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Our vision for this year’s theme was inspired by Center founder Daisaku Ikeda’s argument that democracy is “a way of life whose purpose is to enable people to achieve spiritual autonomy, live in mutual respect, and enjoy happiness. It can be understood as an expression of human wisdom deployed toward a goal of harmonious coexistence. It is in this sense that it can be understood as a universal principal.” (View Ikeda's full statement on democracy)
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INTO FULL FLOWER
"Making Peace Cultures Happen"
The Center's first public event of 2010 took place on Saturday, March 6. Mary Lee Morrison, Russell Boulding, and Virginia Benson were on hand to discuss the Center's new book, Into Full Flower: Making Peace Cultures Happen, by Elise Boulding and Daisaku Ikeda. More than that, they honored the coauthors' unceasing efforts in the cause of peace. READ >>
"The Beauty and Strength of Peace Building"
This April 2010 interview with
Mary Lee Morrison, author of Elise Boulding: A Life in the Cause of Peace, addresses the essential characteristics and challenges of peace building. The conversation combines insights from Boulding and Martin Luther King, Jr with an exploration of topics including: the characteristics of peace building in the home, whether peace seekers are passive, and the relationship between women and peace building. READ >>
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VINCENT HARDING
Dr. Harding will be one of the featured speakers at this year's Ikeda Forum on The Democratic Spirit.
Professor Emeritus of Religion and Social Transformation at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado, Dr. Harding is a veteran leader of the civil rights movement and a renowned theorist of active democracy.
- This video posted at PBS's Religion and Ethics Newsweekly features Dr. Harding explaining how the election of Barack Obama was not a mere triumph of the voting process, but rather the result of the efforts of countless thousands of ordinary men and women in the civil rights and related movements.
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LANGSTON HUGHES
"Let America Be America Again"
This great Langston Hughes poem of 1938 invokes qualities of paradox and promise in equal measure. Contrasting the reality of the American dream of freedom and equality with the reality of greed and injustice, Hughes nevertheless insists that, through the redemptive actions of all of us, "America will be!" READ >>
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JANE ADDAMS
"Democracy and Social Ethics"
Writing in 1915, Jane Addams said, "We know instinctively that if we grow contemptuous of our fellows, and consciously limit our intercourse to certain kinds of people whom we have previously decided to respect, we not only tremendously circumscribe our range of life, but limit the scope of our ethics." READ >>
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JOHN DEWEY
"Creative Democracy — The Task Before Us"
This 1939 essay by John Dewey was one of the core background readings for our fall 2009 Ikeda Forum, "John Dewey, Daisaku Ikeda, and the Quest for a New Humanism." In the interest of continuity, and as a way of setting the stage for this year's investigation, we are posting "Creative Democracy" as our first essay of 2010. READ >>
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DU BOIS, MAKIGUCHI, MONTESSORI
"Active Education, Active Democracy"
This report from a Center-sponsored panel at the 2008 Philosophy of Education Society Annual Meeting proposes that the innovative pedagogies of Du Bois, Makiguchi, and Montessori create the conditions for a flourishing democracy. READ >>
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See the Previous Years section for articles and essays from our 2008 focus, "Understanding Death, Appreciating Life" and our 2009 focus, "Humanizing Our Lives, Humanizing Our World."
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