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 5 : N U M B E R 2 4

Boston Research Centerfor the 21st Century

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

Learning in Community ..................page 6

Interview with Ceasar McDowell ....page 8

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

Perspectives on Community ............page 12

“STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF

HARRIET TUBMAN: I AM MY SISTER’SKEEPER” was the fourth annual lecture inthe Women of Courage Lecture Seriesco-sponsored by the Wellesley Centersfor Women and the Boston ResearchCenter for the 21st Century. The seriescelebrates American women in historyand contemporary times who have stoodup for fundamental human values such aseconomic justice, nonviolence, environ-mental ethics, and human rights.

In January, Dr./Reverend Gloria White-Hammond spoke to a diverse audienceon the eve of her seventh trip to theSudan. Her work there has helped tosecure the freedom of 10,000 slaves andhas focused on helping former slavesrebuild their communities. Previous lectures have honored Fannie Lou Hamer,Jeannette Rankin, and Rachel Carson.In 2006, the Women of Courage lecturewill pay tribute to the life and work of

Save the Date!

October 1, 2005THE 2ND ANNUAL IKEDA FORUM

FOR INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE

Susan McGee Bailey, Gloria White-Hammond, and Ginny Straus were all smiles before theHarriet Tubman Lecture on Human Rights.

COMMUNITY AT THE COMMUNITY SCHOOL:

REBUILDING A SENSE OF CONNECTEDNESS......................

THE COMMUNITY SCHOOL IN CAMDEN, MAINE, has since 1973 been offering an experienceof connectedness and intimacy for those seeking to finish high school. Over the years, we have opened our doors to 511 former high school dropouts and awarded high schooldiplomas to 412. Forty percent have gone on to some form of post-secondary education,and 60 percent have remained in contact with us.

Respect and Relationship are the primary methods we have used to construct communityhour-by-hour, day-by-day, year-by-year. The particular “shape” of our school stems fromits roots in the U.S. social movements of the 1960s when egalitarianism, flat consensualdecision-making structures, and counter-cultural communities proliferated. All voicescounted in those days, and all voices count at our school, whether a student is part of the

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See page 2 for details.

STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF HARRIET TUBMAN:

I AM MY SISTER’S KEEPER........................................................................................

I am struck by the wisdom of the Sudanese described by Dr. GloriaWhite-Hammond in this issue’s lead article on the Women of Couragelecture: Rejecting a person in the village is like rejecting part of oneself.This insight into the essential oneness of all life can be found in manyof the great religious traditions of the world, including Buddhism. In Buddhism, every relationship, even a relationship with an “other,” is a connection that holds energy within it, energy that can be trans-formed from negative to positive. Accordingly, heart-to-heart dialogue,

when courageously pursued in the face of conflict, has the power to transform the impossible “other”into the possible “we.”

To tap the community-building potential of dialogue, the BRC has undertaken an experiment. Like Emanuel Pariser’s students at the Community School we too want to “learn about communityin community.” The BRC has convened a Learning Circle of community-builders in the Bostonarea to forge a community of philosophy and practice over a two-year period. Our hope is that from these dynamic connections wisdom will emerge that can be shared with a broader public. Our ultimate goal is to contribute to a shift in U.S. culture from isolation, violence, and war tointerconnectedness, nonviolence, and peace.

As part of our dialogical mission to cultivate an inclusive sense of community locally and globally,we will be pursuing the local dimension through the BRC Learning Circle over the coming year.The global dimension of our mission continues to animate the Ikeda Forum for InterculturalDialogue. The second public event in this annual series will be held on Saturday, October 1. Thisyear’s forum will focus on Walt Whitman and the international tapestry of poetic souls he envisioned.

Building global community is a huge challenge. Can we make it real? Can poetry help? Perhaps we go to war because we can’t imagine another way. Heart-to-heart dialogue that breaks down the us/them divide requires imaginative empathy. As BRC’s founder Daisaku Ikeda has said inChoose Hope, more than ever before, we need to “rehabilitate the poetic spirit in order to halt the hollowing-out of the spirit and the devastation caused by ever-expanding ego and greed.”

Please join us this fall to explore the as yet unrealized dream of democracy-in-diversity thatWhitman conjured up, hoping for responsive hearts among generations to come.

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Virginia Straus, Executive Director

T H E I K E D A F O R U M F O R I N T E R C U L T U R A L D I A L O G U E

“Talking Back” to Whitman: Poetry MattersSaturday, October 1, 2005 9:00 a.m.– 5:00 p.m.

THIS YEAR MARKS the 150th anniversary of Walt Whitman’s masterpiece, Leaves of Grass. Scholar Ed Folsomhas noted that “poets from Whitman’s time to the present have continued to engage in dialogue with him,literally ‘talking back’ to him just as he talked forward to ‘poets to come’.” Join us as we highlight diversevoices who have responded to Whitman’s vision of a poetry that weaves the world together.

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WHEN WE THINK of the question,“Which came first—moral rules orvirtues?” the obvious answer, I believe,is that virtues came first. Englishphilosopher Leslie Stephen oncedescribed virtue ethics as follows:“Morality is internal. The moral law. . .has to be expressed in the form, ‘be this,’ not in the form ‘do this.’”He went on to say, “The true morallaw says ‘hate not,’ instead of ‘killnot.’” In other words, moral law must be stated as a “rule of character”and virtuous people of good characterrequire no reminder of what the rules are.

Critics of virtue ethics claim thatvirtues vary across cultures, making it impossible to define which are “correct.” Such critics prefer moralimperatives, which are abstractionsbased on thousands of years ofobserving loyal, honest, patient, just,and compassionate behavior. Becausemoral rules have normative force,even as abstractions, international law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights serve as importantchecks on practices that most humanbeings find detestable. But beneaththe power of ideas and beyond therule of law, there must be a founda-tion of “good character” based onStephen’s definition.

While discussing energy policy, Vice President Cheney once impliedthat conservation is a quaint personalvirtue lacking any practical effect. His comment revealed one of thegreatest moral problems of our time:the division between personal andcivic virtue, and the corollary

assumption that as long as citizens arenot breaking any laws, they have nomoral obligations to others or even tothemselves. But can we truly believethat moral neutrality leads to happi-ness, and be satisfied with merely providing a minimal legal framework?

