship: Promises andProblems by Nel Noddings1. Gender Perspectives on Educating

for Global Citizenship by PeggyMcIntosh

2. The Integration of ConflictResolution into the High SchoolCurriculum: The Example ofWorkable Peace by Stacie NicoleSmith and David Fairman

3. Place-Based Education to Preservethe Earth and its People by NelNoddings

4. Differing Concepts of Citizenship:Schools and Communities as Sitesof Civic Development by GloriaLadson-Billings

5. Incorporating Internationalisminto the Social Studies Curriculumby Stephen J. Thornton

6. A Letter To Secondary Teachers:Teaching About ReligiousPluralism in the Public Schools by Robert J. Nash

7. A Changing Vision of Educationby Nancy Carlsson-Paige andLinda Lantieri

CONCLUSION —What Have We Learned? by NelNoddings

To learn more about this forth-coming book and global citizenshipeducation, keep these links in mind:• Book order information:

www.brc21.org/books.html• Complimentary examination copies:

www.brc21.org/books.html• A free directory of Curriculum

Resources for Global CitizenshipEducation and Suggested Readingfor Global Citizenship Education:www.brc21.org/Resources.html

BRC Books Reach a Milestone

WITH THE SPRING OF 2004, BRCbooks have been used as supplementalreading in 200 or more college anduniversity courses in the UnitedStates. While our “bestseller” has beenSubverting Hatred: The Challenge ofNonviolence in Religious Traditions,edited by Daniel Smith-Christopher,other recent titles like SubvertingGreed: Religious Perspectives on theGlobal Economy, edited by Paul F.Knitter and Chandra Muzaffar, and Buddhist Peacework, edited byDavid W. Chappell, are catching up.Please consider adding these books tothe reading list for your next course.Complimentary examination copiescan be requested at www.brc21.org/books.html.

Looking Forward: Future Book toFocus on Educational Philosophy

IN KEEPING WITH the Center’s com-mitment to global citizenship educa-tion, we are currently conceptualizinga book on educational philosophyfrom an international perspectiveentitled Philosophy in Action: Interna-tional Explorations in EducationalPhilosophy (working title). Startingwith the view that ideas about educa-tion have a broad and long-termimpact on all aspects of society, weplan to explore how educational philosophy has shaped our globalsociety through the life and work ofmajor twentieth-century philosophersof education. Furthermore, how each philosopher’s worldview wasshaped by personal experience will beexplored with an emphasis on moralcharacter. By considering the experi-ence of an international selection ofindividuals—including American,European, African, and Asian—andby speaking to the inner life of educa-tors, this volume will help teachersrethink their role as leaders and men-tors in an ever-changing world.

......................BOOK TALK

BRC Celebrates 10 Yearsof Commitment to Peacecontinued from page 1

theory and practice. She began byobserving that the key question ishow can human beings today makethe “change of heart and mind” thatthe Earth Charter calls for in its lastsection entitled “The Way Forward.”

Tu Weiming, director of theHarvard-Yenching Institute, sharedhis understanding of the Confucianperspective. Confucians, he explained,become “co-creators of the cosmicprocess” because they believe that all actions, however personal, are connected to the world.

Sarah Conn, who works in thefield of ecopsychology, led the audience in an experiential exercise

inspired by Joanna Macey designed to bring those present in touch withthe web of life.

Saturday Morning, September 27, 2003Relational Psychology

JAN SURREY of the Stone Center atWellesley College introduced the session by explaining the importanceof locating the development of a psychology of women within a largercontext. She further emphasized theimportance of understanding the“larger cultural surround of all relationships” in order to understandhow people define their relationships.As she spoke of interconnection and disconnection, she said that “In many ways, our dominant culture is a culture of disconnection.”

Christina Robb spoke of how the theorists at the Stone Centercame to recognize that their experi-ence as mothers, daughters, sisters,friends, and many other roles wasalways the experience of being in relationship and never of being unre-lated to others. Her presentation sum-marized Jean Baker Miller’s explana-tion of five characteristics of healthyrelationships and addressed theimportance of empathy.

activities, and conversations: Easternreligious traditions, relational psych-ology (as developed at the StoneCenter, Wellesley College), andindigenous cultures. In keeping withthe tradition and vision established atthe BRC a decade ago, open-hearteddialogue was the framework for thisevent, in which over 150 people par-ticipated. The summary below provideshighlights of each session. For an in-depth summary and photos, pleasego to www.brc21.org/tenth/.

