At 5pm yesterday, as my family and I left Davis so that I could attend the American Academy of Religion annual meetings in San Francisco, I received a call from Assistant Vice Chancellor Griselda Castro informing me that she, Chancellor Katehi and others were trapped inside Surge II. She asked if I could mediate between students and administration. I was reluctant; I had already missed a piece of the meetings due to commitments in Davis and didn’t want to miss any more. I called a student (intentionally not named here) and learned that students were surrounding the building but had committed to a peaceful, silent exit for those inside and had created a clear walkway to the street. We turned the car around and headed back to Davis.
When I arrived, there was a walkway out of the building set up, lined on both sides by about 300 students. The students were organized and peaceful. I was cleared to enter the building along with a student who is a part of CA House and has been part of the Occupy movement on campus since the beginning. He, too, was reluctant, but not because he had somewhere else to be. For any student to act as a spokesperson or leader is inconsistent with the ethos the Occupy movement. He entered as an individual seeking peace and resolution, not as a representative of the students, and was clear that he had called for and would continue to call for Chancellor Katehi’s resignation.
Once inside, and through over an hour of conversation, we learned the following:
- The Chancellor had made a commitment that police would not be called in this situation
- Though the message had been received inside the building that students were offering a peaceful exit, there was a concern that not everyone would hold to this commitment
- The Chancellor had committed to talk with students personally and respond to concerns at the rally on Monday on the quad
- The student assistants to the Chancellor had organized another forum on Tuesday for the Chancellor to dialogue directly with students
What we felt couldn’t be compromised on was the students’ desire to see and be seen by the Chancellor. Any exit without face to face contact was unacceptable. She was willing to do this. We reached agreement that the students would move to one side of the walkway and sit down as a show of commitment to nonviolence.
Before we left, the Chancellor was asked to view a video of the student who was with me being pepper sprayed. She immediately agreed. Then, he and I witnessed her witnessing eight minutes of the violence that occurred Friday. Like a recurring nightmare, the horrific scene and the cries of “You don’t have to do this!” and students choking and screaming rolled again. The student and I then left the building and using the human mike, students were informed that a request had been made that they move to one side and sit down so that the Chancellor could exit. They immediately complied, though I believe she could have left peacefully even without this concession.
I returned to the building and walked with the Chancellor down the human walkway to her car. Students remained silent and seated the entire way.
What was clear to me was that once again, the students’ willingness to show restraint kept us from spiraling into a cycle of violence upon violence. There was no credible threat to the Chancellor, only a perceived one. The situation was not hostile. And what was also clear to me is that whether they admit it or not, the administrators that were inside the building are afraid. And exhausted. And human. And the suffering that has been inflicted is real. The pain present as the three of us watched the video of students being pepper sprayed was palpable. A society is only truly free when all persons take responsibility for their actions; it is only upon taking responsibility that healing can come.
Why did I walk the Chancellor to her car? Because I believe in the humanity of all persons. Because I believe that people should be assisted when they are afraid. Because I believe that in showing compassion we embrace a nonviolent way of life that emanates to those whom we refuse to see as enemies and in turn leads to the change that we all seek. I am well aware that my actions were looked on with suspicion by some tonight, but I trust that those seeking a nonviolent solution will know that “just means lead to just ends” and my actions offered dignity not harm.
The Chancellor was not trapped in Surge II tonight, but, in a larger sense, we are all in danger of being trapped. We are trapped when we assent to a culture that for decades, and particularly since 9/11, has allowed law enforcement to have more and more power which has moved us into an era of hypercriminalization. We are trapped when we envision no path to reconciliation. And we are trapped when we forget our own power. The students at UC Davis are to be commended for resisting that entrapment, using their own power nonviolently. I pray that the Chancellor will remember her own considerable power in making change on our campus, and in seeking healing and reconciliation.
Bravo, Reverend Kristin! I came across your post after reading that a Minister had walked the Chancellor to the car. I had to find out who this Minister was, and I’m glad I did. I’ve just shared your inspiring post with a group of fellow Buddhists engaged in peace practice, and just feel that it is a beautiful example of how to really Walk the Walk.
“Because I believe that in showing compassion we embrace a nonviolent way of life that emanates to those whom we refuse to see as enemies and in turn leads to the change that we all seek.”
Exactly. Thank you again, and please thank the students at UC Davis, who have been inspiring all of us in how to respond to aggression with kindness, determination, and awareness. Give them a hug from us.