While insisting on the pursuit of thegreat liberal universal values of toler-ance, equality, justice, and free discus-sion, perhaps it’s time for political liberals to join with conservatives insupporting virtue formation in ourfamilies and character education inour schools. The very survival of ournation depends on such an alliance.

One of the advantages of discussingvirtues might be that we would cometo an agreement about them muchmore easily than arguing about moralrules. For example, the debate aboutsexual abstinence could be construc-tively redirected by a focus on thevirtue of fidelity. There should be nodisagreement at all about the universalvirtues of courage, loyalty, integrity,compassion, and justice; and there are very creative ways in which these values can be taught.

The greatest challenge to any programof moral education is the violencethat is endemic in our culture. Hereliberals have much to offer by stress-ing research that clearly demonstrateshow violent behavior is learned andnot natural to human beings. Thevirtue of nonviolence, along withpatience and fortitude, should betaught as a central virtue in any char-acter education program. As futurecitizens, children should be taughtthat violence is never morally neces-sary, and that conflicts should always,whenever possible, be resolved peace-fully. In a world where moral charac-ter is understood to be internal—as exemplified by Christ, the Buddha,Gandhi, and King—nonviolencewould not just be an optional personalvirtue, but a required civic virtue.

—Nick Gier

Nick Gier is Professor Emeritus ofPhilosophy at the University of Idaho.His most recent book is The Virtue of Non-Violence: from Gautama toGandhi (State University of New York Press, 2004).

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COMMENTARY: NONVIOLENCE AS A CIVIC VIRTUE

Recent critics of character educationin the schools argue that it has beentaken over by those with a politicalagenda. Liberals can only fault them-selves for allowing this to happen, andfor not sufficiently acknowledging thesevere crisis of values in our country.To overcome criticism that the virtuestaught are too ethnocentric, schoolcurricula need to show how thesevirtues express themselves in theworld’s major cultures and religions.

“To overcome criticism that the virtues taught are too ethnocentric, school curricula need

to show how these virtues express themselves

in the world’s major cultures and religions.”

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Woman of CourageLecture Seriescontinued from page 1

She expressed her worries about thesafety of her little children, whomight get away from her if she had to carry loot instead of them. “They[the raiders] solved the dilemma forher,” White-Hammond explained.“They quite simply shot her childrento death.”

As her attention shifted from suchhorrors to the plight and hope of theSudanese people, White-Hammondbegan to see herself as a person whocould help. Part of the work involved“facilitating an underground rail-road,” much like Harriet Tubman’swork in the nineteenth century.White-Hammond helped to raisefunds and worked on the ground tobuy back the freedom of thousands ofpeople, mostly women and children.“You too could have purchased thefreedom of a woman for a mere$33,” she told the audience. “A cow,however, would cost $100.”

After years of war, the challenges ofcommunity building are great.Illiteracy is 90 percent or higher andchildren, who have been enslaved and abused and have known onlywar, have lost their sense of efficacy. Even the recent peace treaty, whileencouraging, leaves a great deal unresolved as people attempt torebuild their lives in refugee camps.

The experience of the Sudan haschanged White-Hammond. “My grief and outrage have become expo-nential,” she confided. “I had left theland of the free and arrived in thehome of the brave.” But like HarrietTubman, she feels “a sense of calling”to work with the women who are trying to rebuild their lives and communities in the wake of slavery.

The “epiphany” of this calling cameto her through a process of innerstruggle. It was on her second trip in2002, when she was traveling as theonly woman in the group and feelingsomewhat isolated that she found herposition “really, really hard.” Shedescribed the heat and discomfort,the bugs and dirt, the gunshots thatinterrupted her sleep. Echoing thetitle of a popular children’s book, shedescribed her fifth day on that trip asa “Terrible Horrible No Good VeryBad Day” that brought her to a turn-ing point. “What in the world am Idoing in this place?” she wondered.

Faced with enormous human suffer-ing all around her she felt “utterlyoverwhelmed with a sense of inade-quacy.” Conscious of the possibilityof violence in the midst of a warzone, her thoughts and values cameinto focus. “I realized that I was inexactly the place I needed to be,” she

Jane Addams, founder of Hull Housein Chicago, and recipient of the 1931Nobel Peace Prize.

As she spoke of her work in Africa,The Reverend Gloria White-Hammond invoked the refrain popu-larized during the American CivilRights Movement: “We shall over-come someday. Deep in my heart I do believe that we shall overcomesomeday.” With over 27 million people in bondage worldwide, shestated that “Slaves everywhere are literally dying to overcome.” Sheadded that governments and peoplewho do nothing about this are guiltyof “functional complicity.”

She noted that over 2 million peoplehave died in the Sudan due to “thelongest running civil war on theAfrican continent.” Furthermore, 4 million people have been displaced,many through slavery as ArabMuslims in the North raid the indigenous African villages of theSouth. In the chaos, men are oftenkilled, boys kidnapped for soldiering,women raped, and many women and children taken North as slaves.

Initially, White-Hammond was reluctant to go to such a place and ill-prepared to confront the crisisawaiting her. “I wasn’t prepared forthe stories of unconscionable abuse,”she said. She recalled a young womanwith two small children who wasforced to carry loot on the trek North after her village was raided.

Gloria White-Hammond with a group of freed slaves in Sudan.

“The privilege of

waking up each morning

on this side of freedom

comes with responsibility.”......................

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said. “There comes a time when youhit a wall [in life] and you decideyou’ve got to make a choice aboutwhether you’re going to go forwardand make a difference, or be still.”

She elaborated on the importance ofsowing seeds and sustaining hope.“When you plant seeds you want tosee those seeds bear fruit. But maybethis will happen later and you won’tsee it. So, don’t give up.” She alsospoke of her sense of responsibility, of her desire to share the gifts andadvantages of her own life with othersand help the world realize the vision ofher own ancestors for the future theywould never see. “The privilege ofwaking up each morning on this sideof freedom comes with responsibility,”she said. “I am my sister’s keeper.”

Acting on this realization, in 2002Gloria White-Hammond founded ahuman rights group organized to support women of southern Sudancalled My Sister’s Keeper. She is also founder and consultant to the

church-based creative writing andmentoring ministry, Do the WriteThing, a program designed toempower high-risk adolescent femalesof African-American descent. “Weneed to let young women know thatwe can’t turn a deaf ear or a blindeye,” she said.

