Ethical Reform of American Policing My pathway into law enforcement began unexpectedly as a ‘you got no choice’ assignment during my enlistment in the U.S. Airforce during the Vietnam War. Upon discharge, I began my California peace officer career in the...
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Teaching and Learning Self-forgetfulness
“There is joy in self-forgetfulness. So I try to make the light in others’ eyes my sun, the music in others’ ears my symphony, the smile on others’ lips my happiness”–Helen Keller (1966). Self-forgetfulness, defined as the ability to put the interests of the...
A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart
Junior at Kent Meridian High School Dr. King says, “Life at its best is a creative synthesis of opposites in fruitful harmony.” Life is in a constant motion it isn’t all of something and nothing of something else. Life manages to present the most complex of situations...
Step One of Dr. King’s Six Steps of Nonviolent Social Change
Our youth leaders and staff are studying Dr. King’s Six Steps of Nonviolent Social Change during the To Us, You Matter Civic Engagement Summer. They share some of their views on Step 1: Information Gathering. To understand and articulate an issue, problem or injustice...
Personal Digital Devices and the Work of Segregation
In his Letter from Birmingham Jail, Dr. Martin Luther King addressed fellow clergy on the evil of segregation. “All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality…. Segregation, to use the terminology of the...
Attributes of a Nonviolence Public Servant
This reading requires you to write brief comments about yourself. A public servant who contributes to the struggle to serve humanity lives a lifestyle marked by a high degree of moral integrity. Here are some of the most significant moral...
Human Right to Water
During the To Use You Matter Civic Engagement Tour we studied four primary issue areas, and one of them was the human Right to Water. This summer we had the opportunity to see this injustice face to face as we spoke with the people who have been affected by lack...
Dialectics and Cognition
All cognition is the result of sensory perception. Whatever a person (and groups of people) has learned derived from one’s encounter with the real world. Even one’s body, and therefore their brain, is part of nature and part of the real world. To discuss...
The History of the Freedom Center – Barbara Lee
Excerpts from Speech by Congresswoman Barbara Lee, August 4, 2017 To our Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Center young people and staff, I just want to say first how proud I am of you, good to be, good to see you. You all are awesome and you have interpreted your...
Orientation to Community Organizing and the Role of the Individual
Organizing is a process. It follows very specific, natural, and social/psychological laws. Organizing is the science of putting together, of constructing relationships. Every form of motion and energy either adds to or subtracts from the whole. No motion or energy...
Dr. Fred Gray: Civil Rights leader’s message for our time
Civil rights attorney Fred Gray will be the keynote speaker at the Barbara Lee and Elihu Harris Lecture Series on Saturday. (Courtesy of the Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Center) By Lou Fancher During the Civil Rights Movement, attorney and preacher Fred Gray...
Develop Your Own Educational Philosophy
An idea represents particular economic, political, and social forces. The most important forces are class and race; however every idea also has its origin in other “groups” or sectors as well. Thus, an idea also projects the interests and way-of-thinking, or a...
The Nonviolent Educator
Violence and nonviolence are two tools to use in problem solving in education. Both are based on the understanding that conflict is natural and it is inevitable. In practice, both involve certain virtues such as discipline, courage, loyalty, and work ethic. ...