Thank you for your work.
The only way for this movement to succeed is through non-violence. The contrast between the peaceful students and the violent police sends the most powerful message possible, more powerful than any list of demands or arguments. Eventually members of the police are going to refuse to commit violence against the protesters as they realize that they too are part of the 99% and they too are only one layoff from poverty and homelessness.
The civil rights movement was most powerful when it was non-violent. Riots and calls for violence weakened it. The more non-violent demonstrators are, the more it points out who is really the aggressor. That’s why the police send in provocateurs to stir up trouble.
The students showed nobility that the pepper spraying, baton bashing cops can’t fight against. That makes them sooooo mad!
Go OWS! Go 99%!
Kristin,
I would first like to thank you for your actions on Saturday. Your actions were vital to the beautiful resolution of the events that transpired at Surge 2. I doubt that there was anyone on either side of this struggle that was not pleased and inspired by your mediation. It is truly rare to find a person like you who has a heart expansive and compassionate enough to feel the pain of all parties involved and treat them all as human beings, without classifying anyone away as ‘the enemy’ or ‘the outsider.’
I do, however, have one issue with your statements on Saturday night, which I will address here in this open letter. You told us that we are in need of healing. I take issue with this statement. We are not in need of healing. We are not damaged. Our anger and frustration are not negative emotions which need to be healed or attenuated. We are not an injured body which needs healing – we are a body that is birthing itself – and we need to be nurtured.
Part of what must be nurtured now is precisely our anger. Our anger must not be allowed attenuation; our anger must be nurtured. Anger, despising, and other emotions such as these can often be very negative and harmful – I do concede this point. But like all emotions, anger and despising are not inherently good or bad in and of themselves. What makes these emotions dark or light is how they are controlled and transformed into action. Saturday night was testament to the beauty and light of anger, when properly channeled by a strong and disciplined body of passionate and active peace and justice seekers.
Likewise our despising must be harnessed and controlled but not attenuated. We must be clear that what we despise are not the individuals we protest against here today, but rather the policies they have enacted and the behaviors and actions they have executed. As Nietzsche said so elegantly “I love the great despisers, because they are the great lovers, they are arrows of longing for the other shore.” Anger and despising are not antithetical to healing, but are a necessary part of the process which will eventually allow the healing of a system that can sustain us for the long-term.
There can be darkness in healing too. Think of a bone which begins to heal before it is properly set. In such a context, all healing does is permanently entrench the system in disability. Yes, there will be pain in pulling the bone fragments apart, but this step in necessary for establishing long-term health, and meeting the long-term goals of this movement. We will endure this pain. We will set the bone, and only when it is properly set in place, will we allow it to heal. We hear whispers and soft beating wings in the warm winds of the future and this winter will one day end. We will dance with strong legs one day, one day soon.
I love this pain – I love this anger – I love this energy – I love this despising – I love this love – I love this solidarity – I love this compassion – I love this peace – I love this university – I love this world.
-Cody Ross
Thank you for telling your story, and for your efforts in support of communication and mediation.
Kristin
Thank you for reminding me of everyone’s humanity. It occurs to me that shame is effective only when the object actually cares. My impression from the video of Chancellor Katehi’s walk to her car, and my hope, is that she is someone who does care. This is clearly an opportunity for growth, compassion, and understanding; hopefully one that won’t be overlooked by administrators or students. I found the United Church of Christ a few years back, and I’m thankful that a handful of progressive Christian churches still manage to hang on. It occurs to me that while the Occupy Wall Street movement is genuine and legitimate, the image being conveyed in the press feeds the perception that the protesters are nothing more than lazy whiny smelly kids. In a few cases this may be so, but this image seems at best a caricature and not terribly representative. I know that perception shouldn’t matter, but once news agencies choose the narrative, it can be difficult for reality to stand a fighting chance. Maybe there is a role here for progressive religious leaders to add a patina of weight or credibility or gravitas to this movement. If I’m suggesting something that is already happening, I apologize for my ignorance. Thank you again for your commitment to nonviolence.
Every once in a great while, someone demonstrates the courage to stand on and in her faith in such a way as to cause the World to pause at her example. You are among those few.
Namaste’
Thank you (and the un-named student) for your peacemaking, and for your emphasis on responsibility and healing.
This is sacred work.
Blessed be.
