Literature Link for Nov. 21, 2021-Publilc Safety
• Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames By Thich Nhat Hanh.”He shows us the connection between personal, inner peace, and peace on earth.” — His Holiness The Dalai Lama. “Hanh doesn’t limit his task to discussing anger between families and friends; he also deals with anger between citizens and governments. That expansive vision is not surprising (Hanh, after all, is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee) but it is refreshing, lifting this book out of the self-absorbed, self-help pile.” From the book: “Your anger will have been transformed into the energy of loving-kindness. This is possible. It is like the tulips. When the energy of the sun is strong enough, the tulip has to open herself and show her heart to the sun. Your anger is a kind of flower. You have to embrace it with the sunshine of mindfulness. Let the energy of mindfulness penetrate into the energy of anger. After five or ten minutes of mindfulness, your anger will be transformed.” Here is a pdf. https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/Thich%20Nhat%20Hanh%20-%20Anger%20-%20Wisdom%20for%20Cooling%20the%20Flames.pdf
• Are Prisons Obsolete? By Angela Y Davis. “In this brilliant, thoroughly researched book. Angela Davis swings a wrecking ball Into the racist and sexist underpinnings of the American prison system. Her arguments are well wrought and restrained, leveling an unflinching critique of how and why more than 2 million Americans are presently behind bars, and the corporations who profit from their suffering.” A quote from the book: “The prison has become a black hole into which the detritus of contemporary capitalism is deposited. Mass imprisonment generates profits as it devours social wealth, and thus it tends to reproduce the very conditions that lead people to prison.” Here is the pdf: https://www.feministes-radicales.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Angela-Davis-Are_Prisons_Obsolete.pdf
• “The children of ‘generation lockdown’ speak.” CNN Opinion’s Jane Carr invited three teen poets from across the country to share poems they composed in response to the scourge of gun violence.