Jack Ryan’s Reviews > Strength Through Peace, The Ideas and People of Nonviolence > Status Update

Prediction: What McCarthy talks about in this final section of the book about animal rights and the issue behind it leaves a mysterious cast over the issue. More people are taking a stand with this cause, but this causes will not be 100 percent erased from America, and to achieve its goal of having livestock and other animals live freely more people have to become vegetarians which I doubt will happen.

Ask: In this section a human rights activists William Kunstler talks about how he did not think about animal rights for over half of his career. Even though now this man brings great attention to animal rights causes, why did he not become aware of it sooner when the opportunity for him to become aware of this issue was there?

Summary: In this section still about the nonviolence of hamburgers, it talks about how making hamburgers and other meats like steak and pork is dangerous to the environment and how becoming vegetarian is not only more beneficial for the world, but more beneficial for humans health wise, and it will allow more livestock to live and be free.

Connections: In this section of the book which talks about nonviolence towards animals, I made the connection between what my friends were saying about animal cruelty and the benefits of being vegetarian to animals and this planet and this book on how Americans overkill and abuse animals for pointless purposes like entertainment and fashion. Thus this section has made me think harder about becoming a vegetarian.

Visualization: During this section they talked about marriage and family conflict and how to resolve these issues with three things, sensing, sorting, and shifting. The example was a family arguing with each other while watching TV and using details it made it extremely easier to picture this family arguing and the tense and circus like atmosphere of this family arguing around the TV.

This section talks about marriage equality and how women and men act and react within a marriage. A researcher took research on men not being the dominant force, and how stronger marriages have equality in them. If this section was about having equal standards, then why did this research only help men in marriages, and help console them and not women? Is this a truly egalitarian society we say it is?

Summary/Inference: This section of the book talked about a women's story, Marie Deans, & how she went around prisons advocating to stop the death penalty, even though her mother law was murdered, & she was personally affected by this law. My inference about her personality is that she is a loving and compassionate person who believes every person's life is sacred no matter what.

Prediction: In this section, it talked about how there are few male black teachers, and that in impoverished neighborhoods, black male teachers are needed to help shape these students into better citizens since they are surrounded by misleading people. Also, it talked about the death penalty in prisons. It can be predicted this section will critique this system & how this act is unnecessary to deal with murderers.

Ask: McCarthy adds an essay from Carl Upchurch, who is African American, & states that people in poverty, particularly African Americans, need to first reflect on themselves & their actions to get themselves out of poverty and not get mad at society for their circumstances. Isn't it difficult for African Americans in poverty to escape it when white people in society paint a picture of what minorities should be like?

Ask: In this section of the book it discusses the Vietnam War and all the outside circumstances, events, and decisions that played a role in the war. What I am confused about is why this war? He could have chosen any war in the timespan of his life, he is elderly now, why did he decide to critique this war and the ideas of nonviolence that tried very hard to make their point across?