Thank you Rev. Stoneking for your understanding and leadership. We need an environment free of fear and hatred in which all sides can communicate peacefully.
Thank you for your words and your work – this sounds more like the Davis I fondly remember, 1969-72.
Was it you who said, during the chancellor’s walk of shame to her car, that the students were to sit silently as a “show of respect”? If so, you were wrong to editorialize like that. The students surely felt no respect towards her; in fact, they were showing their distain.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
in a larger sense, we are all in danger of being trapped. We are trapped when we assent to a culture that for decades, and particularly since 9/11, has allowed law enforcement to have more and more power which has moved us into an era of hypercriminalization. We are trapped when we envision no path to reconciliation.
Truly excellent.
Thank you for telling your story.
Chancellor Katehi must resign, and Lt. John Pike must be criminally prosecuted (what he did violates both U.S. law as defined in the 9th Circuit in Headwaters v. Humboldt County and the UN Convention Against Torture, which the U.S. ratified in 1994). Then and only then can there be healing.
Thank you for your peacemaking actions and for writing about them so well.
I don’t live in your state. I saw this on a scifi author’s blog and was wondering why the heck the administration thought they were in danger. The sentence ‘We are trapped when we envision no path to reconciliation’ made me understand, hopefully, and is a good reason why people should not assume that other people they are negotiating with are going to be in a state of mind to perceive the logical. This works in personal arguments too, where people’s failure to perceive implications of efficient speech usually infuriates me. I guess what I learned is: designing a statement like an engineer, to make sure it can be understood by *anyone* is not playing to the lowest common denominator. It’s allowing for natural human error (and not idiotic human error). I guess what makes the difference for me is that the opponent is not being stupid or lazy, but are trapped. Trapped I can understand.
The notion that the Occupy movement is “leaderless” is false; the truth is that its leaders more often than not simply lead by example. The students chanting “you can go!” to the police right after the pepper spray attack demonstrated the power of taking the moral high ground; the student’s showing how silence can be more powerful than words as the Chancellor walked to her car; and you by accompanying the Chancellor on that walk, showing support for a fellow human being who was clearly overwhelmed.
Thank you, and thanks to the UCD students and faculty for their inspiring behavior.
A perfect example of the universal benefits to all of a contemplative spiritual practice. Kristin, thank you for displaying for all to see the true difference between a mythic fear based religious worship, and a contemplative christian practice. I had expected to see a completely different perspective on this event based on my pre-conceived notions of ‘who’ you are, as an ‘old school’ campus minister would have likely made remarks and taken actions that would have been barely comprehendible and largely irrelevant towards the real goal of eliminating fear, generating compassion, and creating a space for contemplation. Right person right place right action. Thank-you.
Thank you for showing solidarity Kristin. I would have to agree with Cody on the comment above, though. The emotions, the anger, are not bad, and do not need to be diminished in any way. They need to be directed, funneled, if you will, to the proper course of action.
Rev. Kristin,
Bravo. While her actions (or initial lack thereof) are deplorable, and while I think she didn’t have the students best interests in mind during any of this, there’s one thing that many people forget during this incident.
Katehi is a HUMAN. The officer involved is a HUMAN.
If you want your movement to succeed, you must have a basic respect for all humans. Some may say the police didn’t have any respect for human dignity during the incident, but that way of thinking doesn’t do anyone any good at all. Martin Luther King Jr. wouldn’t have been as effective if he had reacted negatively towards the police. Nobody would’ve taken him as seriously.
The students were most definitely successful in their protest.
They were definitely heard, and they scared the crap out of the Administration and the Chancellor.
Things are going to change around here. Bravo to you, and the students for working in a POSITIVE manner to bring about change. It could’ve been so easy for them to stay and scream “SHAME ON YOU!” as she exited the building. I daresay I would’ve understood their feelings. But cooler heads prevailed and their message was more effective.
That silent protest was louder than the loudest sound system or bullhorn.
The Chancellor needs to find out clearly the person who ordered the pepper spraying, and the person who did the pepper spraying, and then very deliberately and publicly TERMINATE them as employees of the University, and BAN them from stepping foot on that campus again for at least one year. That is nonviolent, that is only fair, considering their blatant inability to handle the responsibilities of being a peace officer. Any so-called “healing” with less consequences for the perpetrators than that is no healing at all, and only invites further blatant abuse of power in the future.