Friday Evening, September 26, 2003Eastern Traditions

AFTER WELCOME REMARKS by BRCPresident, Masao Yokota, ProfessorSteven C. Rockefeller gave a talk entitled “Interconnectedness in Action:Emerging Global Ethics.” Referringto the Earth Charter as a “declarationof ethics for an interdependentworld,” Rockefeller addressed theorganic interconnection of self, other,and nature that is woven into theEarth Charter.

BRC Executive Director, VirginiaStraus, then offered a Buddhist perspective on interconnectedness in

12

.

.

.

.

.

.

Steven Rockefeller responds to a questionon the Earth Charter.

Ginny Straus welcomes an audience of over 150 to the opening session of the 10th Anniversary conference.

13

.

.

.

.

.

.

Labor union organizer KrisRondeau spoke to the practical appli-cations of relational-cultural theoryinherent in her experience of helpingto build the Harvard Union ofClerical and Technical Workers(HUCTW). Rondeau alluded to theinfluence on her own work of thenonviolence movement and the workof Jean Baker Miller and Jan Surrey.After a stirring narrative of her experiences at Harvard and with theUniversity of Massachusetts MedicalCenter in Worcester, Massachusetts,she stated that “A union becomes aweb of interconnected relationshipsand a safe haven for workers.”

Jan Surrey followed Rondeau’spresentation with a talk focused onhow people work through disconnec-tions. She framed the key question asfollows: “If we are all fundamentallyconnected, and connection is ourmost basic yearning, how did we getwhere we are? And how do we healand repair the tears, the lost stitches,and the frayed edges of the fabric of our human connectedness?” Sherelated the challenge of personal relationships to our social and globalstructures, and to our relationshipwith the natural world.

Saturday Afternoon, September 27, 2003Indigenous Cultures

THE AFTERNOON SESSION built on the morning by illustrating how dialogue works among some of oursociety’s most alienated people: Native Americans, youth, and theincarcerated. Much of the discussionrelated to peace-making circles, ademocratic model of dialogue that is widely used in indigenous culturesto resolve differences in a communalway. All of the presenters in the after-noon spoke from extensive experiencewith the circle process.

Harold Gatensby introducedhimself as a member of the RavenClan of the Inland Tlingit Nation fromthe Yukon Territory of North Americaand began by confessing that while itwas “scary” for him to address such alarge crowd, he felt a need to do this“to try to stop the suffering of ourpeople.” He spoke freely of his ances-tors, his deep connection to nature,and the importance of spirituality in guiding one’s behavior on Earth.

Saroeum Phoung’s work withRoca, Inc., in Chelsea, Massachusetts,has been informed by his past experi-

ence as a Cambodian monk and aformer gang leader. He spoke elo-quently of how the circle process, as it is used at Roca, has helped tobuild community by building rela-tionships. “This has changed my life completely,” he said.

Restorative justice planner KayPranis began by speaking of how shecame to criminal justice work afterbecoming involved in community-building through years of participa-tion on a school board. Pranis definedjustice as “right relationship” andrestorative justice as “restoring com-munity to right relationships.” “Crimeis never just an individual act,” Pranissaid. “It happens in a web.”

Molly Baldwin shared her experi-ence of working with young peopleand families at Roca, Inc., the organi-zation she founded. She explainedhow, initially, the model she imple-mented was aggressive and confronta-tional. It was only after attending aconference organized by CarolynBoyes-Watson on restorative justiceand the circle process that shechanged her approach to her work.

For an in-depth text summary and video excerpts of the 10thAnniversary, please go to the 2004Events section of www.brc21.org.

Harold Gatensby of the Inland TlingitNation from the Yukon Territory of NorthAmerica offered a moving conclusion to the one-and-a-half day conference.

Jan Surrey of the Stone Center spokeabout relational psychology.

Tu Weiming represented the Harvard-Yenching Institute, cosponsor of theCenter’s 10th Anniversary conference.

14

.

.

.

.

.

.

ing babies on theirhips, or suddenlybecame wild withemotion withoutknowing why. These are the girls we are relying on to make peace.

On another day,we go to visit the“peace-ladies,” thewomen of Monroviawho sit in RobertsAirfield every day inwhite t-shirts that say “Peace, Yes! War, No! Peace, Yes!Corruption, No!”They are organizingwomen in the market-place for a peace rally.

