Bertha von Suttner's Lay Down Your Arms (Part 4). In our last show of 5/18/22, we began and ended with the final sentence of Chapter 6, pg. 140: "What a foolish world -- still in leading strings -- cruel, unthinking! This was the result of my historical studies." In this show, we focus on Chapters 7 & 8 (pages 141-186). In these chapters, Martha endures the departure of Frederick for war with Denmark. This is the second time she has suffered the departure of husband for war and it...

This show continues our discussion from 10/7/21 of Bertha von Suttner's most famous and well-known work, Lay Down your Arms! (LDYA).  Since our last installment, 7 months ago, Russia has invaded Ukraine, and this conflict has endured for almost 3 months.  On this Peace Day, and the 2 year anniversary of this show, Bertha's book is all the more relevant.  Today we focus on chapter 6 (116-140), which we interpret as an account that foreshadows Hannah Arendt's philosophy on the relationship...

This show continues our discussion from 9/16/21 of Bertha von Suttner's most famous and well-known work, Lay Down your Arms!. In this episode, we focus on Chapters 4-5 (about 60 pages) Martha Dotzky’s (nèe Althaus) and Baron Friedrich von Tilling's relationship intensifies and we witness the beginning of heightening and developing of both consciences through their encounter. Through intellectual discussion and a shared "humane viewpoint" Martha, who originally swore off Freidrich von Tilling...

This show focuses Bertha von Suttner's (1843-1914) most famous and well known work, “Lay Down your Arms !”. Originally published in the German language in 1889 with the title Die Waffen Nieder!, the first English translation appeared in 1892. Suttner would become the first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize (in 1905). This show introduces Suttner's book, a fictional autobiography, of 19 chapters. In this show, with Dr. Hope Elizabeth May who founded The Bertha von Suttner Project in 2013...

This show marks the 30th anniversary of Korean Kim Hak Sun's (김학순) (1924-1997) decision to break the silence about Japan's military sexual slavery during World War II. On August 14, 1991, Ms. Kim, a Korean, decided to make public her horrifying ordeal that began when she was 17 years old. This decision began a process of testimony, education and reconciliation that continues to this day. In this show, we focus on the issue of sexual slavery as it has affected Korea. We begin by discussing...

This show is the second installment of a discussion of Evelyn Grubb's petition to the United Nations. Last week, on June 7, 2021, we commemorated the 50th anniversary of Evelyn Grubb's petition to the United Nations on behalf of all the families of POW/MIA. A groundbreaking and prescient argument rooted in principles of humanitarian and human rights law, the "class action" petition appeals to two different instruments of public international law: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and...

50 years ago, on June 7, 1971, in her capacity as the National Coordinator for the National League of POW/MIA Families, Evelyn Grubb (1931-2005) petitioned the United Nations to pressure North Vietnam to disclose information truthful information about the status of all POW/MIA. Evelyn's historic petition made reference to two instruments of international law: The 3d Geneva Convention and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In this show, we provide a introductory background of these...

This show is second in a series in which we discuss the encounter between theologian and philosopher Howard Thurman (1899-1981) and pacifist-feminist author Olive Schreiner (1855-1920). Thurman first encountered Schreiner five years after Schreiner's death when Schreiner's allegory of "The Hunter" was read aloud at a conference which Thurman was attending as a 25 year old divinity student at Rochester Theological Seminary. After that encounter, Thurman read everything of Schreiner's that he...

On this one year anniversary of the Virtues of Peace podcast, and the 120th anniversary of the observation of Peace Day (also known as "Hague Day") in the United States, we discuss a powerful trans-generational, trans-racial, trans-national and trans-gender encounter between feminist pacifist writer Olive Schreiner (1855-1920) and philosopher and theologian Howard Thurman (1899-1981). Thurman, who provided the philosophical framework for the non-violent wing of the Civil Rights Movement,...

This episode continues our conversation about the Adelaide Johnson’s Portrait Monument to Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. In this show we discuss how the statue helps to unearth the linkages between the Suffrage Movement and the Peace through Law Movement. We focus on a project initiated by Dr. Hope Elizabeth May, who is the founder and President of the Cora di Brazzà Foundation. One of the initiatives of the Foundation titled "Forward Into Light" aims to uncover...

This show continues our conversation with Dr. Caroline Sparks who, after encountering Adelaide Johnson's Portrait Monument to Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in the Crypt of the U.S. Capitol in 1978, resolved to return it to its more elevated position in the Rotunda, a space for which it was designed. As we discussed last time, Caroline's goal was to raise the statue in 1995, to mark the 75th anniversary of the 19th Amendment. While 1995 was an important year for...

In 1978, Caroline Sparks stumbled upon Adelaide Johnson's suffragist statue known as The Portrait Monument to Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. That chance encounter in the Crypt of the U.S. Capitol awakened a resolve in Sparks to move the Statue from the obscurity of the Crypt and into the light of the U.S. Rotunda, the original and more visible of Johnson's statue. Almost 20 years later after Sparks' initial "Crypt encounter," and 76 years after being lowered to...

