PEER-REVIEW FEEDBACK ON THE GOODNESS FIELD: A Guidebook for Proactive Nonviolence Bob Aldridge's powerful book, The Goodness Field: A Guidebook for Proactive Nonviolence points out the need and opportunity for a Global Satyagraha Movement – nonviolent, active, creative, and compassionate – to challenge the US addiction to power and greed which feeds our nation's endless wars and empire. Aldridge gives some very helpful suggestions for how to build that movement. This is not a pipe dream. We, the world's people can make it happen! – David Hartsough Author, Waging Peace: Global Adventures of a Lifelong Activist Co-Founder, Nonviolent Peaceforce and World beyond War - - - - I am in wholehearted agreement with Bob Aldridge's call for a "Global Satyagraha Movement inspired by a Global Constructive Pro- gram.” I'm glad to say, also, that these very ideas are catching on. If humanity is to rescue itself from the materialism, the low human image based on outdated science, and the devastation that they are causing to our personal and social lives -- indeed for our continued existence -- I can see no other way of doing that than the discovery of what he calls the "goodness field" that science is beginning to discover and traditional wisdom has long spoken of, by whatever name. – Michael N. Nagler President, Metta Center for Nonviolence Author, The Third Harmony: Nonviolence and the New Story of Human Nature - - - - Every so often an elder, whose life has embodied the way of faith, peace and justice, writes a “testament” (as Jim Douglass rightly calls this book), one that peers well past what the rest of us see. Jim Corbett’s A Sanctuary for All Life was such a visionary volume; so, too, is this one. I have been greatly blessed to know and work with both Jim and Bob. I confess I don’t entirely grasp everything offered in their testaments. But I trust their wisdom, because I so deeply respect the work and witness of these holy men in the world. We don’t know how good the world is because we don’t know how bad it has become; and we don’t know how bad the world has become because we don’t know how good it truly is. Few people grasp both goodness and brokenness in more depth than Aldridge. This book utters a powerful “Yes! and No! to the whole damn thing,” as the venerable Daniel Berrigan once put it. But it also charts a way into personal and political liberation, using Gandhi’s Gita as a roadmap to becoming a “nonviolent warrior.” Bob Aldridge is an unmasker of lies and a seer of mysteries, testifying to both without obfuscation in the straightforward style of an engineer, grandfather and sage. His “cosmovision” of nonviolent transformation invites us well beyond the horizon of conventional thinking about what has transpired in our history, what is possible for our future, and what is necessary for our survival. I commend this trustworthy testament, forged over a nine decade journey of conscience. – Ched Myers Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries (chedmyers.org) - - - - This guidebook addresses the importance of nonviolence and reconnection with the Earth in a powerful way, within a wide spectrum of events around the world which reflect various challenges of our society. It demonstrates why humans must let go of this idea, and unreal perception, that they are in some way owners of the rest of Nature; and have the right to exploit, abuse and violate the Earth for their own benefit. We must realize that the concept of the rights of Nature/Mother Earth, rather than a legal construct, are a call to change our relationship with the rest of nature; to stop treating the Earth system as an object and recognize that we are all part of the Earth. The rights of Nature (Mother Earth) tell us that everything on our planet is interconnected; that life is only possible thanks to a multiplicity of factors such as the bees, the rain, the proper flow of temperature in the atmosphere, and other elements of the Earth system. We must understand that we share the right to exist, thrive and evolve together with plants, animals, rivers, glaciers, forests and all members of the Earth, and implement this understanding in practice. I believe this guidebook will be a useful tool in this important transformational shift of our societies, and for changing the direction humanity is taking the planet. – Hana Begovic (Ecuador) Organizer, Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature - - - - Our human family and the planet are caught in the torrential waves of growing disaster caused by human violence. At this critical turning point, Bob Aldridge offers us a focused way through it all. He lays out a breathtaking vision and plan of action in A Guidebook for Proactive Nonviolence. In a splintered world, where increasing numbers of movements are working for peace based in justice, he offers a Global Constructive Program that can bring them