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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Home News Latest Stories Building + cooking + eating = learning Universal Rites Tattoo Food Project picks up green bags Saturday Ashland Outdoor Store founder, 62, dies suddenly 10 things to know for Tuesday Education Building + cooking + eating = learning Students to 'Read More For Jack Dorr' Budget committee members needed Fighting back against hackers SOU wants its students to love Ashland Environment Fires and forests evolved together, but now people are in the mix Marijuana growers are threat to salmon, biologists conclude Annual tour shows how to live green Taking action here, now on global climate change Garden serves up a feast fit for monarchs Business Universal Rites Tattoo Greg Zyla: 1959 430 V-8 Thunderbird owner seeks information Silvio Calabi: Nissan’s Taxi of Tomorrow Ashland Home Center Lashland Politics and elections Videos of local candidate forums airing now on TV Election officials fine Richardson for late reporting of rent-free home Sheriff a no-show at Ashland Chamber forum New script for film ordinance sent back to rewrite November elections right around the corner State News Nation - World Obituaries Evelyn Frank Death Notices Linda M. Brodie Johanna Fisher Death Notices Sports Latest Stories SOU volleyball team up to No. 11 SOU offense looks to catch up with defense in final home stand No. 11 SOU heads to Klamath Falls with eyes on first place Raiders up to No. 5 in NAIA poll Pac-12 favorites now looking up after slide down poll High school SOU volleyball team up to No. 11 Grizzlies keep rolling in MWL opener Pitcher Guthrie's donation boosts new field fund State of Jefferson meet coming Grizzlies rough up Eagles for fourth win in a row Southern Oregon University SOU volleyball team up to No. 11 SOU offense looks to catch up with defense in final home stand No. 11 SOU heads to Klamath Falls with eyes on first place Raiders up to No. 5 in NAIA poll Pac-12 favorites now looking up after slide down poll Opinion Latest Stories Granlund cartoon: Border signs Granlund cartoon: CDC Ebola updates Kent Bush: Bubble Boy meets Forrest Gump Our View: Great public effort makes for great public space Letters to the Editor, Oct. 7 Editorial Our View: Great public effort makes for great public space Our View: Our View SOU control shifts downstate Our view: SOU reaches out to downtown Homecoming changes with the times Letters Letters to the Editor, Oct. 7 Letters to the Editor, Oct. 6 Letters to the Editor, Oct. 3 Letters to the Editor, Oct. 2 Letters to the Editor, Oct. 1 Guest opinions Herb Rothschild: Peace begins at the table City still ignores Plaza suggestions Us versus them Remembering a very prominent local lady Remembering a simpler time in Ashland Revels Latest Stories Best Bets: Oct. 2-9 Ashland's First Friday Art Walk Rogue Valley Symphony opens its 2014-15 season Community blog: Local poets celebrate with a reading and a chapbook Listings for Varsity Theatre and Ashland Street Cinemas Theater Camelot Theatre presents 'Spotlight on Johnny Mercer' Southern Oregon hosts its Lunacy Theatre Festival Friends of Jim Giancarlo remember Ashland theater icon Freud v. 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Oregon Cabaret's new owners are wife-husband team ... Herb Rothschild: Peace begins at the table ... Our View: Great public effort makes for great public space ... Oregon Cabaret's new owners are wife-husband team ... Herb Rothschild: Peace begins at the table ... RELOCATIONS Herb Rothschild: Peace begins at the table DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Oct. 4, 2014 @ 12:01 am Posted Oct. 4, 2014 @ 12:01 am » Social News The first TV cooking show I can remember featured Lena Richards, an African American woman who owned Lena Richard’s Gumbo Shop in New Orleans. The show seemed completely removed from the pervasive racism of the society in which I grew up. Only now does it occur to me that Ms. Richards was the only black person to make regular appearances on our local TV back then. I guess our devotion to food trumped everything, even our bigotry. When the Food Network started on cable TV in 1993, I enjoyed watching its programs. The format was simple: One or two people would talk to us as they prepared a meal. The shows were instructive, but equally important, they were friendly. I liked being in the kitchen with Rachael Ray or Ina Garten or Mario Batali. I wanted to sit down with them after the show and get to know them over the food they had prepared. Such civility couldn’t last. Starting with “Iron Chef,” the kitchen has become a battlefield or, to use the title of a show that debuted last year, “Cutthroat Kitchen.” People are pitted against each other and subjected to harsh criticism. Losers are interviewed after being “chopped.” Americans’ ability to turn just about anything into belligerence seems boundless. We’ve had “Bride Wars,” “Parking Wars,” “Shipping Wars,” “Storage Wars,” “Whale Wars.” But “Cupcake Wars”? Gimme a break. Does this inclination induce our nation to go to war with abnormal frequency, or do our incessant wars validate and exaggerate what would otherwise be a normal amount of psychic aggression? On the fundamental question of how attitude and behavior are related, I hold that behavior shapes attitude more than vice versa. We are malleable beings, and quickly adapt to our cultural situations. Certainly in practice it’s easier to change a culture than to convince individuals who must function within it to change their attitudes. If the end of legal segregation in the land of my birth had depended on a widespread change of heart by white Southerners, there’d still be separate drinking fountains. Racism remains, but I doubt if the Old Confederacy would vote to reinstate Jim Crow. You can’t win national championships now with whites-only football teams. We must de-militarize our foreign policy before we can de-militarize our national psyche. In part that change may come because war isn’t working for us any more. But it also will require creating sub-cultures of peace in which individuals experience the joy of sharing and mutual fulfillment. What better place to begin than at the dinner table? Historically and trans-culturally, the meal has been the occasion for experiencing community. In early Christian practice, the meal was central. “They knew him in the breaking of the bread.” But we must enlarge our dinner tables, figuratively if not literally. A major way that Jesus offended the religious establishment of his time was to keep an open table, one at which outsiders were welcome. That seemed to be his way of modeling the “Kingdom,” a cultural space in which the Beloved Community forms. Peace House spends a lot of its energy opposing U.S. militarism. It also hosts a community meal every Tuesday called Uncle Foods Diner to which all Ashland, especially its poorest residents, are invited. When I first connected with Peace House, I didn’t understand why a social change organization was running what seemed to be a social service project. I finally understood. Such a meal is social change. Maybe we can get it on the Food Network. Herb Rothschild Jr. is chairman of the board of Peace House, an Ashland-based nonprofit group promoting  public advocacy, nonviolence and cooperation among similar organizations.             DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Oct. 4, 2014 @ 12:01 am » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. calendar Connect with DailyTidings.com Facebook Twitter RSS Back to top Reader Services Reader Services home Subscriptions Subscriber controls Contact us Submissions Photos Events Letters to the editor Corrections Alerts Email alerts RSS feeds Text Alerts Advertise Media Kit Home Products and services Ad rates Advertising contacts Mail Tribune Daily Tidings The Nickel Shop Our Valley Blogs Stay Informed Email newsletter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. 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