John Dear Reflection

Previous to this year, I had no idea who John Dear was, nor how he took a stand in history for human rights and nonviolence. The day it was brought to my attention was when my teacher showed me a list of influential people I could change my topic to. She had connections with some of the people on the list, and told me about him. I was convinced and started researching John Dear, an American Catholic priest with a great mind of ideas that could never be silenced.
First, I searched for websites dedicated to John Dear with primary sources and pictures. Unfortunately, there were only a few, like FatherJohnDear.org, John Dear’s website, and Paceebene.org, a website with updates and posts from Campaign Nonviolence, a peace organization that Dear is part of. With these, I found Dear’s speeches, sermons, books, and pictures, which showed me how he stood up at places like Standing Rock against the Dakota Access Pipeline, and at Washington D.C against capital punishment. Dear was also kind enough to let me interview him for more information towards the project. The interview gave me valuable insight on how Dear viewed his own personal impact and purpose for living. For notes, I typed quotes and information about Dear that would be good to know later. Receiving emails from Father Dear was crucial to my project. They

Dear has stood up by protesting, writing, and presenting to thousands of people. Despite being arrested over 75 times, he has refused to be deterred. He has brought attention to important subjects like the death penalty, nuclear war, and defeating violence. Thanks to him, people are more aware of these issues and are willing to join groups, such as Campaign Nonviolence, to take action. John Dear is extremely important in history, and I feel that people deserve to know and learn about all he has done to shape the modern world into a caring, nonviolent, and an overall brighter place to