Ethics-Talk: The Greatest Good of Man is Daily to Converse About Virtue

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 acco...

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 &...

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, wit...

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 iss...

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 instrum...

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 Rig...

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 ...

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 philosophic...

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 initiative...

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 ...

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 disc...

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 Mar...

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 ...

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 ...

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 preambl...

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 netw...

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 appr...