Exhausted but excited!

Everyone:

As I predicated, it is difficult to keep posting on a daily basis. Time keeps slipping by and each day is so packed with activity and intrigue that sometimes it is hard to keep up!

I will spend a little bit of time detailing today's focus however. Today, we had four key speakers-- Jack Duvall, Dr. Erica Chenoweth, Maciej Bartkoswki, and Dr. Mary King-- speaking with us specifically about methods of nonviolent resistance, strategies for nonviolence, the success or failures of historical nonviolent methods when compared with violent methods, and personal anecdotes recalling critical work with the U.S. Civil Rights movement of the 60's and the momentum made towards peace by the efforts of the Palestinian intifada in the 70's-80's.

A civilian places a flower inside the barrel of the soldier's gun.

A couple of the speakers alluded to the work of Gene Sharp, who wrote the book "From Dictatorship to Democracy." Sharp scrupulously worked to highlight the methods in which individuals, groups, or movements could act nonviolently and came up with 187 of them, some of which are listed below:

Each speaker brought a passion and history to their mentoring that moved me--I promise to spend some time writing about each speaker (in full) and their work, catching you all up on the learning experiences I have had over the past week, and chronicling my upcoming trip to the Cinque Terre this weekend... but until then Arrivederci! I'm off to make the most of my learning!

Ciao for now!