Reverend,
You talk about “compassion”, “peace”, etc. and yet you never talk about the violence showered, nay, sprayed like acid, on the peaceful protesters by the police. Why are you silent on the prosecution of Lt. Pike? Since you are so close to the Chancellor, why did you not demand that the oppressors be brought to justice? It is against the law in California to pepper-spray non-violent protesters.
Some people (including the Chancellor’s Chief of Police) keep repeating the lie that the police were threatened; if you saw the video, you would see that Lt. Pike calmly stepped over the line of students, turned around, and then started spraying them as if he was spraying insecticide on pests.
“Evil triumphs when good people do nothing”. I am afraid that you are in the “do nothing” camp until you start speaking out against the violence being perpetrated, and start demanding justice.
Thank you, Reverend Stoneking, for mediating, and allowing the students to protest “loud and clear” in a peaceful and non-violent way. I’m hoping that this event will transform the Occupy movement to follow similar actions and move away from ‘getting noticed’ to getting their message across.
This spoke volumes.
I’m a very proud Aggie alum.
I would also like to commend Cody Ross’ statement. It was equally powerful: Just because we are compassionate and extend a hand towards peace does not mean we should back down from demanding that those responsible be fired and face any and all appropriate legal and criminal sanctions .
This country has been held hostage for far too long to an element that believes that our rights under the Constitution can be erased by mace. The anger and rage felt by the students, the faculty and the world at large is in many ways symbolic of all of that pent-up anger and needs expression, letting the world know that WE refused to be intimidated any longer ! BASTA!!
Davis has created a perfect model for how to bring positive change. Bravo Davis Students! Bravo Kristin! Keep this spirit alive in our hearts and minds. Let it remind us all that nonviolence and love are the only things that works for positive change.
Chancellor Katehi COULD become the model that teaches others to see, understand and act in a very different way. I hope she figures it out.
Thank you for your work.
Sojourners has an article up about the events and citing your post:
http://sojo.net/blogs/2011/11/21/faith-foot-uc-davis-blessed-are-peacemakers
If Chancellor Katehi is truly committed to reconciliation in the aftermath of this incident, she will resign.
Thank you for your insightful writing, and for your dedication to the well-being of our community.
Thank-you for the work you do.
Thank-you for the service you provided not only to the Chancellor and UC Davis community that evening, but to the nation and to the world by talking about what you did and why you did it.
Where strong principled people like yourself exist, there is hope for all humanity.
You and the UC Davis’ community response to a terrible incident has touched my heart, and I suspect that of all who have seen it.
Thank-you!
Thank you so much for this. I have spent most of the day sick to my stomach over the actions of the UC Davis PD and the rationalizations provided by their “leadership” and their administrators.
Your words provided me with some comfort and some hope that not all “leaders” in this nation have lost their way. The powerful response the students devised to shame the Chancellor will not be forgotten. All the best from Philadelphia,PA
Thank you for your actions and your account. I am appalled at what happened at UC Davis, and someone needs to be held accountable, but it was good to have a reminder that all involved are human and children of God.
Reconciliation would require an honest desire to level the power differential between the Chancellor/Police etc and the students. Until that happens (no indication it will), the meme of “we’re all human and in this together” only serves the interests of the powerful. Wake up. Those in authority love nothing more than “lets all talk together” rhetoric – then nothing need change and they can claim the moral high ground.
“The task is difficult. The hour is short. The master is demanding.
You are not obliged to complete the work.
But neither are you free to refrain from it.”
— Pirke Avoth (The Ethics of the Parents)
Thank you for your part in healing the world.
“Just means LEAD to just ends?” NO LEADERS! hahahaha
I’m going to have to disagree with you and most of the comments in this case. Your piece is a nice gesture, but it is ultimately half-baked and has all the force of a gentle breeze. You seem oddly silent on the actual circumstances…you dance around the topic with pretty words and general appeals to peace and working together, but it sounds like you’re not addressing the real issue here: That cop, his brutality, and the criminality of it all. It appears you KNOW it was wrong, but you also don’t want to rock the boat in your relationship with the Chancellor. Sorry…all these accolades for you would be deserved if you joined the call for her resignation, and joined the condemnation of the undeniable police brutality and sought his trial under the law. Until then, your words are hollow and your ultimate goal is quite obviously self-serving.
“If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” Romans 12:18
Et à l’aurore, armés d’une ardente patience, nous entrerons aux splendides villes.
