Colman McCarthy

Colman McCarthy (born March 24, 1938 in Glen Head, New York^[1][2]), an American journalist, teacher, lecturer, pacifist, an anarchist and long-time peace activist, directs the Center for Teaching Peace in Washington, D.C. From 1969 to 1997, he wrote columns for The Washington Post. His topics ranged from politics, religion, health, and sports to education, poverty, and peacemaking. Washingtonian magazine called him "the liberal conscience of The Washington Post." Smithsonian magazine said he is "a man of profound spiritual awareness." He has written for The New Yorker, The Nation, The Progressive, The Atlantic, and Reader's Digest. Since 1999, he has written biweekly columns for National Catholic Reporter.

Since 1982, he has been teaching courses on nonviolence and the literature of peace. In the fall semester of 2006, he taught at seven schools: Georgetown University Law Center, American University, the University of Maryland, The Washington Center for Internships, Wilson High School, Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School and School Without Walls. In 25 years, he has had more than 7,000 students in his classes. In 1985, he founded the Center for Teaching Peace, a nonprofit that helps schools begin or expand academic programs in Peace studies. He is a regular speaker at U.S. colleges, prep schools, high schools, and peace conferences, and gives an average of 50 lectures a year. The titles of his lectures range from "How To Be a Peacemaker" to "Nonviolence In a Time of War."

Colman McCarthy graduated with a B.S. from Spring Hill College, and holds five additional honorary degrees from St. John's University, Wheeling Jesuit College, Belmont College, Walsh University, and Spring Hill College.

Pacifist, journalist and ethical vegetarian for his nationally syndicated column in The Washington Post. He was awarded the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award in Sherborn, Massachusetts.^[3]

McCarthy also won an Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship^[4] in 1998 to research and write about mentoring, tutoring, and literacy at Garrison elementary school in Washington, DC.

Peace Studies

For his courses on nonviolence and the literature of peace, McCarthy's course texts include "Solutions To Violence" and "Strength Through Peace: the Ideas and People of Nonviolence." Both books are anthologies of peace essays edited by McCarthy and published by the Center for Teaching Peace. The purpose of the courses is to expose students to the philosophy of pacifism and the methods of nonviolent conflict resolution. His former students include Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), one of the most liberal members of Congress; Mark Gearan, president of Hobart and William Smith Colleges and former director of the Peace Corps; John McCarthy, director and founder of Elementary Baseball; Anthony Shriver, director and founder of Best Buddies International.

McCarthy's educational philosophy has attracted some controversy in the past, with two Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School students calling in 2006 for a more balanced presentation of the issues covered by the class.[1] McCarthy's classes are discussion-based and well-known for lively debates and challenges that McCarthy issues to his students. An avid teetotaler, McCarthy often challenges his students to stop drinking alcohol for the semester and document their experiences and observations of those around them.^[5] He also lectures at many universities and institutes. In October of 2009, McCarthy lectured - The Politics of Peace at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College.^[6] His December 30, 2010, op-ed in The Washington Post^[7] titled "'Don't ask, don't tell' has been repealed. ROTC still shouldn't be on campus", from which the Taliban quote below was taken, attracted over 1000 reader comments, most strongly opposed to his position and the logic with which he constructed his argument. His statement that "ROTC and its warrior ethic taint the intellectual purity of a school ..." drew especially heavy scorn, with many of those commenting taking pains to identify themselves as being of liberal persuasion.

Over the years, hundreds of guest speakers have spoken in his classes. They have included Nobel Peace Prize winners, Peace Corps volunteers, Sufi mystics, Army psychiatrists, members of Congress, school custodial workers, former death row inmates, murder victims' families, social workers, corporate executives, rabbis, priests, Special Olympics athletes, Olympians, former political prisoners, parents, homeless individuals, folk singers, presidential candidates, and activists for human rights, civil rights, gay and lesbian rights, victims' rights, prisoners' rights, Native Americans' rights and animal rights.

Quotations

"Hitler could have been waited out. He might have been overthrown by his own government. Who knows? To have 50 million people killed: Hitler would have died within 10 years no matter what he did."^[8]

" Everyone in Texas is illiterate."

"I don't celebrate the 4th of July because there never should have been a war with Britain."

"I dress like a Republican so I can talk like an Anarchist."

"The most important act of peacemaking? Your next one. Few of us will ever be called on to do great things, but all of us can do small things in a great way."

"Wars aren't stopped by fighting wars, any more than you can fight fire with fire. You fight fire with water. You fight violence with nonviolence."

"Peace is the result of love, and if love were easy we'd all be good at it."

"Unless we teach our children peace, someone will teach them violence."

"Too many schools process students as if they are slabs of cheese going to Velveeta High on the way to Cheddar U and Mozzarella Grad School."

"You can earn all A's in school and then go out and fail at life."

"What makes us happy is service to others. If schools don't expose students to the joys of community service, we graduate people who are idea rich but experience poor. In these addled times of leave no child untested, we think it's enough to pound ideas into the kids' heads. You can make all A's in school and go out and flunk life."

"It's too easy only to blame the militarists, racists, sexists and other pushers of violence for the mess we're in. What is harder is self-examination, moving beyond caring by looking inward to ask the personal question: What more should I be doing everyday to bring about a peace and justice based world, whether across the ocean or across the living room?"

