From the Golden Rule to The Freedom Rides: Reflecting on Peace and Justice

This show continues our discussion on 8/27, which focused on the role of visual objects in the Peace through Law movement. Discussing both the peace flag (created in 1897) and the Peace Palace, which opened in 1913, we noted how both play important roles in the "education piece" of the Peace through Law movement. These symbols not only provide a way of "entering the forest" of the history of this movement, but also help the individual to organize his or her "inner world" so that one acts in accordance with an "inner law" known as Golden Rule. Described as "the law and the prophets" in the Book of Matthew, we explore the connection between the Golden Rule, Peace and “Justice.” What is the relationship between peace and justice? How, if at all, is "justice" connected to the Golden Rule? August 28, we noted, is both the anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech (in 1963) and the opening of the Peace Palace (in 1913), and thus marks an important moment in peace history. We devote this show to exploring the connections amongst the Peace through Law Movement, the Golden Rule and the nature of Justice. We note that this is the first year that we have passed through August 28, without Congressman John Lewis, a fierce practitioner of the philosophy of non-violence and the last survivor of the original "big 6" behind the March on Washington. And who, in 1961, sat next to Al Bigelow (pictured here with his sailboat "The Golden Rule") on the "Freedom Ride 1961" which tested whether Southern states were complying with the desegregation laws.