Philosopher, poet, advocate of non-violence and advocate for democracy, Ham Sok Hon (1901-1989) was one of the most important figures in South Korea's peace and democracy movement. In this show, we are honored to be joined by Dr. Song Chong Lee, who recently published "Ham Sok Hon's Ssial Cosmopolitan Vision" (Lexington Books 2020) in which he argues that the philosophy of Ham Sok Hon can inform contemporary discussions of cosmopolitanism. Dr. Lee's book is a most welcome contribution as it...

March 1st is a sacred day in Korea as it marks the moment when, in 1919, citizens throughout the peninsula organized a widespread non-violent and democratic uprising against their colonizers, imperial Japan. Long before the division of the country into "North" and "South," citizens from Pyonyang to Seoul to Cheonan, participated in the March 1st Movement. In this show, which marks the 102nd anniversary of the March 1st Movement, we examine the Movement through a narrative that transcends the...

One hundred years ago today, an important monument to the women's equality movement was unveiled in the U.S. Capitol. On February 15, 1921, Susan B. Anthony's 101st birthday, the suffrage statue titled "Portrait Monument to Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton" was unveiled in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in a ceremony of great beauty and dignity. 100 years later, on the centenary of this event, we are once again honored to be joined by special guest Sandra Weber, the...

This conversation is Part I of a two part series devoted to unlocking the stories surrounding a statue that was unveiled on February 15, 1921 - the 101st birthday of Susan. B. Anthony. Years in the making, the Portrait Monument was a labor of love for the "sculptress of the suffrage movement," Adelaide Johnson (1859-1955). Special guest Sandra Weber, author of The Woman Suffrage Statue: A History of Adelaide Johnson's Portrait Monument at the United States Capitol (2016 McFarland) and the...

Frederik Heffermehl is an international lawyer, peace activist and author of “The Nobel Peace Prize: What Nobel Really Wanted” (2010 Praeger). Former Vice President of the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA), Heffermehl joins us as we continue to reflect on the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which entered into force on 1/22/2021. We also discuss Heffermehl’s work on the Nobel Peace Prize including his website nobelwill.org. The International...

January 22, 2021 marks the day when the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) enters into force. To help usher in this historic moment, we are joined by Anti-nuclear activist Vanda Prošková of the Czech Republic, co-convener of Youth Fusion, a global network that engages and educates young people regarding the nuclear threat. In this show, we discuss not only the spirit and purpose of the Treaty found in its preamble, but also some of the duties that signatories of the TPNW...

January 22, 2021 marks the day when the historic Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons enters into force. To help usher in this historic moment, we are joined by Anti-nuclear youth activist Vanda Prošková of the Czech Republic, and co-convener of Youth Fusion - a global anti-nuclear network that engages and educates youth about the nuclear threat. Learn how young people are organizing around the nuclear issue through networks such as Youth Fusion and Move the Nuclear Weapons Money.

We begin our 2021 series with special guest Ms. Vanda Proskova – a member of global civil society and Vice chair of the Prague based NGO The Prague Vision Institute for Sustainable Security which advocates for policies that foster international peace and human security. Ms. Proskova and PragueVision have been hard at work in moving us closer to the more humane world that Bertha von Suttner envisioned. This task involves an appreciation of history – and of the project on which Suttner so...

Article 33 of the United Nations Charter found in a section (Chapter VI) titled “Pacific Settlement of Disputes”, enumerates a number of non-violent means by which to secure international peace: among them "arbitration" and "judicial settlement." But what is "arbitration" and how does it differ from "judicial settlement"? In this final show of 2020, we welcome special guest Steven van Hoogstraten, former Director of the Carnegie Foundation of the Netherlands (CF), which has a profound...

On this Human Rights Day, we focus on some of the epistemic Human Rights and Duties specifically to Duty to Remember, the Right to Know and the Right to Truth. Before the International Human Rights Community began articulating the contours of these epistemic human rights, Evelyn Grubb (1931-2005), in her capacity as the national coordinator for the National League of POW/MIA families, petitioned the Secretary General of the United Nations about the fundamental human right to know. In that...

We continue our series on the Duty to Remember by once again welcoming special guest, Dr. Jennie Jin, a forensic anthropologist who works for the DPAA (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency). Last week, in Part 1 of this interview, Dr. Jin talked about her work as leader of the Korean War Identification Project of the DPAA. She discussed the circumstances surrounding the recent identification of PFC John Shelemba of Hamtramck, Michigan. In dialogue with PFC Shelemba’s niece, Michele Vance, Dr....

In honor of Veterans Day, we continue our series on the Duty to Remember by welcoming special guest, Dr. Jennie Jin, a forensic anthropologist who works for the DPAA (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency). Dr. Jin leads to the Korean War Identification Project of the DPAA. Under her leadership, hundreds of missing US service members who fought in the Korean War have been identified. In this special episode, Dr. Jin discusses her work, and two recent identifications of Michiganders who fought in...