"I'd prefer that my students don't ask questions. Instead, be braver and bolder: question the answers. What answers? Those from anyone who says the answer is violence. Of all the lies, that's the grossest."

"It's better to build a peaceful child than re-build a violent adult."

“Over the years, I’ve had suggestions from other teachers to offer what they call ‘balance’ in my courses, that I should give students ‘the other side.’ I’m never sure exactly what that means. After assigning students to read Gandhi I should have them also read Carl von Clausewitz? After Martin Luther King’s essay against the Vietnam War, Colin Powell’s memoir favoring the Persian Gulf War? After Justice William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall’s views opposing the death penalty, George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein’s favoring it? After a woman’s account of her using a nonviolent defense against a rapist, the thwarted rapist’s side?”^[9]

"Let us commence, if we may."

"Everyone’s a pacifist between wars. It’s like being a vegetarian between meals"

"To oppose ROTC, as I have since my college days in the 1960s, when my school enticed too many of my classmates into joining, is not to be anti-soldier. I admire those who join armies, whether America's or the Taliban's: for their discipline, for their loyalty to their buddies and to their principles, for their sacrifices to be away from home. In recent years, I've had several Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans in my college classes. If only the peace movement were as populated by people of such resolve and daring."^[7]

Works by Colman McCarthy

• Disturbers of the Peace: Profiles in Non Adjustment
• Inner Companions
• Pleasures of the Game
• Involvements: One Journalist's Place in the World
• All of One Peace
• I'd Rather Teach Peace
• Strength Through Peace (editor)
• Solutions to Violence (editor)
• At Rest With the Animals

Documentary Film

Colman's son, John, has made a full-length documentary titled Bandit about peaceful anarchy in Colman. The film contains a wide variety of interviews Colman did that centered on his views on pacifism and animal rights. Notable examples are his discussion of Thanksgiving and a debate with Pat Buchanan. It premiered at the Avalon Theatre in Washington, D.C.

Articles about Colman McCarthy

• The New York Times Nov. 17, 1986: Washington talk; A Skirmish Involving a Pacifist
• The Washington Post Jan. 13, 1985
• The Washington Post Jan. 12, 1997
• The Washington Post Feb. 26, 2006
• The Wall Street Journal Feb. 25, 1998
• Los Angeles Times Feb. 14, 1994
• USA Today Oct. 16, 2001
• Minneapolis Star Tribune Feb. 9, 1990
• Minneapolis Star Tribune Oct. 4, 1998
• San Diego Tribune March 12, 1988
• The Hartford Courant Oct. 3, 1990
• Greensboro News & Record Jan. 21, 1999
• Rochester Democrat and Chronicle Nov. 22, 2002
• The Progressive Nov. 1986
• The Progressive Jan. 1991
• Teacher Oct. 2003
• Vegetarian Times July 1989
• Washingtonian Feb. 2002
• Editor & Publisher Feb. 8, 1997
• Hope Magazine July/August 2003

See also

• Desmond Tutu
• Emily Greene Balch
• Martin Luther King Jr.
• Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
• Mother Teresa
• Nelson Mandela
• 14th Dalai Lama

References

1. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=AAucAAAAMAAJ&q=Colman+McCarthy+1938&dq=Colman+McCarthy+1938&hl=en&ei=ktQ0Ta-rCYWClAejrqX7CQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC4Q6AEwATgK
2. ^ David Morgan (December 19, 2002). "Ex-Journalist Sees Schools as Peace Training Ground". Reuters. http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/1219-10.htm. Retrieved January 1, 2011. 
3. ^ "The Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Recipients List". The Peace Abbey. http://www.peaceabbey.org/awards/cocrecipientlist.html. Retrieved January 1, 2011.  ]
4. ^ Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship
5. ^ Colman McCarthy (November 14, 2008). "Catholic Colleges & Universities: A pox on drinking". National Catholic Reporter. http://ncronline.org/node/2507. Retrieved January 1, 2011. 
6. ^ "Past Speakers and Events". Saint Anselm College. http://www.anselm.edu/Institutes-Centers-and-the-Arts/NHIOP/News-and-Events/Past-Speakers-and-Events.htm. Retrieved January 1, 2011. 
7. ^ ^{a b} Colman McCarthy (December 30, 2010). "'Don't ask, don't tell' has been repealed. ROTC still shouldn't be on campus.". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/29/AR2010122903033.html. Retrieved January 1, 2011. 
8. ^ Sam Kornell (14 February 2008). "Colman McCarthy on Teaching Nonviolence". The Santa Barbara Independent. http://www.independent.com/news/2008/feb/14/colman-mccarthy-teaching-nonviolence/. Retrieved 13 December 2010. 
9. ^ Colman McCarthy (April 26, 2002). "Paths to Peace: Bringing pacifism to schools". National Catholic Reporter. http://natcath.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2002b/042602/042602r.htm. Retrieved January 1, 2011. 

External links

• The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation's 7th Annual Frank K. Kelly Lecture (video)
• Ex-Journalist Sees Schools as Peace Training Ground
• Doves and War Drums: Strong Words on Nonviolence
• Teaching Nonviolence: McCarthy is interviewed on Humankind public radio

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Name	Maccarthy, Colman
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Date of birth	March 24, 1938
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