Lantern has made a commitment to pursuing the central issues of non-violence in its publications from a variety of perspectives.

From the perspective of law enforcement, Lawrence Blum, in Force Under Pressure and Stoning the Keepers at the Gate, makes an impassioned plea for the peace officer community and society to understand the tremendous pressures that cops on the beat face on a day-to-day basis. He argues that extraordinary stress is often ignored by the police and civil establishment and that officers don't know how important relaxation, proper emotional and physical conditioning, and access to therapy and other forms of mental processing are in making sure that they do not overreact to situations and cause them and others harm, if they are placed in a life-threatening situation again.

Charles "Sid" Heal takes a more tactical approach. His concern is to stop violence happening before it starts. In Sound Doctrine, the more specialized Illustrated Guide to Tactical Diagramming, and Field Command Sid, a former SWAT team member and police and military tactician, shows how officers and others involved in policing can monitor and control a situation (whether a rioting crowd or a hostage-taker) in such a way that as few people get hurt as possible.

Violence permeates our society: in Boys Will Be Boys, Myriam Miedzian looks at the cult of masculinist violence that forces boys into roles where they deny their own and others' vulnerability and need for connection. That lack of connection may, indeed, have played a role in the murderous rampage that Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris went on at Columbine High School in 1999. Brooks Brown knew them both, and in No Easy Answers, written with journalist Rob Merritt, he explains how a culture of bullying and factionalism in high school (in some ways mirroring the society outside) led these alienated kids to commit the unthinkable.

How does one cope when one has been violated? In Aftershock, psychologist pattrice jones reveals how activists who have been subject to trauma, whether being arrested by the authorities or seeing those whom you are advocating for beaten up or killed, or even simply living in a violent world. And what of the violent person themselves: how might those who care for them (in both senses) deal with them? Dr. Raymond B. Flannery, Jr. has made a career out of studying those who are violent. His books are published by the American Mental Health Foundation Press, whose titles Lantern distributes.

Finally, it would be remiss not to point out that violence against animals takes place every day, in a systematized and almost entirely ignored way on factory farms and in slaughterhouses around the world. We encourage you to look at other titles on our website to find out more about this "acceptable" form of violence.

For more on Peace Officer Memorial Day, click here.

Holistic medicine offers a paradigm of wellness that differs from the trauma and severe deficiencies of our current "sickness care" system.

One aspect of this system that demands attention is the issue of vaccination. In their first five years of life, children are expected to undergo an extraordinary thirty-seven doses of eleven different vaccines, yet relatively few parents are aware of the risks involved. As the writers in The Vaccination Dilemma indicate, a growing body of research has linked immunization with autism, seizures, asthma, arthritis, Crohn's disease, hyperactivity, and learning disabilities. Balanced and thoughtful, this book clearly describes the immune system, its workings (and what science does and does not know about them), and helps parents make educated decisions on behalf of their children.

What does it mean to become and then live as a vegetarian? It might mean nothing at all; or, of course, it might be a step too far for you. Carol Adams has been thinking deeply about vegetarianism for over thirty years in a number of titles that explore feminist theory, critical theory, sexual politics, religion, and environmentalism: all as they relate to the decision no longer to eat animal flesh or use the products of animals.

Now Adams has collaborated with Patti Breitman to explain How to Eat like a Vegetarian Even If You Never Want to Be One. Cutting back on meat but don't know what to serve? Want an easy way to eat healthfully? The lists, charts, and hints in this book will reward you with meals, snacks, and surprises that are as easy to make as they are delicious.

For those who've tried to go vegetarian but have found their own drama, or the pressure of family, friends, and co-workers too much, Donna Beaudoin's Sister Vegetarian's 31 Days of Drama-Free Living is the perfect book. With recipes, life-tips, and an exercise regimen, Donna (a.k.a. Sister Vegetarian) will have you up and running (literally) in no time.

Voices from the Garden takes a different approach to talking about vegetarianism. In fifty stories, people who became vegetarian talk about the reasons why they did so: whether they had a health crisis that propelled them into reflecting on what they put in their bodies; or whether they were concerned about the health of the planet and decided to reduce their consumption of meat and dairy because of the high costs of producing both for the environment; or whether they were moved by the plight of farmed animals and felt they didn't want to be a part of the system that treated them as commodities. Whatever your interest in being or becoming a vegetarian, these books provide numerous insights into what the vegetarian lifestyle means beyond the cookbooks and the fake meat products, and promise a way for you to live a deeper and more authentic life.