In the question and answer periodthat followed, White-Hammond wasasked about the challenges of assimi-lation for slaves returning to their villages. “Rejection is foreign to thevillages,” she replied. Unlike manycultures, even raped women areaccepted into the community, notrejected as tainted. “Rejecting thesewomen would be like rejecting a partof themselves,” she explained.

A young Brandeis University studentfrom Sudan thanked the speaker andthe audience for caring about hercountry and her people who are “in a very dark place,” noting that she thinks of her people back in theSudan all the time. She emphasized

IN HIS 2005 PEACE PROPOSAL entitledToward a New Era of Dialogue:Humanism Explored, Daisaku Ikedacommemorates the thirtieth anniversaryof the founding of Soka GakkaiInternational (SGI). Acknowledging a “gnawing sense of vulnerability” inthe face of ongoing terrorist threats tohumankind, Dr. Ikeda urges renewedefforts to promote education forhuman rights, disarmament, and sustainable development. Noting thatthe world’s problems are caused byhuman beings, he reasons that “theymust have a human solution.” Indeed,humanism itself is the over-archingsolution he proposes.

At the core of this inspiring docu-ment is a strong emphasis on dialogueas “the sure and certain path topeace.” Recalling his own intenseefforts at dialogue in China and theSoviet Union in 1974, he suggeststhat just as no vision of peace waspossible at that time without thecommunist bloc, so must peace todayinclude a variety of people. As heexplores the meaning of humanism,he quotes Rabindranath Tagore,Martin Buber, Eiichiro Ishida, andAlbert Einstein, to name a few. Healso shares the essential elements ofBuddhist-inspired humanism.

In the end, he states that “The realessence and practice of humanism is found in heartfelt, one-to-one dialogue.” Because we are creatures oflanguage, we must—Ikeda seems tosay—keep talking, no matter what.“We have no choice but to immerseourselves in humanity, to commitourselves to an ocean of dialogue.”

Please see the back cover of thisnewsletter to order your copy of the2005 Peace Proposal, or go tohttp://www.sgi.org/english/President/peaceproposal/peace2005.htm.

how moved she was by White-Hammond’s comments about thehope the Sudanese people feel.Similar sentiments were voiced by a Nigerian woman in the audience,who said that she was surprised to seeany group of people in the UnitedStates give their attention to Africaand really care about the people there,and how good that sincere attentionfeels for her, as an African.

Concluding her remarks, GloriaWhite-Hammond invoked a freedomsong, “Ain’t gonna let nobody turnme around. Gonna keep on walking,keep on talking, on freedom’s trail,”she said. Just as Tubman had become“the hope and dream of the slave,”she has decided to offer herself as this dream for those in Sudan whoneed her.

For an in-depth summary of this lecture, please go to www.brc21.org/ht_summary.htm.

—-Helen Marie Casey

......................THE PATH TO PEACE: 2005

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us with a backlog of distrust, disre-spect, and neglect—they can’t jumpin as fully engaged community mem-bers. Many have been actively dis-couraged from being a part of theirprevious school communities, eitherbecause of class, personal “difference,”gender, condition (pregnancy), behav-ior, sexual orientation, or ethnicity.Thus, our first challenge is to build afoundation of reciprocal trust andrespect. When they believe that theytruly have a voice worth listeningto—and that we are worthy of theirtrust—young people become ready toco-create community. To accomplishthis, teachers and students worktogether in dyads we call the “one-to-one.” These relationships form thedynamic molecules of communitythat students will enlarge upon intheir lives.

Several years ago, I had a conversationwith a graduate who told me that untilshe came to the Community Schoolshe fundamentally questioned themeaning of her own life. In her sixmonths at the “C-school,” she feltthat meaning was restored because of our desire to hear what she had tosay, “as though I was someone that

mattered.” In the 13 years since thatremark, she has used the relationshipsshe established at the school to providebalance and perspective in her life.

For some students, relating genuinelyto adults can be hard to take. I’veknown “Dan” since 1978 when hewas an articulate, soft-spoken, humor-ous 17-year old. But despite obviousintelligence and close ties with class-mates, “Dan” failed to complete hisgraduation requirements while at theCommunity School. Although hemade it through the term, he tookten years to earn a diploma. Throughour Outreach program we discoveredan underlying reading problem, andhe taught me what it meant to growup in an abusive alcoholic household.Because of his past, he could neverfully trust that staff members werenot going to turn on him at any givenmoment, changing from our respect-ful, kind demeanors to the arbitraryrage and meanness he had experi-enced at home. Always waiting forthe other shoe to drop, he even triedto provoke our fury. Fortunately, hefailed at this as well.

For “Dan,” becoming a part of ourcommunity was like playing hide-

Residential Program (six-monthintensive residence), the OutreachProgram (for non-completers andalumni), or part of Passages, whichaddresses the needs of teen parents,usually young mothers, who aretutored in their homes by teacher/counselors.

The common thread is a sense ofcommunity, but how do we formcommunity? We believe that staffmembers and students alike share thesame basic needs. Each of us feels aneed to belong, to be respected andattended to, to be in compassionateand mutual relationships, and toaccomplish something meaningfulthat can lead to a hopeful future. Weall need to be part of a communitythat encourages our voice and respectsour opinion. And our lives need to beconnected to the communities thatsurround us: our neighborhood,town, eco-region, country, world.

To meet these needs we have designeda process that merges the world ofeducation and the “real world.”Although our approach to each student is highly individualized, alllearning at the community schooloccurs in the contexts of relationshipand community. Students begin theirjourney with us by completing aseries of challenges individualized totheir interests and capabilities beforethey are accepted; admission is basedon their behavior, no one else’s. Theyapply by their own choice and, so,begin by taking responsibility forthemselves as the authors of theireducational futures.

In working with non-traditional high-risk students, our learning curve hasbeen steep. Initially, we expected resi-dential students to come to us fullyable to participate in a democraticcommunity. But because their time inresidence with us is limited to sixmonths—and students often come to

Community at theCommunity Schoolcontinued from page 1

Motherhood is often an incentive to succeed at the Community School in Camden,Maine.

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and-seek. It was not safe for him toreveal himself, because he “knew” thatadults signified danger, and that hecould only expect the worst fromthose closest to him. As a counter-point, his C-school experience createda reserve of trust and respect that sustained him over the years as hegrew and started a family of his own.Like most of the young people wemeet at the Community School, Dan has learned to become part of acommunity by taking responsibilityand caring for others.

