This Policeman *Refused* Orders To Shoot At Demonstrators. He Knew His Kids Would Be In The Crowd.
She studied military science and the ways that blowing things up with violence makes way for change. And she used to think that real change (especially the kind you want to make over an oppressive, Hunger Games-y regime or evil dictator-type) *required* that sort of violence......that it was naive to think that non-violence would work. But she was *so* wrong. And she's telling everyone.
She's basically putting herself out of business by proving that nonviolence makes the most difference. But she's doing it anyway. Because she looked into it, and she's right.
I'm just gonna throw in some of the charts that showed up in this talk:OooooOoo, OK. That's a lot of failure from the violence stuff.
WHAT?Let's listen to the story of a dad who found himself in the middle.
SO.
Aside from reflecting on how great nonviolence is just alone in our little corner in our own little chair, what *do* we do?
Some ideas.
FIRST: Teach your kids (and yourself about nonviolence and nonviolent movements). She wants us to imagine a world where Gandhi and MLK are in the *FIRST* chapter of the history books and not just thrown in as an afterthought.
I never realized until now just how much my textbooks DID focus on battles and laws and not on the massive civil disobedience and people's movements that preceded them.
I'll get you started. Here's a song about a nonviolent, resistance movement called People Power movement. It happened in the Philippines, and it toppled the Marcos regime.
This song is from the musical "Here Lies Love," and David Byrne (of the Talking Heads) wrote it with Fatboy Slim.
NEXT: Get to pressuring those elected officials who fund violent revolutions around the world. It's *proven* that nonviolence works better for everyone AND that it increases the likelihood that there's a more democratic endpoint in the long run, so wouldn't it be nice — if our nation's money has to go toward revolutions and movements around the world — if it went toward nonviolent ones?
I would feel very naive and silly, almost "Kumbajah" ridiculous, saying all of this if it wasn't PROVEN that nonviolence just works better. If you're still a little skeptical, that's OK! Listen to the video above, then think about it.
And if you're as moved as I was, the best thing you can do is tell people about it, share the video, and speak up. There's strength and power in doing just that.
A Generation Jones teenager poses in her room.Image via Wikmedia Commons
An office kitchen.via 
An angry man eating spaghetti.via 
An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
- YouTube youtube.com
Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.