Foreword

I often find myself telling people they can erase from their minds the hard and fast distinction they make between the ideas of “inside” and “outside” in the context of politics. As an organizer working to make social change for a just world, who first worked on the “outside” as an activist and advocate and now works on the “inside” as an elected official (but still an activist and advocate), I believe wherever we are is the place for change. It is the work done in both places that supports each other and makes a whole. Inside-outside creates distinctions that are simplistic and often unhelpful. Such distinctions—like I and you, or me and other—also serve to box us in and emphasize our differences or our sometimes seeming differences. This, in turn, creates a distance that can also nudge forward a destructive capacity for violence. In the end, we are the sum total of inside and outside, and the more we can bring the two into synergy for a whole, the more complete and loving we can be. So much of our work for justice and peace is about eliminating false distinctions and recognizing the core human values that bind us together, even while respecting our differences.

Michael Nagler practices this bringing otherness into oneness, and he does so in practical ways that allow us to learn and to acknowledge all that we bring into the world. Through the Metta Center for Nonviolence, Michael produces valuable educational materials and holds educational courses that have been a help and inspiration for so many people, including my own family members, in the work they do and the lives they lead. I was also honored to participate in an interview for Michael’s forthcoming film, which will accompany the ambitious four-part project of which this book is a part. Both film and project are necessary and insightful additions in helping us understand and see our interconnectedness. These are invaluable tools for making democracy work for everyone, and acknowledging, leveraging, and utilizing our own individual and collective power for good.

Michael’s core argument matches the work and beliefs I have had for many years: that to develop a “new story” that can be the foundation for a more just world, we must look deeper into our human spirit, understand ourselves more fully, and discover the gold mine of nonviolence—ahimsa—as a central inspiration and challenge for our work ahead. Michael has a deep relationship with the spiritual and philosophical traditions of my birth country, India, and the specific work and underpinnings of Gandhian thought and practice. Mahatma Gandhi and his teachings have been a central inspiration to me through my work and life, and I believe they still have tremendous relevance not only in India but also here in America and around the world. Gandhi’s work and teachings are both subtle and complex, and a true understanding of them for any of us—even those who have deep familiarity—requires the kind of insightful interpretation that Michael provides in this book. There are many examples of that level of interpretation, and its critical importance for our age, in these pages.

I was the first Congressperson to visit the detention centers at our southern border and witness firsthand the inhumane treatment of thousands of children and their parents who came to us seeking protection from violence. In my twenty-year career of civil, human, and immigrant advocacy, I have spoken out vehemently against these kinds of inhumane and violently cruel policies. Throughout, I have also utilized the tools of nonviolent civil disobedience in the mindful practice of justice. I believe that the work I have focused on in Congress and as an advocate—from healthcare to racial justice to women’s issues to immigration—can all ultimately be resolved with a thorough application of the core principles of nonviolence. Readers of this book will understand why.

Nonviolence is not a set of tactics but a force that is inherent in the human spirit. To fully understand it requires a change of consciousness and a recommitment to a set of core values. To restore our democracy, save the planet, and remind us of the possibility of the peace we long for, we require a dramatic cultural shift wherein we each take ownership of our own actions and the principles of nonviolence. I commend this book as a significant contribution to that very effort.

—US Representative Pramila Jayapal,
Washington’s 7th Congressional District