and i quote.

There is no such thing as defeat in non-violence. — Cesar Chavez

I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain. — James Baldwin

Just because something happens, because it is true, because the facts are correct, does not ensure that it is the truth.  — John Waters

Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. — Gilda Radner

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quote quartet.

How come we play war and not peace? Not enough role models.  — Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes

I have always been a learner because I knew nothing. — Sidney Poitier

We spend so much of our early lives trying to figure out who we really are. And we spend the rest of our lives preparing ourselves to let it go.  — John Cameron Mitchell

Years of love have been forgot, In the hatred of a minute. — Edgar Allen Poe

a baker’s dozen of fresh doodles.

If you have no wounds, how can you know if you’re alive? — Edward Albee (Rest in peace…)

When there’s no mutual respect, there’s trouble. — Dizzy Gillespie

A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.  — Oscar Wilde

I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.  — Eleanor Roosevelt

I don’t remember Moses writing, thou shalt not kill…unless you have a good reason. — Willie Nelson

Peace is the only battle worth waging.  — Albert Camus

There is peace even in the storm.  — Vincent Van Gogh

When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand. Ideas actually begin to grow within us and come to life. — Brenda Ueland

We can’t change the world until we change ourselves — Biggie Smalls

Human life has meaning…as long as it is lived in the service of humanity. — Wole Soyinka

In times of stress, the best thing we can do for each other is to listen with our ears and our hearts and to be assured that our questions are just as important as our answers.  — Fred Rogers

The nature of human beings must change. We must cultivate love and compassion. — Martin Scorcese

You jump on a bike and start pedaling. You fall down and get up again. — Judah Friedlander

graphic, sketchy, colororful: part deux.

Try. Fail. Fail again. Fail better. — Samuel Beckett

 People need to be more aware of how they’re affecting people   — Adam Yauch

 I’ve always felt that a person’s intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting views he can entertain simultaneously on the same topic.  — Abigail Adams

 Most people don’t care if you’re telling them the truth or if you’re telling them a lie, as long as they’re entertained. — Tom Waits

It always stimulates me to discover new examples of my own prejudice and stupidity to realize that I don’t know half as much as I think I do.  — Paul Auster

 If you resort to violence to prove a point, you’ve just experience a profound failure of imagination. — Sherman Alexie

Ask yourself: have you been kind today? Make kindness your daily modus operandi and change your world. — Annie Lennox

What’s so funny ’bout peace, love and understanding? — Nick Lowe (famously sung by Elvis Costello)

I’ve never known anyone who was what he or she seemed, or at least only what he or she seemed. People carry worlds within them. — Neil Gaiman

We’re going to have to learn to live together and develop a greater tolerance and get rid of whatever our fathers gave us in the way of hatred between nations. — Joe Strummer

 

thoughts of peace on the 15th anniversary of september 11.

Fifteen years ago, I was working at 11 John Street, a few blocks from the World Trade Center. My colleagues and I flew to San Francisco on September 10 for an organizational retreat. In fact, we were originally booked on the tragic Flight 93 on September 11…but we changed our tickets, last minute, to have an extra day in the Bay Area. My gratitude for this stroke of luck is more than offset by the many heartbreaking stories of the victims and their loved ones.

My main memories of the days following the attacks consist of the everyday acts of kindness on the streets of NYC. I remember running into folks I barely knew in my work neighborhood…the newspaper vendor, the coffee guy, etc…and locking eyes in recognition that we were alive. Sometimes we embraced, us virtual strangers.

We should not underestimate the power of these everyday connections. They bind us together, and in small but significant ways, allow us to see each other’s humanity.

Horrible acts of hatred and violence can be so challenging to us in the peacebuilding field. In NYC, even in the immediate aftermath, I heard few calls for vengeance or retribution. I saw an appreciation for life and a love of our diverse community. This inspired me to keep the faith.

I’m grateful to still be in the peace biz, hopefully making a difference. (And, coincidentally, I now work at 111 John Street.)

Peace to all,

Brad

Sketchy and graphic and now in Technicolor, volume I.

