#396 Walk Covered, Gene Sharp, Going Deeper - February 2, 2018
More Roe Anniversary Coverage Though it had the customary signs of bias, the San Francisco Examiner’s coverage of the Walk for Life in San Francisco did include some consistent-life sentiment. They quoted C.J. Williams, of our member group Rehumanize International, as saying: “Our goal is very similar to the Women’s March. We are out here for equality, nondiscrimination and nonviolence. We are here for the consistent application of that principle across the board. If you are out for nonviolence and the equality and dignity of a human being, then we have a lot of common ground.”
C.J. Williams at a previous protest
Luminary of Nonviolence Gene Sharp, R.I.P. Gene Sharp died at his home in Boston on January 28, at the age of 90. Some focus on the philosophical or spiritual reasons for nonviolence. However, Sharp focused on the practicalities of nonviolent action, including the enumeration of 198 different nonviolent methods. There's room for both the spiritual and practical approaches, but Sharp's work proved especially useful for those opposing oppressive governments who did not have a background in the philosophy of nonviolence. Sharp was known for his 1973 three-volume set on the theory of why nonviolence works, cataloging methods that up to that time had been used throughout history, and the dynamics of how the methods work. He later wrote the influential book, From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation. He founded the Albert Einstein Institute for advancing the study of nonviolent action.
Going Deeper As an occasional reminder to everyone, and new information to the many people we’ve recently added, we offer: Our 30th Anniversary Conference video series – several of the sessions were recorded and are up on our web page now. A list of all our blog posts – Most of our posts are about thoughts that don’t get outdated or about news that remains interesting as history. We have them all listed by category with links, so have fun browsing. Indexes to Peace and Life Connections – all issues going back to 2010 are archived on our site. We have a Subject Index and a topical Quotations Index.
Latest CLN Blog Post Like every other social movement full of people with strong opinions, the consistent life movement has different perspectives about how to think about the issues. CL President John Whitehead offers some reflections on one way of looking at these differences in Seeking Peaceful Coexistence: The Varied Ways of Supporting a Consistent Life Ethic. He suggests these different perspectives can constitute multiplication rather than division, and thereby strengthen the movement with a variety of viewpoints that appeal to different people.
Quotation of the Week A World Where Abortion Is Unthinkable by Shelley Douglass, Plough Magazine I was in jail for taking part in anti-nuclear actions of civil disobedience . . . When you’re in jail, you do anything to get out of your cell – it’s boring in that cell! . . .One day we walked in and the presentation was on abortion. The two women who came in clearly believed what they were saying . . . .They really did want to share that abortions were normal, an easy thing, a very simple thing to do, that you really ought to consider it, especially if you were financially embarrassed. Everyone in jail is, of course. After the two women explained about abortion there was a silence. Then one of the women from the streets said, “But why would I want to kill my baby?”
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