Kim Book’s 17-year-old daughter, Nicole, was murdered in 1995. She recalls that a year later, at the trial, she forgave the young man who had killed Nicole, and the act of forgiveness opened the door to peace in her life. Several years later, Kim founded Victims’ Voices Heard, a restorative justice program in Delaware that brings victims and offenders together in an effort to find … Continue reading Kim Book
“When I was getting into horsemanship, a great cowboy and horseman, he said to me, if humans were like horses, there’d be more peace on the earth because you just take a wild horse, a feral horse and it’s being chased by a mountain lion, it’s going 100 miles an hour and the mountain lion gives up and lets it go, the horse just doesn’t … Continue reading Hassan Ikhzaan Saleem
“A number of years ago I was teaching a seminary course called “Pottery and Proclamation.” One woman had recently lost her partner to cancer and was mourning the loss of someone incredibly important to her.As she learned how to make pots, she decided it would be powerful for her to make a pot to hold her partner’s ashes. There is an understanding in Native American cultures that you’re making pots out of … Continue reading Kelly Connole
Gina Laff was born in Paraguay and at the age of one she was adopted by a couple living on the north side of Chicago. Her father has struggled with health issues since Gina was very young. He holds Gina to a high standard and she describes him as a stubborn old man who worries about her generation. At first, the frustration of this dynamic … Continue reading Gina Laff
I had coffee with a friend the other day. He lost his grandson to a heroin overdose a short time ago. The young man had struggled for years with addiction. He had been in and out of treatment and recently finished 90 days of rehab. When he got out, his grandfather asked him how was doing and he said, “I’m scared.” The next day he … Continue reading shame on you
John George was living next to a crack house in Detroit. He and his wife were expecting a baby girl when he decided he better do something about it. So he went to the hardware store and bought some plywood, paint and nails and boarded up that crack house. More than 25 years later, the organization he started, Motor City Blight Busters, has torn down … Continue reading John George
