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Terry Messman

Keeper of the Dream: Bernard Lafayette Carries on the Living Legacy of the Civil Rights Movement

October 5, 2012

Dr. Bernard Lafayette was with Martin Luther King in Memphis on the morning of his assassination. In King’s final words to Lafayette, he said it was crucial to “institutionalize and internationalize nonviolence.” Lafayette has spent his entire life in steadfastly carrying out King’s very last words to him.

Blood on the Tracks: Brian Willson Dances in Resistance to the Weapons of Mass Murder

September 6, 2012

Features Uncategorized

On September 1, 2012, Brian Willson returned to the railroad tracks where a weapons train once ran him down in a nearly lethal assault, fractured his skull, cut off both his legs — and he began dancing. He was forced to dance on two prosthetic limbs— but amazingly, he was dancing.

The Human Rights of the Poor Are Under Attack in Berkeley

September 6, 2012

Opinion

It would be a monumental betrayal of human rights to stand by while a few affluent business organizations attack a vulnerable minority. Can it ever be right to see a brother or sister in need — hungry, ill-clad, destitute and homeless — and then unleash the police on them, merely for existing?

Who Are These Children Dressed in Red? Nonviolent Resistance and the Cost of Conscience

May 6, 2012

Features Uncategorized

Narayan Desai taught us about nonviolent resistance in Birmingham, a city notoriously known as “Bombingham” because so many churches and homes were bombed by the forces of racism. We saw the parallels between Gandhi’s embrace of the risks of prison and police attacks, and the courage of Birmingham’s civil rights activists.

WRAP Occupies Abandoned Building in San Francisco

April 8, 2012

Features Uncategorized

Housing activists entered the vacant, two-story building owned by the San Francisco Archdiocese. They planned to occupy it so it could serve as housing for homeless people. Occupy SF member Emma Gerould said, “There is no reason why any building should be vacant when people have no housing.”

The Mississippi Delta: Birthplace of the Blues – “This Is Where the Soul of Man Never Dies.”

April 8, 2012

Arts and Culture Features

This is a story about how poverty, segregation and racial discrimination harm human beings. This is also a story about how beauty flowers from the fields of brutality. This is a story of the blues. “This is where the soul of man never dies,” as Sam Phillips said about Howlin’ Wolf.

The Occupy Movement Stands at the Crossroads: Street Spirit Interview with George Lakey

March 7, 2012

Features In Dialogue

“If we do stuff that justifies — in the eyes of the uncommitted — the repression of the state, we will certainly lose. And the uncommitted are most of the 99 percent. We need a lot more of those people. But the only way to win them over is through strict adherence to nonviolent struggle.” — George Lakey

Discovering the Unexpected Power of Nonviolence: Street Spirit Interview with Erica Chenoweth

March 7, 2012

Features In Dialogue

"We found that during the period of 1900 to 2006, nonviolent resistance campaigns are about twice as effective as violent ones in achieving their goals. We also found that these trends hold even where most people expect nonviolent resistance to be ineffective -- for instance, against dictatorships and highly repressive regimes." — Erica Chenoweth

A Bell Tolls for Countless Deaths on Nameless Streets

January 7, 2012

Features Uncategorized

The bell tolled for 91 individuals who died on the streets last year in San Francisco, and it tolled for the uncounted thousands of homeless deaths around the nation. The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty reported that homeless Americans die, on average, 30 years earlier than those with housing.

Occupy Oakland Shuts Down the Banks and the Port

November 6, 2011

News

Occupy Oakland galvanized thousands of people to march through the city and shut down its major banks. These determined activists then marched several miles to shut down the Port of Oakland, an amazing feat that showed this movement was so bold as to challenge the global reach of transnational corporations.

Glimpses of the Spirit – Defending People’s Park and the Spirit of Peace and Justice

September 1, 2011

Commentary

The Telegraph Business Improvement District wants to drive homeless people and meal programs out of People’s Park. Compassion for the poor was a foundational ideal of the peace movement that created the Park. Tearing out that legacy of compassion for the poor would tear the heart out of People’s Park.

Terry Messman

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