People Will Do Just About Anything To Be Free. In the 19th century, American slaves risked their lives in swamps and darkness, and at least one slave mailed himself to the North in a box so he could be free. During the years that the Berlin Wall stood as a symbol of oppression and separation, men and women developed strategies for getting past the machine guns and guards, to a new life. They didn't always succeed, but the potential reward made it worth the risk.
In this issue, Peter Ackerman, chair of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, talks about strategies that freedom-seekers are using today and tells how he is praying for all people to be free. Other thinkers from around the world also offer their thoughts and prayers.
More than a century ago, the founder of this magazine witnessed the effects of slavery and the American Civil War. She also knew firsthand the oppression of sickness and disability, and the effects of slavery to wrongdoing. The compassion this aroused in her made Mary Baker Eddy's whole life a response to the human cry for freedom. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, a book that unlocks the doors of oppression, she wrote, "Citizens of the world, accept the 'glorious liberty of the children of God,' and be free!"1