Most students join us with less thanample faith in themselves. Failure and an absence of adult support hasbought them the freedom of lowexpectations. Nevertheless, someinternal process pushes these studentsto reconnect with their education. For our teen moms, their own children can be an extraordinarymotivating factor; for our residents,motivations tend to cluster aroundgaining adult privilege and takingresponsibility for their lives. Lookingback, we have provided our studentsand staff with an authentic communityin which to grow up together. Wecarry and are carried by the connec-tions we have forged with others, ourselves, and the world around us.We have learned about community, in community. When names anddates are long forgotten, this will bethe enduring lesson.

—Emanuel Pariser

Emanuel Pariser, co-director and co-founder of the CommunitySchool, has served for many years onstate-level task forces and commis-sions relating to alternative educationand substance abuse prevention. He is currently developing the theory of relational education as a doctoral candidate at the University of Maine,Orono. For further information go to www.thecommunityschool.org,check out the book entitled Changing Lives: Voices from a Schoolthat Works, or contact Emanuel atemanuel@thecommunityschool.org.

SOKA UNIVERSITY STUDENTS VISIT THE BRC

Twenty-two students from the Soka University Japan UN Club visited

us in February on their way to the United Nations Headquarters where

they had research briefings with Ambassador Chowdhury and other UN

Officials in New York City. They are shown here posing with a statue of

John Harvard, the founder of Harvard University, just a few blocks from

the Center’s offices. The message of these young Ambassadors of Peace

to all they encountered was “Be a fortress for the peace of humankind!”

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In Memoriam

David Wellington Chappell(February 2, 1940 – December 2, 2004)

• Professor of Religion at University of Hawai’i for 28 years

• Founding faculty member and Professor of ComparativeStudies at Soka University of America

• Principal founder of the Society of Buddhist-Christian Studies

• Editor, Buddhist Peacework: Creating Cultures of Peace(Wisdom Publications 1999)

The David W. Chappell Dialogue for Peace Foundation has been established

to provide grants and scholarships to promote study in

Interfaith Dialogue and Peace Studies, and to support attendance at

Peace Study Conferences for American and international students.

For further information, please contact DialogueForPeace@ChappellFamily.com.

PM: In a sense, for most of us thefamily we grow up in is our first experience of community. What wasyour family like and what part of that experience remains with you?

CM: Like a lot of African Americansin this country my family was dividedbetween the North and the South.Most of my family lived in ruralLouisiana. But when my father wasdischarged from the service in 1944 inColorado, he and my mother decidedto stay there. I was the first person inour family to be born outside of theSouth. Growing up, I spent most ofmy summers in a small rural commu-nity in Louisiana, and all my schoolmonths in urban Denver.

PM: You lived in two worlds.

CM: Yes, my childhood was splitbetween two worlds and they werevery different worlds. I was born in1950, but it was not until 1966 thatmy grandmother in Louisiana hadrunning water in her house. She lived in a community that was pooreconomically, but rich socially.

PM: Was there a sense of communityin Louisiana that helped you definewhat it meant to belong to a group of people?

CM: We had a very strong communityin Colorado, but I do think our identity as a family was centered inLouisiana, where the community wasalmost exclusively black. In Denver,we lived in an integrated working-class neighborhood. Louisiana andDenver were definitely differentworlds, but both places were child-centered, and everyone worked—men and women—and both weretight social groups. We also attendeda church, the Baptist Church, andthat was another kind of community.

PM: Did you feel worldly, because you had the experience of knowingdifferent people and seeing them live in distinctively different ways in both the North and the South?

CM: I think it gave me a differentway of seeing the world, and a differ-ent notion about my own ability toadapt to different environments.

PM: When was the first time you felt that being a part of a communityoutside the family mattered to you?

CM: Family and community were so tightly integrated for me, but inadolescence I started to create my ownlittle communities like lots of kids do.

When I went off to college, to PacificUniversity in Oregon, I became a part of something different than my family was. It was a small liberalarts college in a small rural northern community with about 1,000 students;I liked it, but it was hard being one of a handful of black studentssurrounded by other communitiesthat had no black people.

PM: We live in such a mobile and tech-nological society that some thinkers,like Nel Noddings, have suggestedthat geographical communities andcommunities of kinship are not asavailable as they once were. In theirplace, she speaks of “communities of mind” that we might also think ofas “communities of culture.” In thiscontext, I wanted to ask if you believethere is a “black community” inAmerica that people feel a part of,even if they are not related or geographically close, but black?

CM: Belonging to a communityimplies choice. When you talk aboutthe concept of “the black communi-ty,” it is both a community of choiceand a community that you are part of by virtue of being black and livingin this country. You are treated in acertain way because of that, and itgives you a set of common experi-ences, a common framework to operate from, as well as a set of experiences that you can only sharewith other black people. So, yes, thereis a “black community,” but it’s notthe same for everybody and in a lot ofways it’s imposed by the larger society.It’s a political thing that has a lot todo with how people are treated, andhow institutions relate to them.

PM: Have you had mentors? If so,who are they and what lessons didyou learn from them?

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BUILDING COMMUNITY: A CONVERSATIONWITH CEASAR MCDOWELL

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CEASAR MCDOWELL has served as founding director

of the Center for Reflective Community Practice (CRCP)

at MIT for the past five years. With colleagues like

Joy Amulya, and with the support of an Advisory Board

and Partner Organizations, McDowell oversees the

development of programs focused on knowledge

building at the community level. He is also a member

of the BRC’s Learning Circle on Community Building

(See Director’s Message). McDowell was interviewed in

the spring by BRC publications manager Patti Marxsen.

CM: I looked up to my uncle. Hewas a biochemist, a senior researchscientist with NASA involved in a lotof their early work with monkeys andspace flight. He was an importantperson in my life who could modelwhat was possible. And on top of allthat, he lived in California. I’d visithim there and that was a real coolplace to be in the 1960s.

PM: Did he help you focus your talents?

CM: He was one of the central people for me in my college years.But I was a restless soul, and I’ve trieda lot of different paths in my life: I’ve owned a horse farm and was aprofessional horse trainer for a while;I was a professional musician; I ranYouth Programs for the YMCA; I was the Associate Superintendent of a school system in Alaska; and I’ve been a filmmaker.

