Common Threads

Elie Wiesel to speak at UNC Chapel Hill Oct. 10 @ 2PM

2010-09-19T19:23:00.000-07:00

Professor Elie Wiesel, humanitarian, scholar, theologian, Holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate, will visit UNC-Chapel Hill during Family Weekend 2010. He will be delivering a major university lecture and will be guest speaker at a dinner in his honor that evening.

For more information on tickets:

http://northcarolina.hillel.org/wiesel

No Comment Needed

2010-09-18T05:33:00.000-07:00

2010-09-13T20:53:00.000-07:00

Southern Poverty Law Center

9/2010

Suspended Education

Introduction
Since the early 1970s, out-of-school suspension rates have escalated dramatically. In part, the higher use of out-of-school suspension reflects the growth of policies such as “zero tolerance,” an approach to school discipline that imposes removal from school for a broad array of school code violations - from violent behavior to truancy and dress code violations

Click here for the entire article

Forgiveness

2010-05-28T13:16:00.001-07:00

"To forgive is not just to be altruistic. It is the best form of self-interest. It is also a process that does not exclude hatred and anger. These emotions are all part of being human. You should never hate yourself for hating others who do terrible things: the depth of your love is shown by the extent of your anger.

However, when I talk of forgiveness I mean the belief that you can come out the other side a better person. A better person than the one being consumed by anger and hatred. Remaining in that state locks you in a state of victimhood, making you almost dependent on the perpetrator. If you can find it in yourself to forgive then you are no longer chained to the perpetrator. You can move on, and you can even help the perpetrator to become a better person."

Desmond Tutu

(more)

Seeing Heaven in the Face of Black Men

2010-05-18T08:20:00.000-07:00

A highly recommended read. Tod lays out the real deal using a language and spirit that will bring the conversation on race to a new level in America.

Check out a video introduction here.

Link to the website is here.

Link to Oath of Black Manhood and Oath of White Manhood is here.

Indivisible

2010-05-14T15:24:00.000-07:00

National Museum of the American Indian Exhibit

Southern Discomfort

2010-04-12T04:10:00.000-07:00

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR

Southern Discomfort

JON MEACHAM

Published: April 10, 2010

IN 1956, nearly a century after Fort Sumter, Robert Penn Warren went on assignment for Life magazine, traveling throughout the South after the Supreme Court’s school desegregation decisions. Racism was thick, hope thin. Progress, Warren reported, was going to take a while — a long while. “History, like nature, knows no jumps,” he wrote, “except the jump backward, maybe.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/opinion/11meacham.html

Common Threads Visits International Civil Rights Museum Greensboro

2010-04-07T15:11:00.000-07:00

Common Threads visits the International Civil Rights Museum, Greensboro, NC

The International Civil Rights Center & Museum is an archival center, collecting museum and teaching facility devoted to the international struggle for civil and human rights. The Museum celebrates the nonviolent protests of the 1960 Greensboro sit-ins, which served as a catalyst in the civil rights movement. The Museum complex includes 30,000 square feet of exhibit space and is located in the historic 1929 F.W. Woolworth building in Greensboro, N.C.

Who is white?

2010-03-26T17:07:00.000-07:00

Who’s White?

Leigh Wells

By LINDA GORDON

Published: March 25, 2010

Nell Irvin Painter’s title, “The History of White People,” is a provocation in several ways: it’s monumental in sweep, and its absurd grandiosity should call to mind the fact that writing a “History of Black People” might seem perfectly reasonable to white people....

DO NOT PASS

2010-02-24T20:07:00.000-08:00

New York Times ESSAY Do Not Pass By TOURÉ February 21, 2010

"This may come as a shock to you, especially if you look at whiteness as a boon and blackness as a burden, but I have never once wished to be white. If a fairy godfather came to me and said I could switch races, I’d open the window and make him use it. I think 99 percent of black people would do the same. That’s not a knock on whiteness — it seems to be working out well for many people — it’s that I love blackness, even if passing would allow me to unhook myself from the heavy anchor called racism. It’s cool: I’ve learned how to be as quick as a Br’er Rabbit, even with the anchor attached. Still, you might argue, wouldn’t switching from a disadvantaged race to the dominant one be as liberating as a winning lottery ticket? Well, for those who’ve been able to complete the sociopolitical fantasy trip and become racial transvestites, it usually ends badly." MORE

UNESCO Declaration of Principles on Tolerance

2010-02-24T20:00:00.000-08:00

Tolerance is respect, acceptance and appreciation of the rich diversity of our world's cultures, our forms of expression and ways of being human. It is fostered by knowledge, openness, communication, and freedom of thought, conscience and belief. Tolerance is harmony in difference. It is not only a moral duty, it is also a political and legal requirement. Tolerance, the virtue that makes peace possible, contributes to the replacement of the culture of war by a culture of peace.

