Your Freedom And Mine

"e;Only free men can negotiate. Prisoners cannot enter into contracts... I cannot and will not give any undertaking at a time when I and you, the people, are not free. Your freedom and mine cannot be separated."e;-From a letter by Nelson Mandela during his imprisonment, February 10, 1985A revolutionary imprisoned on an island fortress may hold the key to peace in the Middle East. The leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Abdullah calan, is considered by many to be the "e;Kurdish Mandela"e;, courageously issuing proposals for peace even from his prison cell. His ideas on democracy, women's liberation, and freedom have even inspired the remarkable Rojava Revolution in northern Syria. As Turkey descended into tyranny and Syria exploded in civil war, a peace delegation of European politicians, academics, and journalists, led by Nelson Mandela's lawyer and Supreme Court judge Essa Moosa, repeatedly attempted to go to meet with calan at his prison on Imrali Island. Your Freedom and Mine tells the story of these momentous delegations. The book opens with an informative historical overview of the Kurdish Question, leading up until the optimistic opening-and eventual bitter failure-of the peace process in Turkey. It includes official documents and reports from the Imrali Delegations in Istanbul and Diyarbakir/Amed, which involved in-depth interviews with Kurdish and Turkish politicians, media, and civil society regarding the degenerating political and human rights situation. The final section is a collection of testimonials from delegation participants. Your Freedom and Mine offers crucial insight into the dramatic history and current reality of the Kurdish struggle for recognition and peace in Turkey.

Did you know that an estimated 5,000 blacks were an early and integral part of the California Gold Rush? Did you know that black history in California precedes Gold Rush history by some 300 years? Did you know that in California during the Gold Rush, blacks created one of the wealthiest, most culturally advanced, most politically active communities in the nation? Few people are aware of the intriguing, dynamic often wholly inspirational stories of African American argonauts, from backgrounds as diverse as those of their less sturdy- complexioned peers. Defying strict California fugitive slave laws and an unforgiving court testimony ban in a state that declared itself free, black men and women combined skill, ambition and courage and rose to meet that daunting challenge with dignity, determination and even a certain elan, leaving behind a legacy that has gone starkly under-reported. Mainstream history tends to contribute to the illusion that African Americans were all but absent from the California Gold Rush experience. This remarkable book, illustrated with dozens of photos, offers definitive contradiction to that illusion and opens a door that leads the reader into a forgotten world long shrouded behind the shadowy curtains of time."

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Turkey relentlessly persecuted any form of Kurdish dissent. This led to the radicalisation of an increasing number of Kurds, the rise of the Kurdish national movement and the PKK's insurgency against Turkey. Political activism by the Kurds or around Kurdish-related political demands continues to be viewed with deep suspicions by Turkey's political establishment and severely restricted. Despite this, the pro-Kurdish democratic movement has emerged, providing Kurds with a channel to represent themselves and articulate their demands. This book is timely contribution to the debate on the Kurds' political representation in Turkey, tracing the different forms it has taken since 1950. The book highlights how the transformations in Kurdish society have affected the types of actors involved in politics and the avenues, organisations and networks Kurds use to challenge the state. Based on survey data obtained from over 350 individuals, this is the first book to provide an in-depth analysis of Kurdish attitudes from across different segments of Kurdish society, including the elite, the business and professional classes, women and youth activists. It is an intimate portrait of how Kurds today are dealing with the challenges and difficulties of political representation.

While our culture places great emphasis on comfort, security, control, and success, there are deeper rewards for those who take hold of God’s promises and reach out in the Name of Christ. Adventure, faith, miracles, and a deep knowledge of Jesus Christ. This is what Susie calls her readers to realize. Author/Speaker Susie Larson makes her message graspable, accessible, and doable. Her stories, scriptural devotionals, and study questions set the stage for a first-hand experience of God’s heart for personal freedom, for the plight of the suffering, and for a conviction to get involved with His work among those in need. While the book’s primary focus is on the reader’s journey into freedom, it clearly conveys our shared responsibility to “seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, [and] plead for the widow” (Isaiah 1:17, nrsv). This is God’s expectation for those who truly know Him. When we live in bondage to our fears, insecurities, shame, guilt, despair, or sinful appetites, we live self-focused lives. But when we embrace our freedom in Christ, our hearts are released from captivity and we view everything around us—our relationships, resources, responsibilities, and opportunities—as tools to bring that same freedom to those who desperately need it. This book is for the woman who wants to grow stronger in her walk of faith and who wants to gain a greater view of God’s heart for the world. And it’s to this we are called. May she be provoked, to be as free as God meant her to be. And as a result, may she become an advocate for the freedoms of others. Each chapter includes devotional insights, justice quotes, anecdotes, prayer guidance, and study/reflective questions.

The youngest Boomers are not quite fifty; the oldest have already turned sixty-five. A generation that started out in the 1960s, determined to be young forever, is now asking what the point is of growing old. Convinced they were special, Boomers discounted authority and charted their own course. They believed they could make the world better by pursuing freedom. The legacy of the Boomer experiment is becoming evident. Freedoms that were new when Boomers were young are now taken for granted, and we are living "after freedom." Are our freedoms real or illusory? Can we count on anything to be certain? Do virtue and character matter? In a secular age can we recover respect for the sacred? The time is ripe for Boomers to reconsider those good things in the past they refused to honor, to voice their blessings for generations who will shape the future, and to reclaim conviction as they stand firm and dare to say, "This is what I believe."

This collection of essays takes as its starting point Arthur Ripstein's Force and Freedom: Kant's Legal and Political Philosophy, a seminal work on Kant's thinking about law, which also treats many of the contemporary issues of legal and political philosophy. The essays offer readings and elucidations of Ripstein's thought, dispute some of his claims and extend some of his themes within broader philosophical contexts, thus developing the significance of Ripstein's ideas for contemporary legal and political philosophy. All of the essays are contributions to normative philosophy in a broadly Kantian spirit. Prominent themes include rights in the body, the relation between morality and law, the nature of coercion and its role in legal obligation, the role of indeterminacy in law, the nature and justification of political society and the theory of the state. This volume will be of interest to a wide audience, including legal scholars, Kant scholars, and philosophers with an interest in Kant or in legal and political philosophy.