INDIVISIBLE Lambertville NJ / New Hope PA

Category: Peace/peacebuilding

  • Examining Fear to Find the Path to Peace

    Contributed by Barbara Simmons.

    Anti-Semitism has increased more than 58% in the last two years in the United States and more than 85% in France. Have we been paying attention? We have at The Peace Center, the ADL and the Southern Poverty Law Center, where incidents are reported, but has the general public noticed this rise?

    The massacre of worshipers in the Tree of Life synagogue was our wake-up call for humanity. It seemed this gun massacre knocked the breath out of us much like the Sandy Hook massacre of children. It has to do with the sanctity of bearing witness to violence a place of worship, or in a school where children are to be nurtured.

    If we examine the fear behind the hatred, we can begin to address it. We have recently learned that Millennials in most states are not taught about the Holocaust in school.  How is it critical history such as this is given such a short chapter in text books? Without understanding our history, we are bound to repeat it.

    This is going to take a giant effort of working together and a group of synagogues and non-profits are doing just that. More than 700 people filled Beth El synagogue the week following the Tree of Life tragedy to identify ways of working in the following areas: Interfaith, Immigration, Gun Safety, and Anti-Semitism combined with Acts of Loving Kindness.  The outcomes of each of the groups working towards change can be found on The Peace Center’s website: www.thepeacecenter.org.

    Barbara Simmons is executive director of The Peace Center in Langhorne, Pennsylvania an organization working for community peace and social justice since 1982. The Peace Center aims to reduce violence and conflict in schools, homes and communities through a multi-cultural, community-based approach and further peace by understanding and managing conflict in the community, nation, and world.

  • Ten Commandments of the Peace Warrior: The necessity of finding inner peace

    Contributed by Barbara Simmons, Executive Director, The Peace Center.

    We are living in a dark time. We have not been here before. Other countries have lived through darker times including political violence, even genocide.  Nevertheless many of us feel as if we are fighting for the survival of democracy – and we are! Righteous rage can leave us emotionally and physically drained. We hurt for our planet and for humanity.

    We will suffer from burnout if we are not careful. If we are to be on the front lines we need to sustain ourselves. How do we address our own inner suffering and avoid feeling victimized?

    1. Don’t react; instead respond thoughtfully with the help of other groups working on similar issues. Don’t do it alone!

    2. Move beyond your fear to function from a place of love. Our cortisol levels are high due to stress, and stress comes from fear… of feeling helpless, that our leaders are not defending our democracy. We can’t address and solve the issues at hand with the same energy that created the problem.

    3. Courage is needed – move through your fear and be present for what needs to be done.

    4. Resilience: allow yourself to fall apart when the news is bad. Scream, yell, cry and grieve. Your emotions are necessary to your ability to be resilient. Get centered again and be the rock that is needed.

    5. Keep Hope Alive! The African American community has been doing this for 400 years… don’t confuse this with optimism. As Cornell West stated ‘we are a people of hope. Hope wrestles with despair – and generates energy to be courageous – to bear witness…to see what the end is going to be.

    6. Mentor young activists. Many are ready so give them the safe space to fall and get up, and be there with them.

    7. Rest is crucial. When you are exhausted, step back and let the next wave of activists step forward.

    8. Nurture the Light inside you & each other. We may not always see that light – and sometimes we can’t even see our own. It helps to envision it and feel it within you.

    9. NO ONE is born to hate. It gets ‘put in’ and gets calcified if they see no good model of compassion and empathy.

    10. Stay strong peace warriors. You are needed now more than ever. Lift one another up! Work on expanding our numbers with the unyielding power that comes from a place of love, hope and resilience.

    For just one day, talk about that which disturbs no one. And bring peace to your beautiful eyes.

    –Hafiz

  • Practicing Radical Hospitality

    Contributed by Rev. Susan Broadhurst Goodwin.

    My heart, like yours, has ached since November 2016. Values our nation stood for, particularly truth, human rights and protecting creation, have been cast aside while the raw sewage of greed, white supremacy, racism, sexism, xenophobia and homophobia coming from this president has been baked into policies that hurt people and spilled across our airwaves splattering all of us. As a progressive Christian minister in the United Church of Christ (UCC), I am horrified that #45 identifies as a Christian and profoundly shocked that evangelicals support this country’s most morally corrupt leader. My denomination’s slogan is: “No matter who you are, or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.” Like other followers of Abrahamic tradition, welcoming the stranger is integral to my faith tradition’s path to peace. Radical hospitality is the central message of the Gospel.

    Radical hospitality means that we care about one another. Jesus said: “Love one another as I have loved you.” We cannot love one another without respecting one another. To love one another fully, we must watch our words, speak our truth, and listen carefully. Radical hospitality calls us to build up families, communities and relationships; there is no room for taunts, jeers, and threats. While my faith calls me to be peace-filled, it does not encourage passivity. There can be no peace without justice and that means we understand the place of righteous anger: Jesus famously illustrated this by over-turning the tables of greedy money changers taking advantage of the poor in the Jerusalem Temple. Indivisible resisters understand righteous anger too.

    In the Book of Micah, we find these words: “Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God.” That is our privilege, our challenge, our mission, our path to peace. Justice, kindness and humility are of no interest to #45. Nevertheless we persist. Our path to peace is clear.

    Susan B. Goodwin is a member of ILNH. She graduated from Drew Theological School (M.Div, Summa Cum Laude) and was ordained in the UCC in 2004. She also holds a Master’s Degree in Politics & Public Policy from the Eagleton Institute at Rutgers University.  She has served churches in New Jersey and current teaches, writes and preaches in Bucks County and New Jersey.

  • A Human Approach to World Peace – The Dalai Lama

    The following is the closing from an essay by the Dalai Lama on the need for compassion and understanding that we are all part of the human family and the role of individuals, institutions and religions to work towards more peaceful co-existence. Read the full essay here.

    I have written the above lines

    To tell my constant feeling.

    Whenever I meet even a ‘foreigner’,

    I have always the same feeling:

    I am meeting another member of the human family.

    This attitude has deepened

    My affection and respect for all beings.

    May this natural wish be

    My small contribution to world peace.

    I pray for a more friendly,

    More caring, and more understanding

    Human family on this planet.

    To all who dislike suffering,

    Who cherish lasting happiness –

    This is my heartfelt appeal.

  • Get the Facts – Peace

    Contributed by Olga Vannucci.

    Just the Facts

    • Humans have been entirely at peace for 268 of the 3,400 years of recorded history, 8% of the time.  The U.S. has been at peace for 17 of its 240 years of existence, 7% of the time.
    • The world spends just $1 on conflict prevention for every $1,885 it spends on military budgets.  In the U.S., taxpayers provide almost $1 billion per year for military academies, and only about $40 million for the United States Institute of Peace—the only U.S. agency dedicated to conflict prevention and peacebuilding.
    • Yet investing early to prevent conflicts from escalating into violent crises is, on average, 60 times more cost effective than intervening once violence erupts.
    • Between 1990 and 2017, women constituted only 2% of mediators, 8% of negotiators, and 5% of witnesses and signatories in all major peace processes.  
    • Yet when women are included in peace processes, there is a 35% increase in the probability of an agreement lasting at least 15 years.

     

    Sources: The New York Times and https://freakonometrics.hypotheses.org/50473 and http://www.olympiafor.org/prevention_60_1_cost_effective.pdf and http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/peace-and-security/facts-and-figures