Resources on this page are designed for use with Peace and Justice audiences.
They are downloadable in PDF format.

Your To-Do-List – Suggestions for peace action work »
How Can I Contribute To Peace? – Ways of doing and being for activists »
Insightful Book List by Important Authors »
Discussion Questions »
A Program Guide – Printable program guide for “Against Forgetting: The Human Condition” »

Your To-Do List

• Join a Forum or Peace Group
• Keep up to date on Peace events in your area.
  actionnetwork.org
• Tell the Government what you think:
  White House: (202) 456-1111
  State Department: (202) 647-6575
  House: house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
  Senate: senate.gov/senate/contact
• Boycott goods and divest from companies profiting from or lobbying against your issues.
• Use your feet and demonstrate.
  Meet great people. Boost your spirits.
• Use media: Facebook, Twitter, or e-mail to spread information.
  Share your knowledge and caring.
• Follow alternate News Media online: C-Span, Common Dreams, Truthout, Democracy Now, DW, Real News Network, BBC, Al Jazeera, Link TV, Free Speech TV, France24, Information Clearing House.
• Protest media violence to sources: Movie theaters that show violent previews. Call or write Networks.
• Protest bias in the media: 1) Let news sources know you know when their facts are wrong or 2) They are not reporting important news a Democratic Society needs to know.
• Praise where praise is due to lend your supportive opinion.
• Donate to UNHCR the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee Agency, 220 East 42nd Street, Grand Central, New York, NY 10017

How Can I Contribute to Peace

I contribute to Peace when I strive to express the best of myself in my contacts with others.
I contribute to Peace when I use my intelligence and my abilities to serve the good.
I contribute to Peace when I feel compassion toward all those who suffer.
I contribute to Peace when I look upon all as my brothers and sisters, regardless of race, culture, or religion.
I contribute to Peace when I rejoice over the happiness of others and pray for their well-being.
I contribute to Peace when I listen with tolerance to opinions that differ from mine or even oppose them.
I contribute to Peace when I resort to dialogue rather than to force to settle any conflict.
I contribute to Peace when I respect Nature and preserve it for generations to come.
I contribute to Peace when I do not seek to impose my conception of God upon others.
I contribute to Peace when I make Peace the foundation of my ideals and philosophy.

– Author Unknown

Insightful Books by Important Authors

• Campbell, Joseph, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, 1949, Pantheon Press, many reissues.
• Carroll, James, Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews: A History, 2001, Houghton Mifflin.
• Carroll, James, Jerusalem: How the Ancient City Ignited Our Imagination, 2011, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
• Coffin, William Sloan, The Heart Is a Little to the Left: Essays on Public Morality, 1999, Dartmouth College,
• Coffin, William Sloan, Credo, 2003, Westminster John Knox Press.
• Coffin, William Sloan, The Courage to Love: Sermons, Harper & Row.
• Epic of Gilgamesh: Earliest recorded stories of adventure and transformation.  More on Wikipedia.
• Hedges, Chris, War is A Force that Gives Us Meaning, 2002, Public Affairs.
• Homer, The Iliad,  A Greek epic poem about the cruelty of war. @ 8th Century.  Oral tradition.
• Ignatieff, Michael, The Warrior’s Honor: Ethnic War and the Modern Conscience, 1997, MacMillan.
• Johnson, Chalmers, Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, 2000.
• Johnson, Chalmers, The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic, 2004.
• Johnson, Chalmers, Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic,  2006.
• Johnson, Chalmers, Dismantling the Empire; America’s Last Best Hope, 2010, all Metropolitan Books.
• Juergensmeyer, Mark, Terror In the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence, 2000, University of California Press.
• Kaplan, Robert D., Warrior Politics: Why Leadership Demands a Pagan Ethos, 2000, Vintage.
• Kaye, Jeffrey, Moving Millions: How Coyote Capitalism Fuels Global Migration, 2010, Wiley & Sons.
• The Little Red Hen: An old English folktale that teaches of positive thinking and hard work.
• Little Red Riding Hood:  Fairy tale with 17th Century French origins and in 19th C. retold by brothers Grimm. Many interpretations.  See Wikipedia.
• Woodruff, Paul B.; Wilmer, Harry A., Facing Evil: Confronting the Dreadful Power Behind Genocide, terrorism, and Cruelty, 2001, Open Court Publishing.
• Zinn, Howard, The People’s History of the United States, 1980, Harper Collins.

Suggested Questions for Discussion

How do you keep from being discouraged as America continue invest in war. Please share what keeps you working on Peace and Justice issues. Do you have role models?

What is the hero’s myth? How does it show itself in our society or in your everyday life?

What are the most effective ways you have found to speak or act in support of the Peace and Justice movement. A mailing list? A group activity? Demonstrating? Signing petitions? Prayers? Compassion?

The Media influences societal attitudes about violence. What solutions have you found to limit the interference of violence in your life, in your community, in the lives of children?

Many leaders in the Peace Movement are suggesting that we cannot rely on our Government to respond to our calls to action, but must join and support one of the many organizations like Bill McKibben’s 350.org. Is this the good way to bring change? What benefits are there in joining activist groups?

In our effort to find a social group that nurtures us, gives us acceptance, validates our worthiness, provides us with a vision, how do we keep our basic me-ness from being overcome by the need for belonging?

Authors like James Carroll, in his book: Constantine’s Sword, suggest that religions, by claiming the exclusiveness of their way to God, have helped to perpetrate a sense that other religions are not worth and unbelievers are unenlightened.   What role does religion play in our endless wars?

What positive changes have you seen in this country that might lead away from violence and toward Peace and Justice?

What pro-active ways have you developed to teach compassion to the very young?

Please add your own questions or comments.