Recorded Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022... the Institute for Global Education partnered with the Catholic Information Center to celebrate "Interfaith Peace Service 2022: End Racism, Build Peace." Click the text to go directly to our YouTube page...or click the screen below to watch in this window...
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The United Nations Day of Peace 2022 was celebrated at the Grand Rapids Catholic Diocese Building at Wealthy and South Division. Celebrants from different faiths are Sister Mary Bridget Clingman, O.P., Catholic; Imam Kip Curmitt, Muslim; Reverend Willie Gholston, AME Protestant; Emily Napier, Hindu; Two Dogs (Stephen Potter), Native American; Hung Su, Buddhist; Lennox Forrest, Jewish.
Participants were asked to share how their religions work to end racism and build peace.
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Recorded Sunday, Sept. 19, 2021... the Institute for Global Education partnered with the Catholic Information Center to celebrate "An Interfaith Service of Peace." Click the text to go directly to our YouTube page...or click the screen below to watch in this window...
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The Annual Interfaith Program for UN International Day of Peace, 2021 was celebrated at the Grand Rapids Catholic Diocese Building at Wealthy and South Division. Celebrants from different faiths are Stephen Two Dogs Potter, Native American; Reverend Sue York, Episcopal; Diane Baum, Jewish; Fred Stella, Hindu; Denise Solomon, Roman Catholic; and Linda and Michael Hampton, Baha’i.
Participants were asked to share how their religions work for peace.
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For Earth Day 2021, IGE Talks returns before the end of the pandemic, as volunteers step forward to initiate us into Zoom technology. Our plans include holding a live Zoom session on Earth Day, April 22, to discuss two interviews on “Solar Power” and “Regenerative Agriculture.” You can join by watching the interviews, then participate in our live Zoom discussion. Contact us at brandan.bilski@gmail.com to get the link, and stay tuned for details...
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The future of “Solar Power” is so bright, I gotta wear shades. Wait, there’s more! It’s a solar coaster! The future of energy is solar, and it always will be! Local boy Lou Villaire reports on 40 years in solar power on the western slope of Colorado, and a mile high in the future.
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We talk to founding member of the Institute for Global Education, Sue Hartman. Her journey of activism included working at a sustainable organic agriculture consultancy. You won’t believe what microbes get up to.
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Recorded Monday, Feb. 17, 2020... IGE Talks partnered with the Grand Rapids chapter of XR to produce "Extinction Rebellion." Click to go directly to our YouTube page...or click the screen below to watch in this window...
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The planet is in ecological crisis: we are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction event this planet has experienced. Scientists believe we may have entered a period of abrupt climate breakdown. This is an unprecedented global emergency. Our children and our nation face grave risks.
In this talk, members of Extinction Rebellion share the latest climate science on where our planet is heading, discuss some of the current psychological responses around the climate emergency, and offer solutions through the study of social movements.
Extinction Rebellion is starting a chapter in Grand Rapids and this is your chance to learn more and get plugged in. Extinction Rebellion is a non-violent group working toward swift action to adress the climate crisis. Because your love for the earth and the people, plants and animals that live here is greater than the fear, despair or powerlessness you may feel. Because you care. Because you see we can change things if we work together for the benefit of all.
Check them out at XR-GR.org.
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Recorded Monday, Nov. 18, 2019... check out our YouTube Channel or go directly to the YouTube page for "Census 2020... How it will affect Grand Rapids?"...or click the screen below to watch in this window...
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The Institute for Global Education partnered with Census 2020 to present a panel discussion and Q & A before a live studio audience. Short answer: it will affect the allocation of resources like money and congressional representatives. But you know the more important question: which party will be the first to run a robot for president?
In a first for IGE Talks, we also live-streamed it at facebook.com/InstituteforGlobalEducation AND on facebook.com/IGETalks. But we didn’t promote it much beforehand, so we're not sure if anyone saw it… it’s still there, if you want to comment.
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Recorded Sunday, Sept. 22, 2019...check out our YouTube Channel or go directly to the YouTube page for "Climate Action for Peace"...or click the screen below to watch in this window...
