Sahar Driver's blog

I presented the following text on a panel at San Francisco State University tonight about nonviolence and was asked to explore the theme: Mending the Social Divide, Awakening the Common Good. The semester long series of events was called the Ghandi-King-Chavez 2010 Season For Nonviolence put on by the Institute for Holistic Health Studies. The text follows:

I would like to use my time to raise a few questions about the definition of violence and therefore how we define nonviolence, and the ways these questions may or may not change how we think about responsibility in the context of the discussion we have been having.

For the past year I've been leading a project to use the film Greensboro: Closer to the Truth in an effort to support dialogue and deliberation about processes of reconciliation and healing as they relate from one community to the next. The film is about a 1979 clash between the Communist Workers Party and the Ku Klux Klan in Greensboro, North Carolina, and the first U.S.-based Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of its kind designed to address it. We have a limited number of DVDs that we are providing to groups/ organizations interested in racism, reconciliation, dialogue, stereotypes and other issues rasied by the film. We will provide a free copy of this DVD in exchange for hosting a screening of the film and small scale dialogue event using the guide we put together to accompany it.

Not too long ago I helped out on a film called Iran (is not the problem), which provides historical context on U.S. relations with Iran. I recently got back together with a few colleagues from the film and we put together a set of Talking Points on Iran. Take a look: http://www.iranisnottheproblem.org/talking_points

If you are interested in endorsing it, please sign the petition here: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/iranprotests/

TALKING POINTS (created 7/1/09):
What you should know about the Iranian protests and how you can help

As of this weekend, it seems the protests in the Islamic Republic of Iran have died down a bit… for now. The opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who for the past week has essentially been under house arrest, has agreed to seek the government’s permission before holding any further demonstrations and is no longer able to use his official web site as its functionality has been compromised. While these developments may be disappointing to many, they should not be read as the failure of this mass movement or its end. Such impatient and rash determinations by some analysts in the U.S. and Europe reveal a lack of faith in the very systems and values they claim to support. Have we forgotten that the Civil Right movement in the United States took more than a decade before we even began to see real changes? -- changes that are still in-progress today.

Below is the final text of the speech I ended up giving at City Hall this afternoon, drawing from some of the pieces many of you have already read. Here is a link to the outcome:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/cityinsider/detail?entry_id=42240&tsp=1

"Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a resolution -- authored by Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, whose father is Persian -- supporting the people in Iran who are fighting for their democratic rights and calling on the government create "an accountable election process." In a rare show of unity, the entire 11-member body co-sponsored the measure (which even included a swipe at domestic leaders, with one portion

(this was written on Sunay 6-21 but not posted to this blog until later)

The people of Iran sing from their rooftops at night.

During the day, I have heard, they march millions in silence, the tapping of footsteps passing by. They smile despite the murder of their brothers and sisters who walked alongside them yesterday. They smile because now they walk together; now they walk empowered; now they walk with hope in their hearts.

I have been caught in the cyber-webs for days now, like my uncle Willie Brown with his metal detector in a junkyard, I go searching for anything that can tell me anything about anything that is happening in Iran today... and there is so much to sift through. I look for the faces of my cousins, my aunts, my uncles in the crowds. With fear in my heart I search every page for anything that can get me closer.