Questionnaire by Wendell Berry

2009-12-31T08:12:00.001-08:00

“Questionnaire”
(a poem by Wendell Berry)

1. How much poison are you willing
to eat for the success of the free
market and global trade? Please
name your preferred poisons.

2. For the sake of goodness, how much
evil are you willing to do?
Fill in the following blanks
with the names of your favorite
evils and acts of hatred.

3. What sacrifices are you prepared
to make for culture and civilization?
Please list the monuments, shrines,
and works of art you would
most willingly destroy.

4. In the name of patriotism and
the flag, how much of our beloved
land are you willing to desecrate?
List in the following spaces
the mountains, rivers, towns, farms
you could most readily do without.

5. State briefly the ideas, ideals, or hopes,
the energy sources, the kinds of security,
for which you would kill a child.
Name, please, the children whom
you would be willing to kill.

Wendell Berry

War Photojournalist

2009-12-19T08:45:00.000-08:00

Patrick Baz/AFP.

This April 8, 2003 photo of blood on the camera of an injured photographer at Baghdad's Palestine Hotel has become embematic on the websites of Iraqi organizations concerned with the safety of media workers.

Banning the Baha'i

2009-12-10T17:51:00.000-08:00

Banning the Baha'i

2009-11-25T17:12:00.000-08:00

Neo-Nazi group protests in Phoenix

Nov. 8, 2009 UPI

John Ridley: Gates Says What A Lot of Us Are Thinking: You Prove It!

2009-07-25T19:34:00.001-07:00

John Ridley: Gates Says What A Lot of Us Are Thinking: You Prove It!

Posted using ShareThis

TEXT: Obama's speech to NAACP - Washington Times

2009-07-17T12:57:00.001-07:00

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
President Obama shakes hands with NAACP Chairman Julian Bond during a convention marking the group's 100th anniversary Thursday in New York. "The pain of discrimination is still felt in America," Mr. Obama said.

TEXT: Obama's speech to NAACP - Washington Times

Shared via AddThis

Life Goes Inside Today's KKK

2009-07-17T12:36:00.000-07:00

New Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

2009-06-28T19:40:00.001-07:00

National Museum of African American History and Culture -- Architectural Rendering

NMAAHC DESIGN COMPETITION: SMITHSONIAN PICKS FREELON ADJAYE BOND
Tue, Apr 14, 2009 | Written by: Gina Buchanan

We have a winner! Freelon Group/Adjaye Associates & Davis Brody Bond in association with SmithGroup, will design the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). Their bronze-tiered design will be located adjacent to the National Monument and erected upon the last remaining build site on the National Mall near the White House and the Washington Monument.

CLICK HERE TO READ ARTICLE AND SEE ARCHITECTURAL ANIMATION

Frederick Douglass "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" 1852

2009-06-24T07:07:00.000-07:00

Frederick Douglass

"The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" 1852

"What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy -- a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour."

LINK TO THE ENTIRE SPEECH HERE

What do you think?

Remembering 10 Women Executed for their Faith in Iran in 1983

2009-06-20T14:36:00.001-07:00

Iran Press Watch Editors’ Note: Dedicated to the loving memory of the 10 women who were put to death in Shiraz, Iran on 18 June 1983 because of their adherence to the Baha’i Faith!

One of these 10 women, a mere child of 16, by the name of Mona Mahmudnizhad, spoke of liberty and the right to believe only months before her martyrdom in one of her school essays. In this essay entitled, liberty and upholding-liberty in Islam, she writes:

“The fruit of the religion of Islam is liberty and upholding liberty. Whoever tastes this fruit shall partake of its benefits. Liberty is a resplendent expression amongst all other glowing expressions in the world.

Humankind has always strived for liberty and freedom; so why is it that this freedom is at times taken from us? Why has freedom not always existed from the start of humanity? Why has the world always seen tyrants who have imposed their will upon others? Why are there people who are willing to inflict any sort of injustice upon the others in order that they may safeguard their own interests? What really is true liberty? What is the true meaning of freedom? How does it even come into being?