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Every year, the United Nations celebrates an International Day of Peace with a different theme. This year’s is particularly appropriate as nationalism builds a wall to keep out the wrong people… but maybe it can keep out the wrong air which doesn’t exist.
IGE Talks videotaped the IGE-sponsored Interfaith Peace Service at Dominican Sisters at Marywood, Grand Rapids, Mich., USA. The service includes representatives of many faiths from the community.
See more at igegr.org, facebook.com/InstituteforGlobalEducation, and facebook.com/igetalks.
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Recorded Monday, June 24, 2019.... check out our YouTube Channel or go directly to the YouTube page for "Is the US Lying About Venezuela?"...or click the screen below to watch in this window...
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IGE member Tom Burke recently returned from a trip to Venezuela. Spoiler alert -- there is no corresponence between actual fact and the party line in Trump's America. But if that's all you've been hearing, this will all be news to you.
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Recorded Monday, March 25, 2019.... check out our YouTube Channel or go directly to the YouTube page for"Affordable Housing in Grand Rapids"...or click the screen below to watch in this window...
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The people who gathered to talk March 25, 2019, were neighbors. But more importantly, we are looking for a better future. Eventually the dark side will find a way to call even that evil. In the meantime hope springs eternal while fascism must be carefully taught.
We’ve all heard of gentrification, but to review: real estate in poor neighborhoods is demolished, replaced by “higher ticket” development. Without concurrent development of affordable housing elsewhere, the displaced have nowhere to go but to double up and crowd into existing housing… an inevitable lowering of quality of life.
Even if you see no gentrification, housing must still be replaced at a steady rate to make up for buildings that pass their habitable utility. But that’s not happening, either because developers’ profit margins are higher with the higher ticket, or rich people don’t want to deal with renting to poor people, or both.
The government can’t figure out how to promote this public good for society, but long ago figured out how to give tax breaks to oil companies to search for new places to drill for oil. The problem is they’re still doing that. Why?
The next time you hear someone say, “It’s good for the economy,” remember to ask, what exactly is the constituency represented by the word economy?
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Recorded Monday, February 11, 2019.... check out our YouTube Channel or go directly to the YouTube page for "Climate Crisis"... or click the screen below to watch in this window...
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Need a job? The robin in the picture removes the fecal sac, a sort of disposable diaper, for the health of the chicks. The “me first” crowd has left you a mess.
Research for this IGE Talks took a left turn. I wondered who invented the word “me.” No, not D.T. He just perfected it. Back in 1976, journalist-slash-novelist Tom Wolfe took up about 18,000 words of a New Yorker Magazine writing about “The Me Decade” (which has mutated into “the me generation” and assorted other cliches). I didn’t read it all, but an hour later I realized he was just describing things around us, in the derogatory style of the old-timey religion of new-ain’t-better-don’t-change-anything.
My point is output. He sucked a lot of air out of the room, but nothing compared to D.T., the wise businessman who doesn’t actually suck as much as actual businessmen, like the ones at Exxon-Mobil and General Motors. And let’s not forget the government that sends your boys overseas to keep the price of oil cheap, gives tax money to car companies that can’t provide efficient transportation, and lets lobbyists from oil and other cartels write laws guaranteeing established industries continued success.
The output of that process is pollution. We’ve been brought to the brink of disaster by their philosophy: “Yes, there are problems with industry and government, but at the end of the day I have to come out on top, or I won’t let you change anything.” Every time they say me, they’re really saying me first.
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Recorded Sunday, September 23, 2018.... check out our YouTube Channel or go directly to the YouTube page for "Interfaith Peace Service 2018, Shorter Version"... or click the screen below to watch in this window...
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This is a one-hour version of the longer video below. It will also play on Grand Rapids metro cable access channel 24, and on WKTV in Wyoming and Kentwood.
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Recorded Sunday, September 23, 2018.... check out our YouTube Channel or go directly to the YouTube page for "Interfaith Peace Service 2018"... or click the screen below to watch in this window...
