A Good News Day Part 2

Also in the "good news" of the day, there is the story from the NYTimes about how the incident in Ireland by the "real IRA" actually brought people together. This is what Peace looks like.
It was the first thing I read this morning when I woke up and has made for a very good day filled with hope, but unfortunately not much homework.

Palestine and Israel, and Pakistan and India both could learn from this. There is hope for our future. I feel Peace is on the rise again.

When I was in Detroit in 2006 there was a Human Rights exhibit at the Ford Museum, I went 3 days in a row and have visited replicas of the places where some of the history was made. One was a lunch counter like the ones there used to be sit-ins at. Another was THE bus Rosa Parks was on, all restored. One of the most moving and simple exhibits was a contrast of the "White" vs. "Colored" hospital waiting rooms. It was terrifying to see the contrast. I think comparing the emergency rooms of the different classes these days could also be so terrifying. Just think Oakland versus Silicone Valley. Disparity still goes on, but in different ways.

Another neat exhibit was of the jail cells that women were put in when they were arrested for picketing Wilson for suffrage. The jail cell is an icon in history for many reasons. Union activists, civil rights activists, and peace activists have all made the pilgrimage to jail. It is not glamorous; it is anything but. It is the depth of impurity and control that activist are reacting against.

The Colvin story reminds me of just how real these events are; something more people need a physical experience to know. If more people could touch and feel what it was like, I think they would feel better connected to our past.

clipped from www.nytimes.com Intended to Incite, Irish Killings Draw Former Enemies Together The Irish Republican Army dissidents who shocked Northern Ireland this week by killing two British soldiers and a policeman within a 48-hour period have made no secret of their ambition to ignite a new wave of sectarian bloodletting. But as formerly sworn enemies filed into a provincial church on Friday to mourn as one, the funeral of the slain policeman provided the latest and most powerful demonstration of the ways in which the province’s people and its leaders have united against a return to the violence that racked Northern Ireland for 30 years. Rallies that drew thousands to silent vigils this week in Belfast and other major towns across the north, and dozens of interviews across the province, suggested that the old antagonists remain determined to settle their future in peace. Some who were there said that never in Ireland’s modern history had there been quite such an improbable gathering of old foes.