Folks, here are some of my sketchquotes, colored for your viewing pleasure (with a little help from the Prisma app.) Enjoy!If I’ve learned one thing in life, it’s not be so judgmental of other people. — Patti Smith

I don’t like that man. I’m going to get to know him better. — Abraham Lincoln

War is what happens when language fails.  — Margaret Atwood

Anyone who takes himself too seriously always runs the risk of looking ridiculous anyone who can laugh at himself does not. — Vaclav Havel

You can cut all the flowers, but you cannot keep spring from coming. — Pablo Neruda

So my idea of neurotic is spending too much time trying to correct a wrong. When I feel I’m doing that, then I snap out of it. — Gene Wilder

When we are committed to doing the work of love, we listen even when it hurts. — bell hooks

 In your fear, seek only peace. In your fear, seek only love. — David Bowie

The job is to ask questions and to ask them as inexorably as I can, and to face the absence of precise answers with a certain humility. — Arthur Miller

When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability. To be alive is to be vulnerable.  — Madeleine L’Engle

The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made. — Grouch Marx

Sometimes it’s a form of love to talk to somebody you have nothing in common with, and still be fascinated by their presence. — David Byrne

Silence remains, inescapably, a form of speech. — Susan Sontag

 Mistakes are a fact of life. It’s the response to the error that counts. — Nikki Giovanni

 Any ideology makes me a little nervous, because at some point, it doesn’t allow for the complexity of things. — Kim Gordon

If you disagree with me, fine, because that’s the great thing about America, we can disagree.  — Michael Stipe

 There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in — Leonard Cohen

 I don’t aim for perfection. But I want to try and come up with something interesting. — Kate Bush

A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work unless it’s open. — Frank Zappa

Our true nationality is mankind. — HG Wells

 The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind and still maintain the ability to function.  — F. Scott Fitzgerald

These are terribly tough times, and we should try to be as nice to each other as possible. — Lou Reed

Fact may not be truth, and truth may not be factual. — Haruki Murakami

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world shall know peace — Jimi Hendrix

If you keep saying things are going to be bad, you have a good chance of being a prophet. — Isaac Bashevis Singer

We also project into the future or reflect in the past but we are so little in the present. — -Marina Abramović

When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness. — Joseph Campbell

A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer. — Bruce Lee

You can never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view. — Harper Lee, from To Kill a Mockingbird.

Judgment of the people in the situation is not helpful. how you can help them is the question. — Russell Simmons

Have compassion for everyone, even if they don’t want it. — Lucinda Williams

A country is considered civilized the more the wisdom and efficiency of its laws hinder a weak man from becoming too weak, and a powerful one too powerful.  — Primo Levi

I don’t hate nobody. I hate certain conditions that inflicted upon the people — and they’re helpless with it.  — Mos Def

It’s crazy how you can get yourself into a mess sometimes and not even be able to think about it with any sense, and yet not be able to think about anything else. — Stanley Kubrick

When a person doesn’t have gratitude, something is missing in his or her personality. A person can be almost defined by his or her attitude toward gratitude. — Elie Wiesel

If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course on where you stop your story. — Orson Welles

If man is to survive, he will have learned to take a delight in the essential differences between men and between cultures. He will learn that differences in ideas and attitudes are a delight, part of life’s exciting variety, not something to fear. — Gene Roddenberry

live long, prosper, carry on.

Nice quote from Star Trek creator (it’s the 50th Anniversary of the original series!):

“If man is to survive, he will have learned to take a delight in the essential differences between men and between cultures. He will learn that differences in ideas and attitudes are a delight, part of life’s exciting variety, not something to fear.”

happy labor day, folks!

Here I am with my rendition of Rosie the Riveter, the World War II icon and latter day symbol of women’s empowerment. We use this image to discuss the concept of self-determination in our trainings.

I recently returned from doing some work in Japan (more about that later), and I chose not to use this image — what with Rosie and her co-workers working in factories to build weapons against their country. (I asked several of my Japanese colleagues whether this image would be offensive, and they said only to some extreme right-wing adherents who cruise around Tokyo in vans with loudspeakers).

Anyways, to workers everywhere, enjoy your day!