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On the 70th Anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of the International Bill of Rights, we gathered in Grand Rapids, Michigan for an Interfaith Peace Service. The September 23, 2018 event was hosted by the Institute for Global Education (IGE), Dominican Sisters~Grand Rapids, and Instruments of Hope. The Grand Rapids Threshold Choir sang during the program which included meditation, prayer, and reflections – as the group progressed from the St. Francis Sculpture Garden for Prayer and Meditation, across the grounds of Dominican Center at Marywood to Dominican Chapel.
Representatives of seven different faiths shared how their traditions celebrate peace.
Speakers included: Janet Brown, OP, Dominican Sisters~Grand Rapids, Catholic tradition; Mary Patricia Beatty, OP, Catholic tradition; Representatives of seven different faith traditions shared peace reflections. Reflections from: Reverend William Edens, CSP, Associate Pastor, St. Andrew Cathedral, Roman Catholic tradition; Au Su Kimberly Hillebrand, Grand Rapids Buddhist Temple and Zen Center, Buddhist tradition; Diane Baum, Congregation Ahavas Israel, Jewish tradition; Fred Stella Pracharak, West Michigan Hindu Temple and Co-founder of Interfaith Dialogue Association, Hindu tradition. Mary Beth Mead, Sufi Muslim Inayti Order, Reverend Doctor Willie A. Gholston II, First Community A.M.E. Church, Protestant tradition; Aslam Modak, Burton Street Islamic Center and Interfaith Dialogue Association Board.
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Recorded Monday, August 27, 2018.... check out our YouTube Channel or go directly to the YouTube page for "How to Vote... First, Register"... or click the screen below to watch in this window...
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People are actively trying to disenfranchise us… intimidating voters with the thinnest veneer of justification. Creating spurious laws, like gerrymandering, to keep current politicians in office when they are in the minority. Penalizing people returning from prison, not even for punishment, but because they belong to the wrong demographic.
Experts on voting answered questions and gave advice.
The last day to register for the November election is Oct. 8. We have voter registration forms, and can look up whether you are registered. And we’ll help you work the election. There’s a small stipend, but the love you get from the community is priceless. Contact Kate at 773-220-0847 or kates@igegr.org. Also see igegr.org and facebook.com/InstituteforGlobalEducation.
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Recorded Monday, July 30, 2018.... check out our YouTube Channel or go directly to the YouTube page for"The Right to Peace"... or click the screen below to watch in this window...
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Good things are happening in the landscape. But it feels like we’re entering another era of institutional debauchery that will incite turmoil and creative destruction. Where will it all end? igetalks.org is there and so are you.
It’s the 70th Anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of the International Bill of Rights. IGE celebrates this tradition with a program of Peace Education in the Grand Rapids Public Schools on Friday, September 21. On Sunday, September 23, the Dominican Center at Marywood celebrates with an International Day of Peace Interfaith Service at 2 pm. And 50 years ago in 1968 Martin Luther King, Jr. inspired a Poor People’s Campaign... which was rebooted this summer.
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Also recorded Monday, May 21, 2018.... check out our YouTube Channel or go directly to the YouTube page for "The Poor People's Campaign; shorter version"... or click the screen below to watch in this window...
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This is a shorter version of the program called “IGE Talks: Poor People’s Campaign” (also available, below). Edited for brevity and clarity, this program is one hour long instead of one hour and twenty minutes.
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Recorded Monday, May 21, 2018.... check out our YouTube Channel or go directly to the YouTube page for "The Poor People's Campaign"... or click the screen below to watch in this window...
Recorded Friday, Sept. 22, 2017.... check out our YouTube Channel or go directly to the YouTube page for "50 Years of Young Lords"... or click the screen below to watch a smaller version in this window...
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A celebration of Puerto Rican and Latino self-determination, promoting neighborhood empowerment. Featuring Jose (Cha-Cha) Jimenez, founding member of the Young Lords Movement in Chicago, and Dr. Jose Flores, publisher and board member of Grand Rapids Public Schools, and other community leaders.
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Recorded Thursday, Sept. 21, 2017.... check out our YouTube Channel or go directly to the YouTube page for "Just War 1: Presentation"... or click the screen below to watch a smaller version in this window...
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We met at Trinity United Methodist Church to hear Dr. Michaeleen Kelly, professor of philosophy at Aquinas College, make a presentation on the philosophy of and criteria for “a just war.” Her presentation takes about an hour.
