Issue 25

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The Road We Walk

closeAuthor: Angela King Name: Angela King
Email: angelaking@lifeafterhate.org
Site:
About: Growing up in South Florida, Angela King struggled with her identity. She became confused about the messages she received from her church and family on issues like sexual identity and racial stereotypes. Disenfranchised, Angela began acting out and felt welcomed for the first time by a group of racist Skinheads: "They were angry and hated everyone. They made me feel like part of a family." Entrenched in the racist underground, crime became an increasingly important part of Angela's life. Though the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing made Angela reconsider her beliefs, she knew that abandoning her Skinhead affiliates would result in retaliation. Angela was arrested in 1998 and sentenced to six years in prison for her part in an armed robbery of a Jewish-owned store. Angela was released from prison three years early, in 2001, for good behavior and cooperation with the authorities. She has since graduated from the University of Central Florida with an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies. Angela routinely works as a keynote speaker, consultant, correspondent, and character educator in schools, communities, religious centers and elsewhere. She has been interviewed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, National Public Radio, and the National Resource Center for Racial Healing, among others, and has received several recognitions and awards for her dedication and support of Prejudice Reduction, Building Communities of Justice, as well as Holocaust education. Some of Angela's recent activities and work include: delegate and panelist at the Google Summit Against Violent Extremism, held in Dublin, Ireland, in June 2011; panelist at a 9/11 related commemoration event sponsored by the Department of Homeland Securities' Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism program, held in Washington D.C. in September 2011; correspondent and character educator for LifeAfterHate.org, a non-profit dedicated to promoting basic human goodness via outreach, character education, and an online magazine; and is currently writing a memoir vis-á-vis her time inside and out of the racist underground.See Authors Posts (7) ⋅ February 22, 2012 ⋅ One comment

February 21, 2012, marked the forty-seventh anniversary of the murder of Malcolm X. What does that mean for us? What should it mean for us? As individuals? As a community that wages peace? If one described Malcolm X’s life in accordance with the information proffered by mainstream American history, it would be easy to say [...]

O mundo e sua história foram construídos por guerreiros

By Carlos Eduardo de Oliveira Ramalho ⋅ February 16, 2012 ⋅ 4 comments

(English translation) O mundo e sua história foram construídos por guerreiros, que não se preocupavam em parecer loucos ou desordeiros, mas sim em mudar a dura realidade que viam em torno de si. Esses guerreiros não se preocupavam em respeitar os status quo, nem se prendiam no conservadorismo e, graças a esses grandes seres humanos o mundo vem mudando constantemente, nos dando a esperança sempre de que é possível sim sonhar com a paz. Guerreiros como Mahatma Gandhi, Madre Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Lech Wałęsa e tantos outros mudaram o mundo sem armas nas mãos, usando apenas as palavras e o amor pela humanidade.

Bridges Can Be Built

By Jo Berry

closeAuthor: Jo Berry Name: Jo Berry
Email: joberry9@gmail.com
Site: http://www.buildingbridgesforpeace.org/
About: October 12th 1984, my Father was attending the Conservative Party conference in Brighton when the IRA planted a bomb which killed my Father and 4 others. I was shaken to my core by the pain and shock but I knew I had a choice from just 2 days after my father was killed. Whether to blame, stay a victim or take responsibility for my feelings, seek to understand the enemy, and bring something positive from the trauma. I have known the pain that wants to seek revenge but have chosen to not act on this impulse, instead to work on transforming my feelings. 10 years ago I first met Pat Magee the ex IRA activist/terrorist who was the only one who was held responsible for planting the bomb. He was released from prison as part of the Peace Process. I wanted to meet him to hear his story and see him as a human being. We had an intense first 3 hour meeting, Pat started by giving his political position but half way through the meeting he opened up and became vulnerable, later saying my empathy disarmed him. Since then we have met over 80 times, sharing our story in many places and countries. I believe we all have humanity in us and the way forward for a peaceful world is to give up demonising others, instead to challenge our behavior. I am transforming my pain into action for peace. I have experienced Pat's humanity and know that if I had lived his life I may have made the same choices. I have dedicated my life to helping create a world where everyone wins, where the qualities of empathy and understanding take the place of judging and blaming, for it in only when we honour everyone that we will create a world which is really peaceful. Pat and I have spent over a decade involved in global peace and reconciliation work. We have spoken extensively at universities, prisons and schools and run workshops that draw on our experiences from our ongoing dialogue and ever evolving friendship. We have spoken at broad ranging international events such as the Basque Peace Conference, 4th World Congress Against the Death Penalty held in Geneva 2010 and Healing the Wounds of History in Lebanon 2011. In 2009 I launched the charity Building Bridges for Peace with the aim of advancing 'the education of the public in the understanding of the roots of war, terrorism and violence, and to promote dialogue and mediation or other non-violent expedients as the means of peace in situations of conflict.' I am also growing my business as an inspirational speaker, in facilitating workshops on resolving conflict and creating shared value, as well as coaching others in the transformation of their personal and business relationships.See Authors Posts (1) ⋅ February 13, 2012 ⋅ 2 comments

Happy Birthday Dad, I miss you still and today I am reflecting of all you achieved, all the people who loved you, and all you gave me. I am also thinking of all the people who have lost loved ones and have been injured through violence, terrorism, war and genocide. My heart goes out to [...]

A Day For Us

By Callen Harty ⋅ February 8, 2012 ⋅ One comment

In my youth it was illegal for groups of two or more gay men to gather together in public. Those who dared to congregate in homosexual-friendly clubs risked raids and arrests. This is what caused the Stonewall Rebellion that started the modern gay rights movement. Now it is mostly illegal to discriminate against queer people, but that is the law, not the reality. How many straight people have lost jobs when it was discovered who their life partners were? How many straight people have had friends killed because those friends were straight?

In Captivity …The Sky is Always There: Stories of Healing

By Katharina Hren ⋅ January 25, 2012 ⋅ 3 comments

It matters not when the healing begins. What matters is that there is a conscious intention to be an active participant in our healing by changing the stories that we tell about our experiences. I had to work to forgive my captor, the disease of alcoholism, in order to be free of an old drama of resentment and hurt. Compassion was the missing key that helped me to understand the lock that seemed to trap me in my painful experiences.

The Art of Forgiveness: Part 1

By Charles Ryder ⋅ January 22, 2012 ⋅ 17 comments

Volunteering at a holiday home for people with severe disabilities, I met a retired police officer who had been attacked on duty which had left her paralysed. She told me that “she had joined the police to help people” and I asked her if she hated the person who had injured her. She replied, “No, because there is too much hate in the world”.

Sammy Rangel “FOURBEARS: Myths of Forgiveness”

FourBears: The Myth of Forgiveness: isn't a simple memoir; it is a graphically illustrated guide from tortured child, to remorseless beast, to healing and change. This book is about helping others find their way out of their history and into the here and now. Proof that what once held you down can now hold you up. After the book reflects on a horrific upbringing it looks to offer key and ground breaking insights of the inner workings of the mind of a victim and later a perpetrator of hate and violence. Service providers working in treatment centers and institutional settings would greatly benefit from this work. Anyone facing issues with forgiveness and change might find a process toward healing and recovery.