together in that higher unity and turn the tide. Bob’s vision has inspired me. I intend to help move this unified vision along as the master plan for nonviolent movements all over the world to create the “Beloved Community”. – C. Peter Dougherty Meta Peace Team Co-founder; Nonviolence Trainer; Unarmed Civilian Protection Team Organizer and Member - - - - Bob Aldridge’s The Goodness Field is a ground-breaking masterpiece that offers agents of change two powerful gifts. First, it sweeps away the stereotypes of nonviolence that see it as weak and limited. Nonviolence, on the contrary, is a force for goodness that pervades the entire universe. This goodness force – in the scientific sense of the four fundamental forces of nature – “is guiding evolution to make the Universe good for living,” a conclusion Aldridge works out using scientific data and logical deduction. His analysis reveals the universality of nonviolence and how its power is available to all of us. This paradigm-shifting finding opens new and breath-taking vistas for those of us seeking a way forward. But Aldridge doesn’t stop there. His second gift is his call for us to take the goodness field seriously and join in building a “Global Constructive Program” and a “Global Satyagraha Movement” (borrowing Gandhi’s term, meaning “truth- force” or “soul-force”) to respond to a worldwide culture of violence, including the contemporary U.S. imperial order dominating the world through interlocking military, surveillance, economic and political systems, which he documents in painstaking detail. Nonviolence is the only way to overcome evil, an assertion that Aldridge illuminates through the book’s vivid case-studies of nonviolent resistance. The fruit of a lifetime of nonviolent action and reflection—Aldridge himself dramatically turned toward the “goodness force” and changed his life forever after years as an engineer working on weapons systems—The Goodness Field invites us to re-imagine and activate nonviolence and its proactive power to resist and work to dismantle the systems that are accelerating the abysmal, existential crises facing our species and our planet. – Ken Butigan Senior Lecturer in Peace, Justice, and Conflict Studies; DePaul Univ. Strategist with Pace e Bene’s Campaign Nonviolence - - - - Anyone who doubts that non-native allies truly exist for indigenous struggles can take heart in the Aldridge family's lifelong example. Bob Aldridge's philosophy, actions and writing are not mere solidarity in the cause of peace and environmental justice. Rather, they are a case of personal sacrifice and leadership at the momentous scale required to tackle the global climate crisis, which impacts humanity first and most on native front-line communities. Readers can find new hope in the writings of this well-versed and devout elder. He thoroughly documents historic contemporary native struggles as never before, seeking input from indigenous stakeholders. His practicality in envisioning a way-forward should be welcomed as a cornerstone in the discussion of the all-important effort to forge intercultural unity. If you consider yourself to be part of the change, read this for the inspiration you seek, critique it, and share in your circles. – Talli Nauman Health & Environment Contributing Editor, Native Sun News Today (Rapid City, SD), www.nsweekly.com - - - - Bob Aldridge's book demonstrates a rare degree of scholarship and impressive integration of disparate fields of knowledge. Bob has clearly done his homework to produce a book that plugs some serious holes within the theory and practice of nonviolence. His analysis of the mechanisms of current empires is thorough, deep, and revelatory, and his insistence on moving beyond protest to visionary constructive program is a breath of fresh air. More than anything, the call for global unity is timely and necessary. I believe Bob leaves us with important questions to consider, not the least of which is what it would take for large numbers of people to recognize the level of crisis we are facing and to make the choice to embrace the nonviolent path individually and as part of larger movements oriented towards care for all life. Bob's book provides some essential steps on that road, combining analysis, vision, and practical advice all in one book. – Miki Kashtan Author, Reweaving Our Human Fabric: Working Together to Create a Nonviolent Future - - - - In the true spirit of service & goodness, Bob Aldridge has supplied humanity with a guidebook to help us evolve from a world that appears unable to escape the path to dystopia, towards a much more promising vision of the future that is grounded in Gandhian Constructive Program and Indigenous wisdom. There is something for everyone in this guidebook and it reminds me of the early days of Nonviolent Peaceforce when we were trying to understand how best to promote nonviolence globally.