Also see Part 2, in which John Koch, veteran, attorney and social worker for Veterans Justice Outreach, provides commentary from personal and professional experience. We follow with general discussion.
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Recorded Thursday, Sept. 21, 2017.... check out our YouTube Channel or go directly to the YouTube page for "Just War 2: Discussion"... or click the screen below to watch a smaller version in this window...
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In Part 2 of "Just War,' John Koch -- veteran, attorney and social worker for Veterans Justice Outreac -- provides commentary from personal and professional experience. We follow with general discussion. This program takes about an hour.
Also see Part 1, in which Dr. Michaeleen Kelly, professor of philosophy at Aquinas College, makes a presentation on the philosophy of and criteria for “a just war.”
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Recorded Monday, May 1, 2017.... check out our YouTube Channel or go directly to the YouTube page for "Human Trafficking In Our Backyard"... or click the screen below to watch a smaller version in this window...
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Love in action will change the lives of women who are survivors of addiction, prostitution, and human trafficking. Our Sisters and the Institute for Global Education welcomed author Nita Belles to hear her speak of a way out of exploitation. Ms Belles is the author of "In Our Backyard: Human Trafficking in America and What We Can Do to Stop It." Also see her website, inourbackyard.org.
You have heard the stories and are aware of the scandal of modern slavery. Would you respond to a woman in severe and chronic distress? Find out about Our Sisters’ project to reach women who want to change their lives... oursisters.org.
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Recorded Monday, Feb. 27, 2017 .... check out our YouTube Channel or go directly to the YouTube page for"The Rising Resistance to Trump's Presidency"... or click the screen below to watch a smaller version in this window...
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Labor activist Tom Burke and Barb Howard hosted a one-plus hour long discussion at IGE Talks, open to public participation. We presented our views on the rising movement opposing the racist, anti-woman, anti-Muslim, and anti-worker attacks of Trump and the Republicans. Can we turn it into a force that will actually make gains for women, oppressed nationalities, immigrants, and working people? You’ll wish you were there…..
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Recorded Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016.....check out our YouTube Channel or go directly to the YouTube page for "Support Our Rapid Bus Drivers"... or click the screen below to watch a smaller version in this window...
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We hear from union bus driver Jay DeShane of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 836. Why is the Rapid Board (Interurban Transit Partnership) taking over a year to give the bus drivers a contract? Why is the Rapid trying to take away the workers' pension and downgrade their health insurance? We hear from union members, riders, and community leaders who are organizing to get a fair contract and social justice for workers in Grand Rapids and the surrounding towns. Hosted by labor activist Tom Burke.
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Recorded Thursday, Sept. 1, 2016....check out our YouTube Channel or go directly to the YouTube page for "How to vote... step one, register" or click the screen below to watch a smaller version in this window...
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Following up on our popular July IGE Talks, "Meet Your Candidates for the Aug. 2 Primary,” IGE Talks met Thursday, Sept. 1 for “How to vote… step one, register.”
Joy Murphy of the AARP voter education program told us everything you need to know about the election process. We present no candidate or proposal information, just procedural information.
This videotaped program can also be seen at igetalks.org, as well as during September on cable access in Grand Rapids, and hopefully, adding WKTV (Wyoming and Kentwood, Mich.).
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Recorded Monday, July 11, 2016....... "Meet Your Candidates for the Aug. 2 Primary" on our YouTube Channel or click below to watch it in this window......
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Videotaped at the Wealthy Street Theatre in Grand Rapids. Sponsored by Voices Not Heard in Michigan • Urban League • Kent County Black Caucus • Institute for Global Education • IGE Talks. Moderated by Paul Mayhue of the Kent County Democratic Party and Hank Fuhs of the Kent County Republican Committee. Straw poll vote for President. Meet and greet with local and state candidates running in Kent County’s Aug. 2 Primary.
Also showing on GRTV-25 (as well as channel 24 at times above):
Tue 08/02/16 12:30 AM GRTV-25
Mon 08/01/16 02:00 PM GRTV-25
Sun 07/31/16 10:30 PM GRTV-25
Sat 07/30/16 07:00 PM GRTV-25
Wed 07/27/16 01:30 PM GRTV-25
Mon 07/25/16 12:00 AM GRTV-25
Sun 07/24/16 12:15 PM GRTV-25
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Recorded Thursday, April 14, 2016....... "Neighborhood Improvement vs. Resident Displacement"on our YouTube Channel or click below to watch it in this window......