Of course, today wouldn't be today unless we mentioned the incredible work of Karen Davis at United Poultry Concerns and the two books she's written for us: More than a Meal: The Turkey in History, Myth, Ritual, and Reality and The Holocaust and the Henmaid's Tale: both of which deal with birds and both of which make a strong case that, at the very least, we should respect these extraordinary animals.

For more on International Respect for Chickens day, click here.

Lantern tries to do its bit to support the earth. We publish environmental pioneers like Wangari Maathai, print on post-consumer recycled paper, use wind power, composts, keep a vegan office, use energy-saving light bulbs, and recycle. We drink organic-shade-grown-fair-trade coffee. For our pains, we were given a gold certification in the Green Press Initiative's Publisher Certification program.

You could say we're obsessed. Every day of the year. Yet, if the human species is to save itself on this planet, and not destroy everything else, beyond all individual actions we take and practices we change, we will need to change our consciousness: the way we see the natural world.

Contemporary science is now revealing what ancient wisdom long understood: that natural systems are not only more intricately connected than we at once thought, but their complexity reveals patterns of startling simplicity and beauty that can offer the cure to the restoration of those systems and the healing of the world.

On April 20, 1999, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, two seniors at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, walked into their school and shot to death twelve students and one teacher, and wounded many others.

It was the worst single act of murder at a school in U.S. history. Few people knew Dylan Klebold or Eric Harris better than Brooks Brown. Brown and Klebold were best friends in grade school, and years later, at Columbine, Brown was privy to some of Harris and Klebold's darkest fantasies and most troubling revelations. After the shootings, Brown was even accused by the police of having been in on the massacre, simply because he had been friends with the killers.

In No Easy Answers, Brooks Brown and journalist Rob Merritt describe the warning signs that were missed or ignored, what life was like at Columbine High School before the shootings, and the evidence that was kept hidden from the public after the murders. Shocking as well as inspirational, No Easy Answers is an authentic wake-up call for all psychologists, authorities, parents, and anyone wanting to learn the unvarnished facts about growing up as an alienated teenager in America today.

Here's an interview from 2002, conducted by CNN's Connie Chung, with the authors.

A Practical Peacemaker Ponders . . .

I grew up in a clean-your-dinner-plate kind of family, with parents whose food limitations during the Great Depression and World War II rationing had taught them to value food highly. That ethic has stayed with me, so I have been shocked over recent months to learn of the gargantuan amounts of food wasted, some of it, especially in restaurants, still perfectly edible.

I'd been idly aware of this topic when it was recently brought again to my attention in a blog post by James McWilliams (I highly recommend following his blog "Eating Plants"). He cites a study finding that consumers throw out an astonishing half the food they buy!

A Practical Peacemaker Ponders . . .

Last Sunday, I participated in a group tour at the nearest farmed animal sanctuary, Peaceful Prairie, about an hour's drive east of Denver. Both we and the animals we visited were fortunate to have a warm, clear day to enjoy each other.

The first thing we noticed as we approached the property was a herd of llamas. I'd never seen that many, about fifteen, in one place. Then we drove through the gate and up to the house. Peaceful Prairie's founders and directors, Chris and Michele Alley-Grubb, welcomed us.

Other-than-human animals are an overwhelming presence in our collective and individual lives and, at the same time, are taken for granted by human animals. Sociologists have neglected the study of human-animal interaction and the role of animals in society. This is true despite the fact that animals are an integral part of our lives: in our language, food, families, economy, education, science, and recreation.

In more than thirty essays, Social Creatures examines the role of animals in human society. Including work by Peter Singer, Tom Regan, Carol J. Adams, Josephine Donovan, Barbara Noske, Arnold Arluke, Ken Shapiro, and many leading scholars, anthropologists, and psychologists, the book also comes with an extensive bibliography of hundreds of articles and books.

In order to know how we can best address cruelty to animals, we need to know why we are cruel to animals. This essential, yet perhaps elusive, question is the centerpiece to Lantern's publishing program.