The important thing about all that is being comfortable and alwayssearching for different avenues of self-expression. I think that’s what Ineeded to find myself. I was blessedenough to be able to do it in a waythat has given me a chance to try outthese notions of community and towork with different people in differ-ent places.

PM: On the website for the Centerfor Reflective Community Practice, itsays that your projects “support thedevelopment and use of knowledgeembedded in marginalized communi-ties to build social capital, improvecommunity service, and inform policy.” Could you define a few termshere for our readers: “marginalizedcommunity” and “social capital,” forexample.

CM: Marginalized refers to the posi-tion of neighborhood in relation tothe larger system. Marginalized is anunfortunate term because it doesn’treflect the vibrancy and complexity inthese communities that are the verybasis of our work. The term refers to

communities and neighborhoods that are poor and populated predomi-nantly by people of color. But it also contains for us the notion that a systematic, policy-driven set of circumstances has placed and keptthese communities and neighborhoodat the margins of society.

PM: Do terms like “marginalized”accentuate the “otherness” of somepeople or groups?

CM: Communities aren’t the sameeverywhere, and a word like “commu-nity” doesn’t mean the same thing in affluent suburbs as it means in a“marginalized” community. We haveto be sensitive to issues of power and privilege.

PM: And what do you mean by “social capital”?

CM: The word “capital” implies anasset—a thing of value. At the CRCP,we firmly believe that relationshipsare a form of capital… that knowl-edge is a form of capital… that ifpeople can recognize and use theirknowledge capital, they will be ableto improve the conditions they’re living in because they’ll have anotherway to engage with the world.

This goes back to the distinctionoften made between family and community. For me, growing up, the two were interconnected. Whenyou look at that interconnection, it’s a very strong social network that has a lot of value because it allows a lot of things to happen. If you dismiss itor don’t pay attention to it or fail tonurture it, you can lose it. Part of our work is helping people recognizethat they have these valuable socialnetworks as a form of capital.

PM: A key word in your organizationis “reflective.” How does reflectioncontribute to community building andsocial change?

CM: I have a very firm belief thatthere is a wealth of knowledge insidethe communities we work in. I alsoknow that people often don’t knowwhat they know. I believe that one ofthe ways you can help people identifythat knowledge is to engage them insome process of reflection on theirwork and experience. People need to have some distance, some spacewhere they can look back over whatthey’ve done, over the meaningthey’re making, and test that againstthe assumptions they have about theworld and the values they operatewith. We can’t do this on the fly. Youhave to be purposeful about makingthe space and time to do it.

PM: Does reflection lead to knowl-edge?

CM: We create and design processesin hopes of identifying knowledge,and we do it pretty rigorously. We do some individual work but most of our projects are collective. We mayhave groups of people come togetherand reflect on common experiencebecause we want them to know howthey collectively understand a piece of work.

PM: How do you create the space and convince people that they havetime to devote to this?

CM: Sometimes the most importantthing to do is simply create theopportunity. People will step up ifyou provide the support. One thing I believe is that many people in thiscountry feel silenced around theirown experience. For people in marginalized communities, theirexperience is often reflected back tothem by “experts” or the media orother people’s perceptions in waysthat are unrecognizable to the peoplein these communities.

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One thing I believe is that many people in this

country feel silenced aroundtheir own experience.

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PM: This goes to the heart of otherness.

CM: “Othering” is ubiquitous. Theimportant thing is the impact that it has. False images can rob people of a sense of control or agency in the world. So when you create oppor-tunities for people to find their ownvoice and name their experience inthe world, they’re eager for that. It’snot a new idea. Miles Horton did itwith the Highlander Institute in the 1950s when he created learningcircles for poor Appalachian people.He gave those people a voice and aplace to find that voice. It’s a radicalconcept: giving people a voice aroundtheir own experience.

PM: Why is it radical?

CM: Because we do a lot in our society to keep people from havingtheir own voice. We do it in schools,we do it in politics. When people canvoice their own experience, then noone can take that away from them.

PM: How and where do you work?

CM: We work throughout the coun-try. For example, we just finished atwo-year project with five communi-ties that included Mississippi andTexas, examining what they havelearned about the role of race inbuilding community. We also have anew knowledge-building initiative inBoston in which five neighborhoodsare building a history of what theyhave learned about improving thelives of families and children. We alsohave individual fellows, who might bepeople who could grow and benefitfrom working with us, or they mightbe seasoned practitioners in commu-nity building.

PM: Could you share a story aboutsomeone whose work with you at MIT led to social change in his or hercommunity?

CM: Jane Sapp, a musician and cultural worker, is currently a fellowwe’re working with. Jane has beendoing her work of community build-ing through music all over the world,for decades. And now she’s steppingback and struggling with importantquestions about what she’s learnedand what her work means for herselfand for other people. The processshe’s engaged in will lead to newknowledge for her and for us.

Another example is a group of com-munity health workers in Springfield,Massachusetts, in a Puerto Ricanneighborhood called the North End.This is the poorest neighborhood inthe state; and these people work onmany levels to deliver all kinds ofservices to those who live in thatcommunity. The health workers havebecome a team engaged in reflectivepractice. What’s interesting is thatthey initially saw their role as con-necting people to services. But aftergoing through a reflective process,they shifted their understanding ofwhat they do and now realize thatwhat they are really doing is commu-nity building focused on growingsocial networks. This has reallyenlivened them and people in thecommunity and has increased thesocial and political activity of peoplein the North End.

PM: What are the challenges of get-ting people who don’t have time orhave not been well served by socialpolicy to work together? How do you go about trust-building?

CM: We have to think of ways toactually engage with the work thatthey’re doing. First of all, you have

to show up and not make demands.And I think you have to prove yourcommitment to them and their com-munity. They have to know you’regoing to be there for the long term.For example, we’ve been workingwith the North End in Springfield for four years, but we have a 10-yearcommitment to those people. Andthe work we do belongs to them.

PM: What do mean by “belongs tothem”?

CM: Universities have a long historyof co-opting underserved communi-ties. We don’t want to do that, sowe’ve had to work through copyrightissues and things like that to makesure that the work we do, the knowl-edge we build, can only be used bythe communities engaged with us forpurposes that make sense to them.We can negotiate with them about it,but they own it.

PM: You’re sharing power.