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Is your rent going up? Are your neighbors moving because they cannot afford to live in Grand Rapids anymore? What does gentrification mean? Do you want to know what a TIF or “Tax Increment Financing” is? Who decides what neighborhoods get city tax dollars? Are local businesses you use closing down or new ones opening up? What is the role of Wall Street banks in what happens to you and your neighbors? Is there neighborhood control or do politicians and outsiders decide? How are jobs and housing linked?
IGE Talks answersyour questions and discusses
Paul Mayhue, Moderator • Jose “Cha Cha” Jimenez, Presenter • Chuck Neller, Producer
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Recorded Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016......Watch "The Flint Water Crisis" on our YouTube Channel or click below to watch it in this window......
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The Flint Water Crisis remains in the news as a problem created by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, that would have been better if he had left it alone. When Governor Snyder is driven by profit schemes to privatize public utilities, then public health is damaged and children suffer for the rest of their lives.
Individuals made short presentations, on the science of polluted water, the “Emergency Finance Manager” laws and many other things, and a pastor visited us from Flint.
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Recorded Monday, Jan. 25, 2016......Watch "Dump Trump" on our YouTube Channel or click below to watch it in this window......
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Tom Burke moderated a report-back and discussion of West Michigan’s “Dump Trump” protest on Dec. 21, 2015. Students and youth, immigrants and refugees, anti-war activists and trade unionists, all greeted Wall Street’s Donald Trump during his stump stop here.
We chanted as Trump supporters drove past the entrance, “Hey Donnie! Let’s be clear, refugees are welcome here!” Inside, activists disrupted Trump’s hour-long speech eleven times, as Trump supporters and curiosity seekers gaped.
The U.S. continues fighting useless wars for oil and power in the Middle East, creating ever more refugees, while budgets get slashed, wages are cut and poverty increases at home. Politicians like Trump are the problem, not the solution. Wall Street billionaires get rich off our labor while scapegoating the undocumented immigrants and Muslims.
Sponsored by the Grand Rapids Anti-War Committee and IGE Talks. Let’s continue to build a movement. Beat back the fear, hatred and war mongering of right-wing populism! Dump Trump!
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Recorded Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015 Watch "GunsDown" on our YouTube Channel or click below to watch it in this window......
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We discussed the prevalence of guns and violence in the African-American community. Mothers Against Street Killings (M.A.S.K.) joined in exploring the causes of these intractable problems. The big news is MASK announced they are starting a gun buy-back campaign for the Grand Rapids area. Help us protect the community. Check out the MASK facebook page for details of the upcoming gun buy-back campaign.
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Recorded Thursday, Sept. 10, 2015 Watch "Human Trafficking Here and Now" on our YouTube Channel or click below to watch it in this window......
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How real is sex trafficking in my safe, suburban town? It happens everywhere: wherever there are people, there is sex trafficking. Most of us never see the traffickers, because they are experts at singling out the vulnerable.
We welcomed members of the Kent County Human Trafficking Task Force, who talked about traffickers recruiting and exploiting people around us. They shared a lot information about local programs, including Our Sisters, which is creating a shelter for women escaping that life.
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Recorded Saturday, July 18, 2015 Watch “Police, Vigilante, and Racist Murders” on our YouTube Channel or click below to watch it in this window......
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What we can do to end police, vigilante, and racist murders? Videotaped on the anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s birthday, part of a two-day celebration at IGE.
Paul Mayhue—Forum moderator and local political leader
Professors Nicholas Budimir and Dr. Bonnie Wright--on “Race, Racism, and Reconciliation”
Michael Scruggs—respondent, local Democratic Black Caucus Chair
Jewelian Robertson—respondent, cultural performer and activist
Jose "Cha Cha" Jimenez—respondent, community organizer and founder of Young Lords
Diane Baum -- respondent, long-time member of the Middle East Working Group of the Institute for Global Education
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ou are invited to,“The Right of People to Peace” …
Flags are symbols that stand for something, although they can mean different things to different people. That’s called cognitive dissonance. The triggerman says you’re taking “our” women, but it’s the men who have to save face before their race makes them fools.