We enter the maze of tables sellingdried fish, used clothes, hot peppers,and junk. In the heart of the market,a peace-lady starts yelling at the topof her voice to all the other ladies,“Stop and come over here! I want totell you something! We are going tomarch for peace on Thursday! Youwear white and you come out to tellthem that the war has got to stop!The rape has got to stop! Rememberwear your white on Thursday!” The women in the market seem convinced. They will march onThursday even if they don’t have awhite T-shirt.

How do women engage in peace-building? What is different aboutwomen’s understanding and experi-ence of conflict and peace? In mostsocieties, peaceful or otherwise,women have unequal access to politi-cal, economic, and social resources.In most post-conflict societies,women constitute the majority of the

population, are the heads of house-hold, and form the foundation ofrestarting the economy. Women mustconfront the daily issues of survival— particularly during the postwarperiod when the state lacks the meansto meet these critical needs. They do so by collaborating, sharing, andorganizing: women in Rwanda partic-ipated in the distribution of food aid,in El Salvador they founded organiza-tions to press for the release of politi-cal prisoners, in Bosnia andHerzegovina they managed daycarefacilities and voluntary health services.Women’s peace efforts tend to focuson healing and reconciliation ofhuman relationships. They hope that not only will the political andeconomic institutions be rebuilt, butthat the spirit will rise again.

In Sierra Leone I talked with awoman who worked in a disarma-ment camp. She said, “We womensee what the men don’t see. We seethe small soldiers standing in line atthe UN camp, waiting to give uptheir guns just so they can eat some-thing. But they wait and wait forhours in the hot sun. They get tired,hungry, and thirsty, and they go backto the bush with their guns, dejected.But we see with a mother’s eyes.These are children. Little boys whoare hungry. Not killers, not soldiers.So we decided as mothers, to feed thechildren and say, ‘You are ours. Youare still our boy, our girl. Come to us. We love you.’ We gave them bagsof peanuts and fresh doughnutswhich we made, and you know what?They didn’t leave. They are children.They will come back to us.” These are the women we are relying on tomake peace.

— Sahana DharmapuriWomen’s Legal Rights Advisor/GenderSpecialist, USAID Investing in Womenin Development Fellows Program,International Institute for Education,funded by the United State Agency for International Development

......................WOMEN MAKING PEACE

“I want to go to school.”

“I want to learn how to write my name.”

“I want to be a good person.”

THESE ARE THE WISHES of girl soldiersin Liberia. It is November 2003, andI am working for USAID on anassessment of women and girls affectedby the 14-year civil war in Liberia. I interview thirty girls who werereleased by their commanders aftersuffering several years of frontlinefighting, sexual slavery, and servitude.I ask them what they want whenpeace comes to Liberia: “Do youwant to go to school or have a job?Are you going to leave the capital andgo back to your village? How old isyour baby?” Meaningless questions inthe face of such dark experience. Thegirls had only been out of the bushfor three weeks and looked like livelyteenagers, except that some of themhad scars on their faces, or were carry-

This group of girl ex-combatants in Monrovia, Liberia, were interviewed by the author during her field workthere in November 2003.

15

.

.

.

.

.

.

Mission Statement

The Boston Research Center

for the 21st Century (BRC) is

an international peace institute

that envisions a worldwide

network of global citizens devel-

oping cultures of peace through

dialogue and understanding.

The Center’s mission is to

cultivate an inclusive sense of

community, locally and globally.

Its current programs focus on

women’s leadership for peace,

global citizenship education, and

the philosophy and practice of

community building. We spon-

sor public forums, educational

seminars, and dialogue circles

that are collaborative, diverse,

and inter-generational. BRC also

produces multi-author books

that have been used in over 200

college and university courses.

The Center was founded in 1993

by Daisaku Ikeda, a peace activist

and President of Soka Gakkai

International (SGI), a Buddhist

association with members in

187 countries.

How to Reach UsWe welcome your advice, ideas, and comments, as well as requests for complimentary examinationcopies of our books. Individual staffmembers can be reached by calling617-491-1090 or via fax at 617-491-1169. Email addresses are listedbelow:

Masao Yokota, Presidentmyokota@brc21.org

Virginia Straus, Executive Directorvstraus@brc21.org

Shirley Chandl, Office Managerschandl@brc21.org

Masashiro Hagiya, Administrative and Financial Managermhagiya@brc21.org

Kevin Maher, Research Assistantkmaher@brc21.org

Patti M. Marxsen, PublicationsManagerpmarxsen@brc21.org

Beth Zimmerman, Events Managerbzimmerman@brc21.org

General Email Address:center@brc21.org

Web site: www.brc21.org

Newsletter

Editor: Patti M. Marxsen

Contributors: Helen Casey, Sahana Dharmapuri, Kevin Maher,Eric Olick, Virginia Straus