CM: That’s what we do and that’swhat we want to do: share the powerin the knowledge building industry inthis world. We want to shake it upand bring different voices and experi-ences into it. So much of the knowl-edge that is valued in the world isabstract. It’s data, not real, touchableexperience. It doesn’t come from thepeople who live in a community andknow what’s going on. The essentialquestion is: How well are we able toknow what we need to know… toheal communities and the world? Youcan’t know what you need to know if you distance yourself from reality.

PM: Would you go so far as to saythat the knowledge on the groundshould be combined with abstractknowledge?

CM: Yes, the combination createspossibilities. The world is fully connected and interconnected. Weare a living system. But we’ve over-developed one aspect of our way of

Guest Interviewcontinued from page 9

The essential question is:How well are we able

to know what we need to know… to heal

communities and the world?......................

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Educating CitizensWell Received

The Center’s first education book,Educating Citizens for GlobalAwareness edited by Nel Noddings,was published by Teachers CollegePress in January. In the meantime,news of the book’s publication wasshared at Educating Global Citizens:International Perspectives, a sympo-sium co-sponsored by the BRC at the American Educational ResearchAssociation annual meeting in April.It was also featured in a panel focusedon Global Citizenship Education in the U.S: Historic Challenges andEmerging Models at the ComparativeInternational Education Societyannual meeting in March.

Larry Hickman, director of theCenter for Dewey Studies at Southern Illinois University, had this to say about Educating Citizens:“Nel Noddings and her colleagueshave given us a splendid book. It offers powerful strategies for incorporating themes of global citizenship into the curriculum, butalso leaves plenty of room for manag-ing the unique educational contextsthat teachers face on a daily basis.”

If you are a professor and would like to receive a complimentary examination copy of this book, pleasecontact the center at pubs@brc21.org.

Ideas in Action: Update

The Center’s forthcoming book, Ideas in Action: Enduring Visions of thePhilosophy and Practice of Education,is well underway with an impressiveslate of contributors. Editor DavidHansen and the BRC are pleased toannounce that the following chapterswill be completed this summer:

Hannah Arendt and the Human ConditionNatasha Levinson, Kent StateUniversity

Rabindranath Tagore and a Holistic Education Kathleen O’Connell, University of Toronto

Jane Addams and Education forPersonal and Civic GrowthJean Bethke Elshtain, University of Chicago Divinity School

Tsunesaburo Makiguchi and Value Creation Tatsuro Sakamoto, Soka University,and Kanoko Ide, University ofIllinois, Urbana-Champaign

Paulo Freire’s Politics and PedagogyStephen M. Fishman University of North Carolina (Charlotte), and Lucille McCarthy, University of Maryland Baltimore County

Maria Montessori and Peace as a Premise for EducatingJennifer Whitcomb, University of Colorado, and JacquelineCossentino, University of Maryland

W.E.B. Du Bois and an Education for True Human ProgressRodino Anderson, Teachers CollegeDoctoral Student, ColumbiaUniversity

Rudolf Steiner and the Education of Human PerceptionBruce Uhrmacher, Universityof Denver

Tao Xingzhi and An Education for the PeopleZhang Kaiyuan, Central ChinaNormal University

John Dewey and the Quest for MeaningDavid Hansen, Teachers College,Columbia University

knowing and used that to dictate to the other parts of the system. It’sunbalanced. We need to build ourcapacities in other areas.

PM: Does this relate to the term I came across on your website: “collective genius”?

CM: Work in communities is highlycollective and there is a genius there.Individuals have part of that, butthere is also something happening as a result of the collective mix ofindividuals. At the same time, weneed to connect different ways ofknowing into a kind of “connectedgenius.” We need to connect the falsedichotomy of theory and practice andthe different kinds of knowledge thatpeople in communities possess.

PM: What is the root cause ofunhealthy communities?

CM: Inability to love, especially those people who are different fromwho we are. That’s the root cause.Everything else stems from that.

PM: On a global scale, could you share some thoughts on what’s goingon in the world today and sugges-tions for practical steps ordinary people in the U.S. can take to build a culture of peace?

CM: I really believe that the bestthing we can do to effect peace in theworld is to be in peaceful and rightrelationship with the people who areright next to us. Our ability to changethe world is the ability to change what’sright in front of us and our way ofinteracting with what’s right in frontof us. Wendell Berry has an essayabout this idea of “thinking globally.”His idea is that people really can’taffect the world globally, but that thebest we can do is to fix ourselves andhelp those next to us. It all comesback to building good relationships.

PM: And love.

CM: Yes, and love. n

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give to my community, other com-munities are no less deserving. I needto be reminded that when I form aconnection with someone based oncommon experience, it is not becausethat someone is from Sudbury. It isbecause we are both human beings,and I am part of a global community.

RICHÉ C. ZAMORMS, MPH, PhD Executive Director,ProfessionalServices Division, Latin AmericanHealth Institute,Boston,Massachusetts

A COMMUNITY is a group of individuals connected to each otherby one or more attributes. The element that links them together is at the core, and is the essence of thegroup. Just as denoted by the rootand the suffix of the word (common-unity), a certain segment of the population is united by a familiarthread. In the field of Public Health,we see community as a group of folks who are at risk of being infectedor affected by certain types of diseasesbased on their demographic, social,and economic status. A community is a familiar thread used to bring people together to advocate and support each other in the fight toovercome those threats. As humanbeings, we need a sense of belonging,and that sense of belonging is whatconnects us to the many relationshipswe develop. For me, the communityis where one finds the balancebetween physical and mental fitness.

WHAT IS COMMUNITY, AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

We asked several people whose work involves community buildingthis simple question, and got some not-so-simple answers.

SARAH MICHELSONTeen Intern with The Food Project,Current ProgramInvolvement:Building LocalAgricultural SystemsToday (BLAST)www.thefoodproject.org

MOST PEOPLE IN TODAY’S WORLD relyon a community for practical purposes.The necessities of life rarely come fromone’s own hands, but rather from acomplicated “web of mutuality,” asMartin Luther King, Jr., once phrasedit. While people need to be part of acommunity for life’s necessities, mostpeople want to be part of a communitybecause there is something indescrib-ably lovely about being a part of agroup of people who share somethingthat makes life seem less lonely. A community is a safe place.