‘And at dawn, armed with ardent patience, we will enter the splendid cities’ — Rimbaud
“And what was also clear to me is that whether they admit it or not, the administrators that were inside the building are afraid. And exhausted.”
Their fear and exhaustion in the face of a consistently calm, rational, peaceful, and well organized group of the students they profess to serve is ample of evidence that they can no longer serve those students effectively.
You all have a duty here.
Who ordered the cops out in riot gear to begin with? Who equipped them with the pepper spray? The authorities including the chancellor and their fear of legitimate, peaceful protestors is what caused the police violence: there never was any student violence. The whole thing is a shameful, disgraceful incident but it is not isolated. This same scenario has played out coast to coast while ugly little Mayors like Bloomberg claim that the cops were provoked when they clearly were not. And why were the cops there? Because of sanitary concerns? Because of the breaking of curfew laws? Bah! What trumpe up nonsense and lies! They attacked the demonstrators because the rich and powerful feel threatened when anyone points out they have stolen too much money for our society to properly function any longer. There are 25 million unemployed in this country! Nearly 4 million homes annually have been foreclosed on since 2008. The Chancellor is complicit regardless of how contrite she may be after having watched the thugs under her control do what they are trained to do.
I am impressed and heartened by the peacefulness of the demonstrators and your own part in this event. Peace and Strength be with you. JD
Of course she feels trapped. She sent her thugs to assault to rob the students, so when the students amass she assumes they are there to do the same thing to her. Why would someone who think this way be allowed to be in charge of other people, especially students who trust her with their safety?
The sight of those students, seated, silent, the sound of the Chancellor’s footsteps echoing in the darkness, the solemnity of the moment marred only by the lights of the cameras. I am truly and deeply moved.
Ms. Stoneking,
You and the rest of the UC Davis students are to e commended for your dignified and courageous behaviour throughout this incident. I am afraid however that your faith in non-violence will ultimately prove to be misplaced. The financial and corporate elites have spent the last thirty years creating a quai-feudal system in which they can enrich and empower themselves through rent-seeking and they are not about to give this up without a fight.
I found this on youtube (a video of your walk)
God bless you for taking such a role and helping both sides. You were a true witness that night <3
Maybe it was also a little glory-hounding on your part? This blog seems more like a “look at me, I was there too” broadcast rather than anything of real substance.
Katehi’s lame and delayed response and her refusal to step down clearly show that she does not want to be held accountable. The thought of losing her $400,000 per year salary, the car allowance, low-interest home loan, and all the other perks might also have something to do with her reluctance.
Your articulate and moving story brought tears to my eyes. I’m passing it on.
Thank you
All of us need to pray for justice and reconciliation, shun violence, and continue to see the humanity (face of Christ) in “the other”.
Rev. Stoneking,
Thank you for sharing your experience and insights. You offer a truly refreshing, practical, and compassionate perspective on the matter. Your words and your actions reflect the sense of sincerity and sensitivity needed to move the community forward, promote mutual cooperation and respect, and elicit true, meaningful change.
Thank you for your words and for your work.
Ms. Stoneking,
James Fallows of the Atlantic linked to your blog in his excellent ongoing coverage of OWS and the student demonstrations. I thought your commentary on the events was balanced and humane and would like to see ongoing commentary from your perspective. You have a unique opportunity to make these kinds of thoughts and observations widely known just now and I hope you do so.
I placed your blog on my homepage in order to include any further commentary from you in my tracking of these seminal events occurring on streets and campuses now.
I am horrified at the behavior of the police and the chancellor at UC Davis. As a former child of the 1960′s, how well I remembered how we cried when those kids at Kent State were killed. If you sanction the use of violence against our youth, this is a terrible obscenity. I hope you really are a person of peace. I hope you will protect the kids.
I was touched by this video. I feel bad for Dr Katehi. I think the calls for resignation are unjust. She is doing a lot to make the university more self-sustaining and not dependent on a state budget. And I feel bad for the students. When the cops were pepper-spraying the students made me think of a line from a Gordon Lightfoot tune from years ago…
“If people could look into each other’s eyes
What a wonderful place this world would be
All strife would end, and we could start again…”
Cody Ross, I have sent this link to many friends and loved ones, because I want them to read *your* astonishingly articulate and profound wisdom shining in your comment. I will never forget your name, or the lesson you taught us here.