Desktop Publishing: Carol Dirga

Photo Credits: BRC Staff, SahanaDharmapuri, Marilyn Humphries

Printing Services: Atlantic Printing,Needham, www.atlanticprinting.com

MOST OF US HAVE BEEN RAISED to thinkof competition as the fountain of innova-tion. In this issue, we highlight the workand ideas of several people whose innova-tive thinking springs from a desire forconnection, a respect for community, and a recognition of common purpose.At the Center’s 10th Anniversary confer-ence last fall, Jan Surrey of the StoneCenter suggested creative ways to workthrough disconnection in personal relationships and society. At the RachelCarson Lecture for Environmental Ethics, Janine Benyus urged us to “learn from the experts,” the organismswhose life-enhancing adaptations ensuresustainability. In our Guest Interviewwith Sayra Pinto, we learn how relation-ship building has opened new possibili-ties and led to real results for young people. And Eric Olick’s commentarysuggests that by simply slowing down the race to achieve, we might teach children something about real life.

In a world wracked by violence and fear, the notion of starting with ourindividual lives to build cultures of peacemight be a way out. As Daisaku Ikedareminds us in his annual peace proposal,a deep awareness of others is the sourceof all possibility, the true source of trans-formative change. This idea is echoed bySahana Dharmapuri who describes howwomen make peace by making deeplypersonal connections. Competition hasits place, to be sure. But as the voices represented in this twenty-second issue of the BRC Newsletter demonstrate,“outside-the-box” thinking need not separate us into winners and losers. Like complex ecosystems, our challengeis coming up with bright ideas that,in the words of Janine Benyus, “createconditions conducive to life.”

— Patti M. MarxsenPublications Manger

......................EDITOR’S NOTE

Receive the BRC Newsletter Sooner at www.brc21.org

If you prefer the electronic .pdf version to receiving the printed version

via snail mail, please send your email address to pubs@brc21.org. We’ll

delete your name from the mailing list and, instead, send a reminder as

each newsletter becomes available online.

Boston Research Centerfor the 21st Century

Nonprofit Org.U.S. Postage

PAIDBoston, MA

Permit No. 51479

396 Harvard StreetCambridge, MA 02138-3924phone: 617-491-1090fax: 617-491-1169e-mail: center@brc21.org

Please send my order to:

Name

Address

City

State Zip

If paying by credit card, please provide:

Credit Card # Exp. Date

If enclosing a check, please makepayable to Boston Research Center.

Send this form to:Publications DepartmentBoston Research Center396 Harvard StreetCambridge, MA 02138(617) 491-1090

Toll-free: 800-359-2863

Fax: (617) 491-1169

E-mail: pubs@brc21.org

Please let us know…If the information on your mailing label is incorrect or you wish to be removed from our mailing list. Thanks!

PUBLICATION QUANTITY UNIT PRICE TOTAL

Abolishing War ______ $5.00 ______

Buddhist Perspectives on the Earth Charter ______ $3.00 ______

Human Rights, Environmental Law, and the Earth Charter ______ $3.00 ______

Subtotal ______MA residents add 5% sales tax ______

Postage:Quantity Price 1-10 $3.00 11-20 $7.00 Over 21 $12.00 ______

TOTAL ______

Buddhist Peacework can be purchased from Wisdom Publications. Visit their website at www.wisdompubs.org or call 1-800-272-4050.

Subverting Hatred and Subverting Greed can be purchased from Orbis Books. Visit their website at www.orbisbooks.com or call 1-800-258-5838.

To order a complimentary copy of Daisaku Ikeda’s 2004 Peace Proposal entitled “InnerTransformation: Creating a Global Groundswell for Peace,” please contact the Publicationsoffice of the Boston Research Center at 617-491-1090 or email us at pubs@brc21.org.

BRC PUBLICATIONS ORDER FORM

BRC books have been adopted for use in approximately 200 courses at over100 colleges and universities in the United States. Professors, please contactthe Center for complimentary examination copies of our publications or goto www.brc21.org/books_exam.html.

You can order the Center’s books by sending this form with a check, or contact us by phone, fax, or e-mail and we will be happy to send your order with an invoice.

✂

Address Service Requested

Note: Please add an additional $1.00 tothe above prices for international orders.