Some claim that they work to establish equality, and therefore they need freedom! In response to them, I say that absolute equality will never be possible regardless of whether you live in utmost freedom or under utter suppression. Instead, one must strive for the equality of rights; and one can work towards attaining equality of rights even in the absence of freedom…

Why is it that you don’t allow me the freedom in society to express my aspirations; so that I may say who I am and what I seek! So that I may be able to introduce my religious beliefs! Why is it that you don’t grant me the freedom of speech and penmanship, so that I may print my thoughts in newspapers and speak out in radio and television?

Yes, freedom is a heavenly gift, and this gift must be bestowed upon all; yet, you do not allow me to speak out freely as a Baha’i!

Why is it that you do not wish to know that a new religion has appeared? Why is it that you do not remove from before your eyes those thick veils covering the brilliant new Revelation that has dawned?

Perhaps you feel in your subconscious mind that you are not free! That is certainly a reality; and you do indeed lack freedom! You are devoid of the freedom to think! You have put limitations on your thinking and frozen your thoughts…

Freedom is a heavenly gift; so do not deprive yourselves of such a gift! By God; it is a pitiful sin to do so! God has granted this freedom within the essence of every human; and therefore you as a creature of God cannot deprive me of it; and I, as a creature of God, shall not grant you permission to deprive me of it.

God gave me the freedom to think; and thus I thought and reflected and reached the certitude that Baha’u’llah is the Truth. God granted me the freedom to express; and thus I cry out and express that Baha’u’llah is the Truth. God granted me the freedom to write; and thus I write with eloquent penmanship that Baha’u’llah is “Him Whom God Shall make manifest”. He is the Prophet-Founder of the Baha’i Faith, and His book is a Divine Book. God granted me the power to think, to write and to believe; and — in giving me such powers — God’s will was not contingent upon a freedom that you would bestow upon me.

Therefore the outcome of your taking our freedom away lies only within the sins you have stored for yourselves. Do give us our freedom then, for we have the power to believe in God and Baha’u’llah; and this power no earthly weapon can destroy! Nay, your efforts will only strengthen our faith. One of the Teachings of Baha’u’llah is the unification of humankind; thus we have the freedom to strive to attain it. Another one of His Teachings is non-involvement in politics, thus we are free not to interfere in your politics…”

Source: Iran Press Watch

The Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC) A Faith Denied: Persecution of the Baha'is of Iran

Senate Backs Apology for Slavery

2009-06-19T06:32:00.000-07:00

Senate Backs Apology for Slavery
By Krissah Thompson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 19, 2009
The Senate unanimously passed a resolution yesterday apologizing for slavery, making way for a joint congressional resolution and the latest attempt by the federal government to take responsibility for 2 1/2 centuries of slavery....

LINK TO ARTICLE

Comments?

Persecution of Baha’is in Iran

2009-06-18T12:50:00.000-07:00

"Roxana Saberi (Washington Post) advocates for Iran’s “prisoners of conscience”
In an article published in The Washington Post on June 11, 2009, journalist Roxana Saberi describes meeting Baha'is in Tehran's Evin Prison. ...

NPR June 19, 2009 Story on Baha'is of Iran

Tell us what you think...

A Cup of Tea

2009-06-15T14:35:00.000-07:00

"Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912) received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen. Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring. The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. ‘It is overfull. No more will go in!’ ‘Like this cup,’ Nan-in said. ‘You are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup? ‘"

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD:

Zen Flesh, Zen Bones- 101 Zen Stories, compiled by Paul Reps

Investigation of Reality

2009-06-14T07:27:00.000-07:00

'Abdu'l-Bah

(drawing by Khalil Gibran)

"In this same way man must free himself from the weeds of ignorance, thorns of superstitions and thistles of imitations that he may discover reality in the harvests of true knowledge. Otherwise, the discovery of reality is impossible, contention and divergence of religious belief will always remain, and mankind, like ferocious wolves, will rage and attack each other in hatred and antagonism."...

"We must not be content with simply following a certain course because we find our fathers pursued that course. It is the duty of everyone to investigate reality, and investigation of reality by another will not do for us. If all in the world were rich and one man poor, of what use are these riches to that man? If all the world be virtuous and a man steeped in vice, what good results are forthcoming from him? If all the world be resplendent and a man blind, where are his benefits? If all the world be in plenty and a man hungry, what sustenance does he derive? Therefore, every man must be an investigator for himself. Ideas and beliefs left by his fathers and ancestors as a heritage will not suffice, for adherence to these are but imitations, and imitations have ever been a cause of disappointment and misguidance. Be investigators of reality that you may attain the verity of truth and life."