But there is something potentially dangerous about communities. A community that is safe, comfortable,and trusting can be so enticing thatindividuals forget about the world outside of their community or regardother communities with subtle preju-dices. I am a member of the Sudburycommunity, an affluent suburb ofBoston. While I work to give back tomy community, I also need to spendsome time away from Sudbury, toknow what life is like in Bolivia, in theAmerican South, or in Roxbury, theinner city neighborhood where theFood Project does a lot of its work. I need to go to these places to remindmyself that this way of life I am used to is not the only way or the best way.I need to be reminded that, while I

FRANCES MOORE LAPPÉAuthor of YouHave the Power:Choosing Couragein a Culture of Fear andDemocracy’s Edge(Forthcoming, Fall 2005)

COMMUNITY—meaning for me “nurturing human connection”—is our survival. We humans witheroutside of community. It isn’t a luxury, a nice thing; community isessential to our well-being.

Inclusion in the social life of society is community’s foundation. By inclusion I mean universal access toentry, starting with legal protectionsagainst exclusion—racial discrimina-tion, for example—but going far, farbeyond. Inclusion means access tojobs with fair pay, decent shelter,effective schools, and reliable healthcare. If you deprive “a man of a job or an income,” said Martin LutherKing, Jr., “you are in substance sayingto that man that he has no right toexist… it is murder, psychologically.”

Yet today the ethic in ascendance isexclusion. We have allowed the gov-ernment to let the minimum wagelose a quarter of its value in thirtyyears. One out of every five jobs inthe U.S. will not lift a family of fourout of poverty. And we’ve allowedhealthcare to become unattainable by so many that America now ranks42nd among the world’s nations ininfant survival.

This profoundly disturbing assaulton community calls us to accept an

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irony: We must risk exclusion—alienating or at least disturbing others—to become advocates for inclusionin community. Appreciating thatcommunity is essential to humanwell-being calls us to a particular kindof courage: walking with our fear ofexclusion in order to stand up forinclusion.

SHIRLEY SUET-LINGTANG, AssistantProfessor,Asian-AmericanStudies andAmerican Studies,University ofMassachusettsBoston (UMASS)

I WAS FIRST DRAWN to Asian-American Studies, and ethnic studiesin general, because of its revolution-ary commitment to community-building, justice-centered education,and hands-on, practical work. I havealways felt that the best places tolearn/teach are not behind the closeddoors of an ivory tower but wherepeople are experiencing marginaliza-tion and exclusion from decision-making power and resource-richopportunities.

Several years ago, that was all theory.After I listened carefully to howyoung people and their families expe-rienced problems first-hand and afterI realized that they had always been at the forefront in fighting for a justand healthy community for all, Ibegan to see things from their per-spective and apply myself to keepingtheir—our—dreams alive. Since Istarted working at the University ofMassachusetts, Boston, I have becomea U.S. resident, and like many of thestudents and community membersthat I work with, I have also foundmy life becoming more and more tiedto the political and social situation ofimmigrant communities and commu-nities of color in U.S. society.

So, why is community important?Because community saves us from the

isolation and alienation we fear.Because in the real world people haveno choice. Because community isabout finding each other and a placewe can call home. But we are alsocompelled to build community notonly because we are survivors in anexisting world order, but because webring differences to a society thaterases our differences. By dealing withdifferences we confront the questionof the social and economic founda-tions of our society. By building com-munity we bring some order to thisfragmented world.

ALAN O’HARESeanachie (Celtic Storyteller)and Director,Life Story Theatrewww.LifeStoryTheatre.org

IN THE SILENCE

of an early morn-ing walk recently, the crystal song of a scarlet red cardinal atop an oak treeawakened me more fully. As I stoodlistening to him and his mate, a couple walking their dog joined me.Without speaking a word, it was clearwe were enchanted by the gift of theirsong, and we joined together brieflyin a community of celebration for thegifts of Nature.

The new light, the morning hymn,and the momentary connection withother travelers evoked images fromother communities. Each of these cre-ates for us a safe experience of belong-ing, purpose, and shared values. Inthem, each of us encounters who weare and what our gifts are.

In the Sufi tradition, it is taught thatthe primary purpose of life is toawaken to the essence of who we are.Once we do so, we are invited to lov-ingly embrace this realization. Thegift of community is that it offerseach of us the fire of affirmation andsupport to achieve this. . . even onthose days when we feel no fire.

But at that time we can recall thewords of Thich Nhat Hanh: “I ask allof you to hold up your hands and tellme the truth. Do you believe, as I do,that someone in our hamlet is keep-ing the fire alive?”

LISA R. FORTUNAMD, MPHStaff Psychiatrist,Cambridge Health Alliance,Center forMulticulturalMental HealthResearch,Cambridge,Massachusetts

COMMUNITY IS ABOUT growing withothers. I grew up surrounded by aculturally rich and loving communitywhich has shaped my identity andpride as a black Latina woman. I havebeen blessed to be around young people and families ever engaged inimproving the vitality of their com-munity. Now, thirty five years into mylife, I work as a child and adolescentpsychiatrist. Every day, I get to meetwith young people. Because of whothese young people are and because of the love I have received, I strive tobe the best physician I can be and toserve those who need me most.

In the process, my spirituality hasbeen a central stabilizing and inform-ing force in my life, one that has beenvery personal, very quiet and that hasnevertheless guided every one of mylife choices. This interface betweencommunity, medicine, and personalfaith started with an early and long-standing fascination with the worldaround me. My mind was ignited bya love of science and medicine, andreliant on the power of communityand deep respect and appreciation forhealing. This attitude towards theworld was inspired by my grand-mother, my mother, and the eldersaround me who took the time to care.This is what community is about…taking care of each other. n

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OVER THE LAST TWO YEARS, the BRChas been actively engaged in learningabout and using Peacemaking Circlesin our internal staff development aswell as in our public programs. As avalues-driven method of resolvingconflict, we found the Circle appeal-ing because it relates to our mission,which is focused on dialogue andcommunity building. In particular,we appreciate the dialogical nature ofthe Circle process as well as its focuson connection and healing.

We first learned about the Circle inour exploration of Restorative Justiceduring a Seminar Series we held withlocal practitioners in 2002. ThroughCarolyn Boyes-Watson, Director ofthe Center for Restorative Justice atSuffolk University, we were intro-duced to Roca, Inc., a Boston-areaorganization that has gained signifi-cant attention for its work withPeacemaking Circles. Roca, a multi-cultural human development andcommunity-building organization,has been very successful in utilizingCircles. As Dr. Boyes-Watsonexplains, “Roca has used the Circle asa means to open up fresh possibilities

for connection, collaboration, andmutual understanding between youthand adult participants.” Roca has heldnumerous Circles with communityleaders, judges, young people, andsocial service workers as a means ofengaging a number of groups in com-plex issues that affect everyone in thecommunity.

