Three Nonviolent Lessons from Doctor Who
By Andrew Hocking of asyourpoetshavesaid.com Andrew Hocking writes about spirituality in movies, TV, and books, frequently discussing politics and occasionally Doctor Who. While television, and especially science fiction, typically glamorizes violence as a solution to problems, the titular Doctor in Doctor Who continually seeks peaceful resolutions and guides others to do the same. Viewers committed…
Sterilizing the “Unfit”
by John Cavanaugh-O’Keefe Editor’s note: this is an excerpt from the book The Roots of Racism and Abortion: An Exploration of Eugenics, pp. 64-66 In the 1920s, eugenicists in the United States and elsewhere pressed hard for sterilization laws, to give physicians and the heads of institutions the authority to sterilize their patients, with…
Amnesty International’s Blind Spot
by Julia Smucker Human rights watchdog Amnesty International is well known for its advocacy on behalf of vulnerable and marginalized people around the world. Amnesty’s goal is a worthy one, and many of its efforts are to be commended. The organization’s laudable work in defense of human rights makes it all the more unfortunate that…
“Is It Too Late?” 1971 Speech of Fannie Lou Hamer
In honor of Black History Month, we offer a speech by civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977). Fannie Lou Hamer was a leading civil rights activist in the 1960s and 1970s. Among her many accomplishments was co-founding the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which challenged the right of the all-white segregationist Democratic Party…