Our general vision of this project is to sponsor a series of events that would:

• Demonstrate the necessity of developing a mass nonviolent movement;
• Demonstrate the potential for the success of such a movement;

• Present the philosophy and principles of nonviolence, and explore ways to incorporate them into our lives, our community, our nation, and the world; and
• Inspire us to commit ourselves more fully to working toward a world where nonviolence prevails.

So far, a coordinating committee has been established and one organizing meeting was held in mid-March. At that meeting, we brainstormed about potential activities, selected several activities to pursue, and assigned various committee members to research the feasibility of those activities selected. Here are just a few of the ideas we are considering:

• Sponsoring a lecture and or workshop by Michael Nagler, author of “Is there No Other Way? The Search For a Nonviolent Future” and Chair of the U. C. Berkeley Peace and Conflict Studies Program;

• Working with the Buddhist Peace Fellowship to bring Thich Nhat Hahn or another prominent Buddhist peace activist to speak to our community. Nhat Hahn is a Vietnamese Buddhist Monk, who has well over a thirty-year history of peace activism and promotion of nonviolence;

• Presenting “A Force More Powerful”, a film series which highlights the efforts of people from six different countries, including India, Chile, and the Philippines, who chose to respond to the forces of oppression with nonviolence; and

• Sponsoring and supporting discussion groups on one or more books about nonviolence, including Michael Nagler’s book cited above; and

• Working with one or more of the local high school drama departments to present production(s) promoting nonviolence.

These are just a few of the ideas we are exploring. We are intending soon to reach out to other community organizations and churches to invite participation with us in this project. If you would like to get involved in any fashion, large or small, or would just like to know more about the project, please call Jim at 530 622-9549.
(Note: We have also purchased the film “Citizen King”- about Martin Luther King, Jr.’s struggles and causes beyond the civil rights movement-- King’s fight for economic justice and end to war. Our “library” is located at the Wilkinson Hupcey Bldg. 681 Main St. (the old Mid Town Mall) in the Community Health Library. Muriel Marvin has catalogued untold numbers of publications, audio and videotapes, and DVDs. These are available to check out free to the public. Trevor Thomas, one of the original Peace Community organizers and leaders, donated many of these books and tapes. We are greatly in need of a new volunteer to oversee and continue to update the list. These items are also in the El Dorado County Library’s catalogue.nt.

“If we are to reach real peace in this world,
we shall have to begin with the children.” Gandhi

Opening the morning news,
I stare into the face of a mother,
head wrapped against oppression,
cradling a child, blank saucers
gazing at her house of rubble.
Words on the page written in blood
by embedded apologists,
whose scrawls numb us to our own
terror, colored by alerts and warnings
of anything that moves. Yet, when we discover
the fox in our yard, intruder of our space,
we do not banish her, do not shoot to kill,
do not fight over boundary lines, last breath

going down. She is merely passing through, touching the soil with wings we know, wings that will fly us to the same heaven-foxes,
Iraqis, Americans all in the same grave, mothers leaning over to cover children with the same good-bye. Children know incongruities of say and do, inaction a silent voice of approval, animal sounds of truth in the disconnected line between parents and babies, strangers holding newborns squalling a broken cord. If we shall begin with the children, give them
mothers and fathers who teach them to weep for neighbors and distant people with names and faces of pain, parents who love them more than they love their country

Gandhi’s Way A Handbook of Conflict Resolution

Author, Marc Juergensmeyer, Sociology Professor at UC Santa Barbara.
Book available at local bookstores for $15.95.
Alice Henry will lead a discussion group. Please call Alice 622 2504. Your response will determine the meeting times and location.

“Too flawed to Fix” This film explores and exposes the irreparable flaws in the criminal justice system that have wrongfully convicted 13 people in Illinois and caused the governor to declare a moratorium on capital punishment in that state. The documentary puts before the people, not only of Illinois, but also throughout the nation, the stories of the injustices at the heart of the death penalty. Sunday, May 30th 4 pm at Cozmic Café.

Contact Ani 644 3733 to indicate your interest in
Compassionate Listening & Nonviolent Communication Workshop & Trainings. We will have a short session as soon as we are able to set up a date.

Why is this man in the White House?
The majority of Americans did not vote for him. Why is he there? And I tell you this morning that he's in the White House because God put him there for a time such as this."

- Lt Gen William Boykin, speaking of G. W. Bush,
New York Times, 17 October 2003

"God gave the savior to the German people.
We have faith, deep and unshakeable faith, that he was sent to us by God to save Germany."

Hermann Goering, speaking of Hitler

RICHARD BECKER ON THE A.N.S.W.E.R. TO VIOLENCE by Laurie Blazich

Richard Becker is an organizer for the A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Coalition. The Coalition is a major organizer of the worldwide peace and justice demonstrations.

Richard Becker began his talk in Placerville with the message that the March 20 worldwide marches for peace and justice were a “significant success.” “Given the globalization of wealth and power, the globalization of a peoples’ movement is an affirmation.”

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