A Bahá'í Perspective

A Bah#225;'#237; who holds a masters degree in Oriental Studies and a PhD in history. She is currently an associate professor of history at Jackson State University in Mississippi.

Stephanie Fielding is a Bah#225;'#237; of Mohegan descent who lives in Uncasville, CT, where she helps to restore the nearly lost language of the Mohegan people. Her story begins in Hawaii where we learn that Stephanie's ancestry also includes Chinese, Hawaiian, African, and Irish heritage, along with her Native American ancestry. Once she married and became a Bah#225;'#237; at 18, she and her husband Dwayne, started their life together by going to Africa, after a chilly start in North Dakota. Her life adventures take her to such places as Nigeria, Lousiana, Colorado and then to her Native American roots in Uncasville, CT.

A Bah#225;'#237; friend of mine, Mike Andros, gave me a cassette tape labeled 1977/1978. When I listened to it, it was a recording of a dialogue between Jimmy Seals, Dash Crofts and their producer Marcia Day after a Seals and Crofts recording session, talking about the Bah#225;'#237; Faith. Seals and Crofts are best known for the 70's hits Summer Breeze and Hummingbird.

A Bahaacute;'iacute; from Chattanooga, TN who found out she had cancer in 1994 and has written a book "Slapped Awake: Living with Breast Cancer; Journey in Poetry and Prose". Deborah mentions an article that she wrote that is an excerpt from her book. You can find that article here: href="http://www.curetoday.com/backissues/v5n2/departments/readers/index.html" target="_blank"Book Excerpt

A 92 year old Bahaacute;'iacute; from Lima, OH, now living in Norwich CT, who in the 40's lost her daughter, Carrie, in a car accident when her daughter was only 11 years old. Her daughter, Carrie, had become a Bahaacute;'iacute; by hearing about it from their neighbor. Before Carrie died, Bobbie happened to pick up one of Carrie's Bahaacute;'iacute; books and got interested in the Bahaacute;'iacute; Faith too. In the interview, Bobbie refers to a well known Bahaacute;'iacute; historical figure named Dorothy Baker, and Baker's husband Frank. They lived in the same Bahaacute;'iacute; community in Lima. If any one is interested in learning more about Dorothy Baker, I recommend the book "From Copper to Gold: The Life of Dorothy Baker" by Dorothy Freeman. You'll hear background voices periodically in the interview. Bobbie always leaves her apartment door open, so once in a while hallway chatter comes through. I started the interview by asking Bobbie where she grew up, and what was it like growing up there.

A graphic designer who started his career family in Ireland then returned to the US and established himself in CT. He joined an industrial design firm in Farmington, CT and ended up buying the firm with a partner.

A Bahaacute;'iacute; who grew up in the Hartford, CT area. When Sharon finished high school a year early, she went to Yale to study economics. She now works for the CT State Treasurer's Office. In the interview, Sharon refers to the Bahaacute;'iacute; peace statement. The document is entitled " target="_blank" href="http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/uhj/PWP/pwp-1.html#pg1"The Promise of World Peace"

A Bahaacute;'iacute; and author of the book "Partners in Spirit: What Couples Say About Marriages That Work". We also find out in the interview that she is a poet and has other works in the pipeline for publication. You can find her blog here: href="http://heathercardinbookwoman.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"Heather's Blog nbsp;

A Bah#225;'#237; who grew up in the southside of Chicago. She moved to Hartford, CT when she started working at Travelers Insurance Co. She soon got married and became a stay-at-home mom in New London, CT, where she became a neighborhood activist. She got involved with the Multicultural Coalition of Southeast CT and the Institute for the Healing of Racism. Now she is a social worker for the state of CT.

A Bahaacute;'iacute; and author of the book, The Story of Baha'u'llah: Promised One of All Religions. You can find her book href="http://books.bahai.us/the-story-of-bahaullah" target="_blank"here. She also has a href="http://luminousrealities.blogspot.com" target="_blank"blog.

Here is a story of the good little Catholic girl that asked too many questions, so she became a social activist, and then a political radical, before eventually becoming a Bah#225;'#237;. As a Bah#225;'#237; her horizons broadened and she felt a calling to go to Africa.

I did a telephone John Medina, a Native American descended from a Mexican tribe. He graduated valedictorian at his high school in Douglas, Arizona and got his Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Arizona. However he found himself needing more in life than working for a consumer electronics manufacturer. He decided to get his masters degree in education and is now teaching 6th graders. He also realized that there was something he had to put down on paper that was also inside him. The product of this effort is his book "Faith, Physics and Psychology: Understanding the Human Spirit". I started the interview by asking John to describe where he grew up.

A Bahaacute;'iacute; who has provided individual and group psychotherapy to victims of trauma and abuse for more than 25 years. She is a forensic expert in post-traumatic stress disorder and interpersonal violence and its effects. She has written two books; target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Its-Not-Your-Fault-Relationships/dp/1931847118"It's Not Your Fault: How Healing Relationships Change Your Brain amp; Can Help You Overcome a Painful Past, and her second book is called href="http://www.amazon.com/Seeking-Wisdom-Heart-Reflections-Development/dp/1931847428/ref=sr_1_5/002-3181863-2324040?ie=UTF8amp;s=booksamp;qid=1174105636amp;sr=1-5" target="_blank"Seeking the Wisdom of the Heart: The Journey Doesn't End.

Here is an incredible story of a woman, from a Mexican-American migrant farm-working family; traveling from place to place, season to season, picking crops with her family until she was 19. From these roots, Beatriz Fereira becomes a lawyer defending the rights of those in circumstances from which she grew up. I started the interview by asking Beatriz to describe what it was like growing up as a migrant farmer. I apologize for the sound quality of the interview, the phone connection was not very good.

A Bah#225;'#237; who grew up in New York City; moved to CT after getting married and raised her two kids in New London, CT. She was instrumental in bringing the Institute for the Healing of Racism to New London as a member of the Multicultural Coalition of SE CT.

Brian is a professor of law at the Univ. of Nebraska. He is the author of two books: Rethinking Humanitarian Intervention: A Fresh Legal Approach Based on Fundamental Ethical Principles in International Law and World Religions; and Hope For a Global Ethic: Shared Principles in Religious Scripture.

Jeanine is an educator and is currently the co-administrator of the Green Acre Bah#225;'#237; Conference Center in Eliot, ME with her husband Jim. Together, when they were a young family with two pre-school children, they packed up their belongings and headed for South America. They eventually started a school inspired by the principles of the Bah#225;'#237; Faith called The School of Nations. They nurtured it for fifteen years, seeing the school mature and stand on its own.

A Bah#225;'#237; from South Hadley, MA, who is a professor at Mt. Holyoke College of History and African and African-American Studies. She is the author of two books: Social and Economic Development, A Bah#225;'#237; Approach; and Landed Obligation: The Practice of Power in Buganda. She recently took a sabbatical to do research on the history of Kampala.

A Bah#225;'#237; from Suffield, CT who is an actor by training. In the interview she describes how after meeting her husband they soon went to Ireland and when they returned they settled in Suffield, CT. Mary K. has been in plays with the Suffield Players as far back as 1983. She describes how she used her acting talent to help create and perform the two-woman production, Amazing Grace: Stories of Personal Transformation. I started the interview by asking Mary K. where she grew up and what was it like growing up there.

A Bah#225;'#237; couple from the Midwest, who, after their nest of children was emptied, decided to hit the road in service to communities throughout the US; promoting the principles of the Bah#225;'#237; Faith; primarily in the area of race unity.