A Practical Peacemaker Ponders . . .

I'd been hearing great praise for the documentary Vegucated, and this week was able to see it at a vegan potluck/movie event. Three average meat-eating New Yorkers agree to go vegan for six weeks and have their experience filmed. They get lots--and I mean lots--of support and expert advice. It begins with the filmmakers, who show them vegan advocacy films, take them grocery shopping, dining out, and to a farmed animal sanctuary. Their "vegucation" is also provided by such luminaries as Howard Lyman (a contributor to Lantern's book The Way of Compassion), Dr. Joel Fuhrman, Dr. Milton Mills, T. Colin Campbell, and other speakers and participants at the Vegetarian Summerfest, which the three attend as part of the experiment. How fortunate they were to get this kind of solid information and encouragement, compared to those of us who went vegan years ago and had to figure it all out for ourselves! Viewers, of course, get all the same encouragement vicariously by watching the film, and can find more at the Get Vegucated website, including the movie trailer; Vegan at Heart, a four-week-long daily email coaching program; tips on making social connections with other local vegans; the DVD available for purchase ($19.99); and info on hosting a screening.

A Practical Peacemaker Ponders . . .

When we bought our present home in 1999, the dishwasher was, shall I say, vintage. In recent months it had become noisy and wasn't cleaning well; we were looking forward to replacing it with a more efficient model. After some days spent researching and shopping, we chose one that qualifies under the improved 2012 Energy Star rating system. I was amazed at how little water this model uses: less than three gallons per load. You'd have trouble washing dishes by hand with that amount of water, as just filling the sink would take about two gallons, plus you'd need rinse water. Its electricity use is modest too, although we don't worry too much about that because our solar PV panels generate more electricity each year than we use.

A Practical Peacemaker Ponders . . .

Two weeks ago I blogged in this space about "The Story of Chickens," a project sponsored by the Spencer Art Museum at the University of Kansas (KU). This so-called "art" exhibit called for the display of five chickens in a moveable coop at several locations in Lawrence, Kansas; the chickens were then to be slaughtered in public and served at a community potluck. I am happy to write today that the project has been substantially altered because local animal cruelty law does not permit slaughter within Lawrence city limits. No chickens will be displayed or slaughtered; the project has been reduced to the display of an empty coop and a concluding dinner. For details, see the news release from United Poultry Concerns and yesterday's article in the Kansas City Star.

In the midst of rejoicing about this, I noticed that a number of Lantern authors had become involved in actively opposing this project, helping to publicize it and urging others to join the outcry.

A Practical Peacemaker Ponders . . .

A news story this week reports that a lab-grown or in vitro burger will be available from a science lab in the Netherlands by October. The burger grown from animal stem cells will cost $330,000 to produce, and scientists working on it say that it will be at least 20 years before the process will be efficient enough for large scale and cost effective production. Such meat is not imitation meat or a meat analog, but actual meat grown from animal stem cells.

A Practical Peacemaker Ponders . . .

Today I sent the following letter to my alma mater, the University of Kansas, in protest of an upcoming exhibit at the university's Spencer Art Museum called "The Story of Chickens." This project will encourage townspeople to get to know and care about five chickens over a period of time, then the chickens will be slaughtered in public and served at a potluck.

I can't promise that I love all the men listed in VegNews' "The Vegan Man Issue," but our own Martin Rowe appears in boldface!

Also, Lantern authors Steve Best, Nick Cooney, and Bart Potenza appear with lots of other men we DO love and respect. Congratulations to all these loved men on Valentine's Day.

A Practical Peacemaker Ponders . . .

Here was a surprising link in my inbox: CPI Financial, a website dedicated to offering advice and analysis for bankers and business leaders throughout the Middle East, headlined the recommendation to go vegan.

The article, begins as follows:
Ok, here's the bad news. You're going to have to become vegetarian. Sorry. As soon as possible, so you may as well put down that chicken sandwich and start now. Not just you though, all of us are going to have to stop eating meat and dairy products if the world has any hope of not going to hell in a hand basket.

What? Did I read that correctly? Of the myriad reasons for veganism, why were investment bankers being urged in that direction?