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Also mentioned in this program:
International Day of Peace Activities sponsored by IGE
The cynical seem proud to be right, without getting the irony of a self-fulfilling philosophy. We'll see your cynicism with "there is no path to peace" and raise with "peace is the path."
IGE provides schools with suggestions in the form of a Program Guide for a Week of Peace Education:
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We support a better way of doing things -- better morally, logically, and practically. We can't just wait for the old men of Israel and Ukraine to die, because they are creating new warriors every day. We have to teach children the Principles of Peace. Or is it just reinforce their natural tendencies? Please watch IGE's faceBook page and plan to attend. Contact us at 616-454-1642 or amybennington@rocketmail.com.
Help us promote these events! Please download, print, and/or distribute the flyer or poster linked above.
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u are invited to,“The Right of People to Peace” …
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Palestinian activist Rasmea Odeh spoke by video conference to organized groups of supporters, and we taped that along with our discussion. Rasmea is the 68-year-old Palestinian American community leader who was tortured by the Israelis in 1969. She was targeted for political repression by the U.S. government and put on trial last year. Unable to obtain a fair trial where she could speak about the torture and rape by the Israeli occupation army, she was convicted.
Outrageously, given the minor charges against her, she was sentenced to 18 months in prison, followed by deportation. She is at home in Chicago preparing for her appeal, which takes place in Cincinnati, Ohio at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. We plan to be there in solidarity with Rasmea when it happens, perhaps in September.
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ou are invited to,“The Right of People to Peace” …
ou are invited to,“The Right of People to Peace” …
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"When Law Becomes Lawless (code blue or code red)" was our topic of discussion May 21st. It's the third in a series, the first two "Death and Community" and "Police Brutality: The Next Step."
We're inching closer to real change -- not the instant gratification of throwing bricks, or the similar circle-the-wagons-and-attack defensive posturing of the police. See if you don't come down on the side of change.
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ou are invited to,“The Right of People to Peace” …
Recorded Thursday, April 16, 2015 Watch “Art & Music” on our YouTube Channel or click below to watch it in this window......
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We always say, “Define your terms.”
But that IS the controversy. What IS art? What is musical? To paraphrase the Supremes, “I know it when I see it.” That’s the supreme court.
Music is harder to define. In our packaged attention-wrenched media saturated lives, it’s always there when words aren’t. Is there ever dance without music? Butoh. Even though “a person who doesn’t love music is dead,” can’t you hear it in your head? Just one more quote… google the rest of this song: “They’re just nicks off of records that I’ve learned.”
Stupid internet. Somebody tell me what is this song in my head?.
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ou are invited to,“The Right of People to Peace” …
Recorded Thursday, Feb. 19, 2015 Watch “Mental Health Parity” on our YouTube Channel or click below to watch it in this window......
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An intersection where mental health and physical health meet and “mind, body and spirit takes off.”
This program gives the public information about the connectiveness of mental health to physical health and touches on some common sense ideas for effective treatment and advocacy, to sustain proper perspective and balance in dealing with treators, and the statewide mental health system.
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ou are invited to,“The Right of People to Peace” …
Recorded Thursday, Jan. 15, 2015 Watch “Police Brutality...the Next Step” on our YouTube Channel or click below to watch it in this window...
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The IGE Talks public forum addressed the issue of minority and police relations from the IGE standpoint of peace, justice, and non-violent resolution of conflict. Also please see http://www.grtimes.com/archive2014/12_26_2014.asp for a local black perspective.
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ou are invited to,“The Right of People to Peace” …
Recorded Dec. 11, 2014 Watch “Death and Community” on our YouTube Channel or click below to watch it in this window …
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The peaceful protests of police killings hope to show the fearful and the fascists their irrationality. So we unite to question the status quo and hope to awaken conscience in the latter and consciousness in the former. These deaths should be met by a united front -- a community.
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ou are invited to,“The Right of People to Peace” …
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