The particular Circle process utilizedby Roca comes from the Tlingit FirstNation people of the Yukon Territoryof Canada. This process uses a talkingpiece to facilitate equal participation,and invites each group to develop itsown guidelines on how participantswill agree to come together. In thewords of Kay Pranis, a RestorativeJustice Planner and Circle Trainer, theprocess “places everyone in a Circle so they can hear one another, allowseveryone to speak without interrup-tion, and takes time to build relation-ships before trying to discuss coreissues.” Circle advocates believe thatthe more time a group devotes tobuilding trust, the quicker those par-ticipating in it can solve problems.

In the two years since BRC was firstintroduced to the Peacemaking Circle,

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we have incorporated the process inmuch of the work we do. At our 10thAnniversary Conference, Re-imagin-ing Self, Other, and the Natural World,we focused on three philosophies ofinterconnectedness derived fromEastern religious traditions, relationalpsychology, and indigenous cultures.We were fortunate to have MollyBaldwin and Saroeum Phoung ofRoca, Kay Pranis from Minnesota,and Tlingit Leader and Circle TrainerHarold Gatensby join our session tospeak about the transformative natureof the Circle process. Those whogathered were moved when theylearned about the work being done torestore communities through the useof the Circle.

Since our 10th Anniversary in 2003,we have also begun using Circlesinternally as a way of building deeperstaff connections and developing our mission. Sayra Pinto, director ofthe Working Coalition for LatinoStudents in Fitchburg, Massachusetts,has been very supportive throughoutthis process. And recently, we’ve beenworking on a Learning Circle processwith a selected group of local com-munity-building leaders. Over thecourse of this two-year project, ourgoal is to become a lived communitytogether and then produce a shareableproduct. Our vision is to share thewisdom gained through this processin the form of a book, a curriculum,or some other medium that can havea larger impact.

In appreciation for all that we’velearned in our exploration of theCircle process, we have recently addeda page on our website devoted toPeacemaking Circle resources. In theResources section of www.brc21.org,you will find a list of FAQ’s, furtherreadings, and Web links related to the Circle process. We invite you toexplore this material and learn how tobring the power of the Circle intoyour community, workplace, or family.

—Kevin Maher

PEACEMAKING CIRCLES: AN INVITATION TO A DIFFERENT

KIND OF DIALOGUE

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Mission Statement

The Boston Research Center for

the 21st Century (BRC) is an

international peace institute that

envisions a worldwide network

of global citizens developing

cultures of peace through dialogue

and understanding. The Center’s

mission is to cultivate an inclu-

sive sense of community, locally

and globally. Its current programs

focus on women’s leadership for

peace, global citizenship educa-

tion, and the philosophy and

practice of community building.

We sponsor public forums, edu-

cational seminars, and dialogue

circles that are collaborative,

diverse, and inter-generational.

BRC also produces multi-author

books that have been used in

over 250 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

190 countries and territories.

How to Reach UsWe welcome your advice, ideas, andcomments, as well as requests forcomplimentary examination copies of our books. Individual staff mem-bers can be reached by calling 617-491-1090 or via fax at 617-491-1169.Email addresses are listed below:

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

James McCrea, Publications Assistantpubassist@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

NewsletterEditor: Patti M. Marxsen

Contributors: Helen Casey, LisaFortuna, Nicholas Gier, Kevin Maher,Frances Moore Lappé, James McCrea,Sarah Michelson, Alan O’Hare,Emanuel Pariser, Virginia Straus,Shirley Suet-ling Tang, Riché Zamor

Desktop Publishing: Carol Dirga

Photo Credits: BRC Staff, MarilynHumphries, www.iabolish.com

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

The Center’s Mission Statementincludes a determination “to cultivate an inclusive sense of community, locally and globally.”In this issue of our newsletter, we explore the challenge and thepromise of community building inthe midst of our complex society.

Our Guest Interviewee, CeasarMcDowell, has worked for many years with the Center forReflective Community Practice at the Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology (MIT). For him, reflection is a key aspect of commu-nity building. At The CommunitySchool on the coast of Maine, co-directors Dora Lievow andEmanuel Pariser have learned that a sense of belonging fosters a senseof responsibility, to oneself and the surrounding community.Elsewhere, diverse voices from a variety of perspectives shareresponses to a deceptively simplequestion: What is community, and why is it important?

Looking beyond the communities close to home, Dr. Gloria White-Hammond’s Woman of CourageLecture in January reminded us that having safe communitiesthroughout the world is a funda-mental human right. We applaudher inspiring example.

Community means many things tomany people. We hope this issueinspires some new thinking that can be transformed into action,near and far.

— Patti M. MarxsenPublications Manager

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EDITOR’S NOTE

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

via snail mail, please send us your email address at pubs@brc21.org.

We’ll delete your name from the mailing list and, instead, send a

reminder as each newsletter becomes available online.Printed on recycled paper

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BRC PUBLICATIONS

BRC books have been adopted for use in over 250 courses in over 140American colleges and universities. Professors, please contact the Center torequest a complimentary examination copy of any BRC book you might beconsidering for course use, or go to www.brc21.org/books_exam.html.

Address Service Requested

Please contact the BRC Publications Department at 617-491-1090 or email us at pubs@brc21.org to order:

Toward a New Era of Dialogue: Humanism ExploredDaisaku Ikeda’s 2005 Peace ProposalNo charge

To purchase copies of our most recent titles, please note the websites and toll free phone numbers below:

Inaugural Ikeda Forum Report 2004Re-Awakening East-West Connections: Walden and BeyondFee: $5.00 including S&H within the contiguous U.S.

Buddhist Peacework can be purchased from WisdomPublications. Visit their websiteat www.wisdompubs.org or call 1-800-272-4050.

Educating Citizens for GlobalAwareness can be purchasedfrom Teachers College Pressby calling 1-800-575-6566 orby visiting the store on theirwebsite at www.tcpress.com.International customers, pleasecheck the website for orderinginstructions.

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

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