`Abdu'l-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace,

29 August 1912

Talk at Home of Madame Morey

34 Hillside Avenue, Malden, Massachusetts

What do you think?

Resolving Conflicts

2009-06-13T05:44:00.000-07:00

Be proactive instead of reactive. Good plans shape good decisions.

"That's why good planning helps to make elusive dreams come true." -Lester R. Bittel

Be slow to anger-especially over petty issues.
"Anger is always more harmful than the insult that caused it." -Chinese Proverb

Instead of telling people they are wrong, point out mistakes indirectly.
" A person convinced against his will is of the same opinion still." -Samuel Butler

Look for some type of common ground as soon as possible.
"A compromise is the art of dividing a cake in such a way that everyone believes he has the biggest piece." -Ludwig Erhard

If you find that you are in the wrong, admit it.
"It's easier to eat crow while it is still warm." -Dan Heist

Admit one of your own poor decisions before pointing out a similar error by others.
"A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying... that he is wiser today than he was yesterday." -Alexander Pope, from Miscellanies by Jonathan Swift

Mend fences whenever possible.

"Never does the human soul appear so strong as when it forgoes revenge, and dares forgive an injury." -E.H. Chapin

Source: http://www.leadersinstitute.com/resource/peopleskills.html#conflictresolutiontips

Share your own favorite quote on resolving conflicts!

More on Holocaust Memorial Shooting

2009-06-12T16:04:00.001-07:00

Alleged Holocaust Museum Shooter Had Given Up Hate Site, Planned Other Attacks

Only days before he allegedly shot and killed a security guard at the
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, James von Brunn transferred the
domain name of his racist website to a man in Michigan.

From Southern Poverty Law Center Blog: Hatewatch
http://www.splcenter.org/blog/

Shooting at Holocaust Museum in D.C. Kills Guard

2009-06-10T19:08:00.000-07:00

By DAVID STOUT

Published: June 10, 2009

WASHINGTON — An 88-year-old white supremacist with a rifle walked into the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, one of the capital’s most visited sites, on Wednesday afternoon and began shooting, fatally wounding a security guard and sending tourists scrambling before he himself was shot, the authorities said.

NAACP at 100 --White Folks Among It's Founders

2009-06-09T17:25:00.000-07:00

HOW NAACP BEGAN

Mary White Ovington

By Mary White Ovington
(Originally Written in 1914)

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is five years old—old enough, it is believed, to have a history; and I, who am perhaps, its first member, have been chosen as the person to recite it. As its work since 1910 has been set forth in its annual reports. I shall make it my task to show how it came into existence and to tell of its first months of work. ... CLICK FOR MORE

The Grimké Sisters, Southern Abolitionists, Pioneers for Women's Rights

2009-06-07T11:51:00.000-07:00

Sarah Grimké (1792-1873) and Angelina Grimké Weld (1805-1879),

known as the Grimké sisters, were 19th-century American Quakers, educators and writers who were early advocates of abolitionism and women's rights.

The Grimké sisters were born in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. Sarah Moore Grimke was born on November 26, 1792 and Angelina Emily Grimke was born on November 26, 1805. Throughout their lives, they traveled throughout the North, lecturing about their first-hand experiences with slavery on their family's plantation.The Grimke father has hundreds of slaves. Among the first women to act publicly in social reform movements, they received abuse and ridicule for their abolitionist activity. They both realized that women would have to create a safe space in the public arena to be effective reformers. They became early activists in the women's rights movement. CLICK FOR MORE...

Link to eBook on the Grimké Sisters

Iranian Authorities Destroy Sufi Holy Site In Isfahan

2009-06-07T08:43:00.000-07:00

Editor’s Note: At Iran Press Watch, we were saddened to learn that authorities in Iran have destroyed a Holy Site of the Sufi Order in that country. We strongly denounce desecration of such sacred edifices and harassment of the Sufis, and we call upon the Iranian authorities to respect the right of all minority groups to live in Iran under the protection of the Constitution which provides civil and human rights for all citizens of that great nation.
By Golnaz Esfandiari for RFE/RL

Bank Accused of Pushing Mortgage Deals on Blacks

2009-06-07T08:14:00.000-07:00

Bank Accused of Pushing Mortgage Deals on Blacks

By MICHAEL POWELL

Published: June 7, 2009, New York Times

A federal lawsuit has claimed Wells Fargo steered blacks in and around Baltimore into high-interest mortgages.

