Guidelines for Users & Contributors

The Resources segment invites users to pool your knowledge with ours, & help us build & improve these resource pages for use by legislators, journalists, teachers, students, pastors & activists. The pages address several hundred topics of concern to people anywhere who are working for a demilitarized, more just & democratic, more sustainable world:

Big Issues of Today are a few of those most on the minds of people struggling for peace & justice in the US & elsewhere, especially since September 11, 2001.

Faces of Violence & Injustice are the many culturally embedded & institutionalized forms of violence & injustice that have killed, maimed, sickened, oppressed or constrained the human spirit since the early 20th century -- as well as those that threaten the ecosystems on which our very survival as a species depends.

Working for a Better World honors the mostly nonviolent efforts of people everywhere to confront & dissolve the violent & unjust institutions, practices & beliefs that surround us, & to expand the realm of freedom & well-being for the benefit of other human beings & ourselves.

Countries & Regions are those in which social, economic & political tensions have erupted into armed or intractable conflict since World War II, or seem likely to erupt in the foreseeable future. In most of them overt or covert US intervention has served to exacerbate such conflicts. We include also countries that face internal conflicts comparable to those at work within the US.

History, Life & Values invites Americans to take a closer look at groups within our population who are frequently subjected to violence, discrimination or defamation, or denied the respect & full equality to which they are entitled as fellow-citizens -- on the grounds of race, ethnicity, gender, national or regional origin, capacity or sexual orientation.

Voices of Reason are those of writers & artists whose life's work has consistently urged restraint, reflection, democratic problem-solving & humanitarian concern upon Americans & Europeans in particular, during the past half-century of steadily increasing worldwide violence & inequity.

Alternative Information Sources are some of the main websites, publications, publishers & distributors from whom these materials have been gathered.

Please browse through each section, see what files appeal to your particular interests & concerns, & download whatever you can use. If we've overlooked a category of material that you think belongs here, feel free to suggest it & send a few references to help get the new page started.

In general, we hope to gather onto every page of this website the best work of investigative journalists, scholars, creative writers, photographers, songwriters, musicians & film makers, so as to help people focus attention, "bone up," and learn as much as possible about the particular topic in question.

Please keep the following editorial criteria in mind, as you use & help build these pages:

1. Every current crisis has a background. Many past crises & movements for change are worth studying today for the lessons they can offer to us all. So there is lots of history in this website -- in particular history of the 20th century, during which the US became a "superpower" while neglecting the present & future well-being both of Americans & of the rest of the human race.

2. Every current crisis & struggle has a broader context, in similar crises & struggles underway elsewhere in our increasingly inter-connected world. So materials useful for comparision are included wherever possible.

3. A major goal of this site is to sort & assemble the products of intellectual & cultural workers by well-defined topics, so as to help make them accessible and as useful to legislators, journalists, teachers, students, pastors & activists as they were originally intended be.

4. There is no criterion of "political correctness" here. Materials of whatever origin or point of view that seem useful for informing a nonviolent world-wide movement for equity, justice, health, education, peace & sustainability are welcome in these pages. But the little-heard voices of writers & artists who oppose war, violence & injustice are especially welcome.

5. The main language of the webpage is English, in which writings on most of our subjects are especially abundant. But contributions in Spanish, French, Portuguese, German & Italian are welcome, & will be scattered throughout. Where these are especially numerous, they are gathered in separate lists that appear right after the lists of materials in English.