Joan Baez Sings "We Shall Overcome" to the people of Iran

To the People of Iran:

In you the world sees the power of nonviolence. We hear it in the roar of your silence and see it in your eyes as you sit down peacefully in the face of terror. We are moved by your courage and inspired by your sacrifices. I am fortunate to be alive to witness this movement. I send you my prayers, love, and support.

--Joan Baez

Victor Frankl - Finding Meaning and Purpose

The late Dr. Viktor Frankl, psychoanalyst, Holocaust survivor, and author of the seminal book, “Man’s Search for Meaning,” speaks with passion and humor to a group of students on the meaning and purpose of life.

Nero d’Avola

My favorite bottle of red wine is labeled Nero d’Avola. The Sicilian name translates as Avola Black, referencing that in the past this was a much stronger and syrupy wine used to fortify weaker reds. New techniques of viticulture and harvesting have dramatically improved the wine, which is now similar to Syrah. I was introduced to Nero d’Avola visiting my daughter Amber when she lived in Sicily for a three-year research project interviewing Italian fishermen. One evening in the ancient fishing village of Favignana in the Egadi Islands to the west of Sicily, I sat at a long table in the local café-bar watching soccer and eating lobster and pasta from a huge porcelain bowl with fifteen Sicilian fishermen plus my daughter and wife. My seat mate was the man who had caught the lobsters. He was missing two-thirds of his teeth, he was a great fan of the Roman football team and hated Milan, he talked and laughed continually, ate ravenously, cheered and booed, told me every joke he could think of in the Sicilian dialect, cared not a whit that I understood not a word, and plied me insistently with the most tasty and perfect wine I had ever chanced upon – Nero d’Avola.

Forgive George Bush?

Many of my friends, I am sure, will never be able to forgive George Bush. For them as well as me, he’s played a thoroughly despicable role: the promoter of arrogance and greed, duplicity and self-righteousness, the pawn of others more cunning and evilly-intentioned than himself.

Bush shuffles off into history as a ramshackle gimcrack, the embodiment of a failed politician. He hoped to enter the annals of the presidency as an emblem of courage in the face of terror, the embodiment of democratic principles, and the architect of a new world order dominated by the United States. He wanted to be known as the savior of the Middle East, our fearless commander-in-chief, the conservator of America’s greatness.

Instead, our grandchildren’s grandchildren will know him as the ultimate contemptible incompetent, literally the worst president in our history. I see him as something else, however. George Bush was a man of and for his time. He gave Americans exactly what we were asking for. When we were frightened by 9-11, he gave us a simple explanation and an apparently clear target. When we all wanted to be rich, he gave us a regulation-free economy and lower taxes and the dream of wealth for all. When we wanted to believe that killing or capturing Saddam Hussein would end the war on terror and usher in an era of harmony and democracy, Bush obliged.

I am deeply grateful to George Bush, and I forgive him a thousand times over. We Americans needed to go down the dark passageways of Bushism; we needed to plumb avarice and selfishness, deceit and contempt for humanity to the depths of our own historic disaster in order to face the challenge posed to us by the skinny black kid with a funny name. How can we forgive ourselves if we’re not ready to forgive George Bush?

Voices in Wartime: Film and Education Project

Andrew Himes was the executive producer of Voices in Wartime: an acclaimed feature-length documentary now available on DVD. He is now a member of the board of Voices [Compassionate Education Movement].

View the experience of war through powerful images and the words of poets, soldiers, journalists, historians and experts on combat from around the world. Learn how the experience of war extends beyond national borders and into the depth of the human soul.




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About Revival

My granddad, famed evangelist John R. Rice, provided early leadership for the rise to power of fundamentalism in America, was the mentor and inspiration for younger evangelical preachers such as Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell, and close ally of Bob Jones Sr. and Jr. I grew up in the 1950s and 60s first following and then opposing his beliefs. In the 70s, I swung from religious fundamentalism to revolutionary communism - an opposite and equally deadend sort of fundamentalism.

Revival is a postmodern journey from despair and rage, in a new exodus, to a revolution of hope.

Since my granddad’s death in 1980, I've been on my own journey of spritual rebirth. I’ve been learning how to integrate his legacy with my life, while envisioning a new kind of revival. I believe we may be entering the most dangerous century in human history, but also a century replete with hopeful possibilities and enormous opportunities to create a peaceful, global, diverse and sustainable human community. Meeting these challenges will require a reconnection between our spiritual selves and public lives.

Do Dogs Have Souls?