Diamond, Stephen

Background on Steve Diamond

Steve Diamond found his activist calling fairly early in his life. While studying at Columbia University, he began working for the Liberation News Service, a newspaper group that served underground college communities and frequently dealt with topics relating to nonviolent activism. Though the paper was successful, its writing staff would ultimately fracture and split into two groups. Diamond’s group split of and bought the Ripley Farm in Montague where they formed a commune. While the paper they started there shut down following the ruin of their equipment during the first winter, the commune provided a place for people to share their ideas, writings, and philosophies with each other, completely free of the criticism they felt they might face from the outside world.

Eventually, though, more conflict, combined with the unexplained suicide of the group’s founder, Marshall Bloom, caused the end of the commune and Diamond went off to do his own work. He wrote a number of novels including Panama Red, which concerned the legalization of marijuana in the country, some short pieces concerning anti-nuke activist Sam Lovejoy, and What the Trees Said, a chronicle of the first year he and his friends spent on the commune. Diamond’s writings would reach and influence a wide array of people, many of whom he would go on to correspond with through letters and, eventually email, helping them to promote their own causes and giving advice on how to find solace despite the woes and troubles that frequent the world.

Diamond’s other great goal was his One Day of Peace initiative. Diamond hoped that he could convince the world to cease all violence and bloodshed and refrain from the use of weapons for one day, January 1st, 2000. Diamond dedicated several years of his life to this project, and while not all sovereign nations agreed to the idea, he received positive feedback from several groups and even a few world leaders who agreed to his plan. This would be the last great achievement of his life, for Diamond’s unhealthy lifestyle and the stresses he put himself through contributed to his early demise at the age of 59. Yet though his life was ended abruptly, Diamonds legacy of peace and brotherly love continues to inspire people as they seek their own visions of a better world.