The most overlooked action in these problems is remembering to invite God to bring the influence that only our Lord can provide.
Pray for the USA recovery and pray for Chaplin and students of occupy wall street.
Very moving witness to nonviolence and loving those with whom we are in conflict. Thank you, Rev. Kristen Stoneking for your role as mediator. A new movement is being born and I honor the role of #occupy students at UC Davis! You are all leading by example and adding to the inspiration for a new world, responding to the grace of God as you embody the “now” showing the way to the “not-yet” of the new earth and new heaven. This is doing Kingdom–Kindom work!
This was a mob, threatening mob violence. It is obvious that few of them even know what they are supposedly protesting. There is a way to do that peacefully in our country if they really care for a cause. But even that shouldn’t be their primary interest at this point in their lives, as they are students. Few are even paying their own expenses. Anarchy will reign here if they aren’t punished appropriately and even removed from campus if this action is repeated,
Dear Kristin Stoneking
I sit here feeling the wound of what has happened at UCD, and your response, what you did, your actions are commendable, human, loving, respectful, reaching out and helping a fellow human being, even one whom you know has wronged others, and not yet fully accounted for and healed the wrong.
UCD is my Alma Mater. I attended in the mid 1980s. I am Gay and UCD and the Davis Community as whole saved my life. I was unable to Come Out at home, but moving to Davis provided a circumstance of Love and Compassion, where I could and did. I am so grateful for my time at UCD.
Thus it pains me all the more to see this total disregard for Humanity from some of the UCD Community that saved me, that gave me so much Humanity.
Your description of why you walked with Chancellor Katehi brought me to feel the real Human cost of the Police Actions, for everyone, the healing that must occur and can only truly occur with, as you say, with all taking responsibility for their actions.
In this now Global World Community, this healing for Davis, of all taking responsibility for their actions, restoring Humanity and Love, must also occur in the Whole Global World Community.
As World-Friend Adi Da says in his book Not-Two Is Peace, “Cooperation + Tolerance = Peace”. Kristin your actions clearly demonstrate this. Thank You. You and all of the Davis Community are in my prayers.
Love, Miguel Goforth
Thank you for the instruction.
http://www.headbutler.com/products/beyond-classification/were-all-we-have
Jan and I would have bought you an extra danish if we had known what the next few days held, Kristin. Thanks for the reminder that if we allow our enemies to define us, we will lose the long view of what reconciliation and justice look like. Some of the comments I have read here bother me, not because I don’t agree with their demands for justice, but because justice itself can be a harsh taskmaster if not balanced by a deeper grace. Shalom, Jeffrey.
Thank you for teaching us to take bold steps toward reconciliation. Peace, David
Thank you Ms. Stoneking for being an excellect example of how to work towards peaceful resolution, as clearly the UC Davis protestors are also standing for this. Thank you UC Davis students and faculty and protestors for your brave and most commendable actions and restraint from violence/ even self defense. I am proud of you! Let’s continue to work together to bring our aggressors back to their humanity.
I am impressed that the Davis campus, the sleepy little agricultural school near Fort Sutter, contracted the Berkeley virus of student activism. Hopefully the virus of activism will prove contagious for all the nation’s campuses and infect the America’s entire body politic. The intravenous drip of militarism into that body over the past sixty some years has perverted the compassion the Reverend Stoneking articulates so eloquently on her blog: “Because I believe that in showing compassion we embrace a nonviolent way of life that emanates to those whom we refuse to see as enemies and in turn leads to the change we seek.”
It is time the national priorities be transformed to conflict resolution rather than drone solutions and extended to foreign policy: no more free bombs to Israel to murder defenseless Palestinians and not one more United Nations’ veto to defend the indefensible.
Let America export compassion rather than military hardware and technological genius for war.
Frank A. Walter
I believe this is a political movement that must address widespread change in opportunity. We have been sold on being an “information based economy” while sending both information and productive capacity to Asia, China in particular, so international corporations can exploit cheap labor under “free trade”.
Kristin I would like to add my comments to those who have eloquently yet simply spoken on the events that swirled around your campus ~ and how you so fittingly and beautifully responded to them. As a campus pastor, you led your university with grace and strength and courage. Thank you for rising up to the challenge. You make us all proud.
blessed are the peace makers, those who make war on children answer to a higher power
Thanks, Kristin, for this witness. You are all in my prayers.