Southern Poverty Law Center - Hate Group Map

2009-06-06T06:34:00.001-07:00

Southern Poverty Law Center

Hate Groups in North Carolina

Rosenwald Schools of Randolph County NC

2009-06-05T15:18:00.000-07:00

Asheboro's Central School

The Rosenwald rural school building program was a major effort to improve the quality of public education for African Americans in the early twentieth-century South. In 1912, Julius Rosenwald gave Booker T. Washington permission to use some of the money he had donated to Tuskegee Institute for the construction of six small schools in rural Alabama, which were constructed and opened in 1913 and 1914. Pleased with the results, Rosenwald then agreed to fund a larger program for schoolhouse construction based at Tuskegee. In 1917 he set up the Julius Rosenwald Fund, a Chicago-based philanthropic foundation, and in 1920 the Rosenwald Fund established an independent office for the school building program in Nashville, Tennessee. By 1928, one in every five rural schools for black students in the South was a Rosenwald school, and these schools housed one third of the region's rural black schoolchildren and teachers. At the program's conclusion in 1932, it had produced 4,977 new schools, 217 teachers' homes, and 163 shop buildings, constructed at a total cost of $28,408,520 to serve 663,615 students in 883 counties of 15 states ... CLICK FOR MORE.

CLICK FOR MORE ABOUT RANDOLPH COUNTY SCHOOLS ... (Enter Randolph Co. NC)

Wilmington NC White Supremacy Uprising of 1898

2009-06-05T15:00:00.000-07:00

"In the period immediately after the Civil War, the Democratic Party-ruled government in Wilmington, which was then North Carolina's largest city, was displaced by a coalition that was largely Republican and included many blacks. The loss of power stirred dissatisfaction among a faction of white civic leaders and business owners.

The tensions came to a head on Election Day, Nov. 9, 1898, when the Democrats regained power, according to historians largely by stuffing ballot boxes and intimidating black voters to keep them from the polls. Not waiting for an orderly transition of government, a group of white vigilantes demanded that power be handed over immediately. When they were rebuffed, in the words of the report, "Hell jolted loose." ...
CLICK TO READ MORE!

Gandhi's List of Seven Blunders out of which grows the violence that plagues the world.

2009-06-05T08:54:00.000-07:00

Gandhi's List of Seven Blunders

Wealth without work.

Pleasure without conscience.

Knowledge without character.

Commerce without morality.

Science without humanity.

Worship without sacrifice.

Politics without principles.

Letter from a Birmingham Jail

2009-06-04T20:45:00.000-07:00

Letter from a Birmingham Jail

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Al Jezzar Mosque, Akka Israel

2009-06-02T17:29:00.001-07:00

Check out this link it is a virtual tour of the Al Jezzar Mosque in Akka, Israel. I had the privilege of visiting it and taking some photos there when on Baha'i pilgrimage in 1997.

CLICK HERE FOR THE LINK

2009-06-01T18:56:00.000-07:00

Tim Wise: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama

Center for the Healing of Racism - Houston TX

2009-06-01T06:15:00.000-07:00

Tale of Two Shrines - Contrasts in Religious Tolerance in the Middle East

2009-05-31T06:52:00.000-07:00

Tale of Two Shrines - Contrasts in Religious Tolerance in the Middle East
I stumbled on this presentation when searching for Baha'i/Israel links and share it in the "Common Threads" spirit of open discussion of various and all points of view. The author is anonymous and clearly has a political, national and religious point of view. It addresses some very interesting issues in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict by using the Baha'i presence in Israel and contrasting it with how Baha'is and other minorities are treated in most Muslim countries.

CLICK HERE.

What do you think?

Common Threads DC Presentation Poster

2009-05-30T16:48:00.000-07:00

Common Threads in Union Station, Wash. DC

2009-05-30T16:34:00.000-07:00

2009-05-30T14:51:00.000-07:00

CommonVisions: Photographic Explorations of Unity in Diversity

Project Implicit -Click and try the tests!

2009-05-30T13:14:00.000-07:00