by | January 24, 2010

What we should have learned from Martin Luther King Jr.

On Monday we celebrated Martin Luther King Jr.’s Day. News articles, columns, opinion letters and blogs were published about the legacy of Martin Luther King. Institutions and individuals organized discussions, panels, concerts and other events to celebrate his achievements.  We appreciated what he did for our society. We talked about what he did during his life, but what about the things we do for peacemaking in our lives? We don’t seem to have learned Martin Luther King’s lessons yet.

Numerous times Martin Luther King spoke about the importance and power of education. If we don’t know an issue exists, how can we solve it? How can we help establish peace if we don’t know what caused the war? Many people know that there are conflicts in Darfur, Cabinda, Palestine and Israel, Chechen… Some might know that there are civil wars in small, almost forgotten, countries. But how many of us know what exactly caused these rebellions, civil wars, international conflicts and other acts of violence? How many of us care to learn?

Another important lesson Martin Luther King tried to teach us was to use nonviolent actions to achieve peace. Did we learn his lesson? NO! We try to establish peace with violence. We try to stop violence with more violence. Does it work? Obviously it doesn’t, since there are many active wars and conflicts today.

Martin Luther King tried to teach us to be tolerant toward each other. He stated that race, nationality, skin color, socioeconomic status and education level should not matter in our interactions with others. Did we learn this lesson? NO! We still tend to base our opinions about others on stereotypes and uneducated judgments. How many of us avoid interactions with people who differ from us? How many of us don’t respect people who differ from us?

Tough questions that we might not want to answer. Questions that might make us uncomfortable. But we should be honest with ourselves. Hopefully next year, when we celebrate Martin Luther King’s legacy, we will also celebrate our achievements: being educated and tolerant idividuals who are devoted to nonviolence and peacemaking.

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by | January 18, 2010

Get to know us: Patrick Kennelly

It is about time to get to know us. Every Monday we will introduce someone: an employee, a professor, a student, a Milwaukee resident. Every Monday we will introduce someone who is devoted to peacemaking and nonviolence. Today we will get to know Patrick Kennelly, Associate Director for the Center for Peacemaking.

Briefly introduce yourself.

Happy New Year! I am Patrick Kennelly, the associate director for the Center for Peacemaking. I graduated from Marquette University and have previously taught high school. I am involved in the Catholic Worker Movement, the Iraqi Student Project, and other peace initiatives.

What exactly do you do for the Center for Peacemaking?

My primary responsibilities are helping facilitate student programs. I co-coordinate the veteran re-entry program and help implement nonviolence in the Milwaukee Public Schools.

Why did you get involved with peace and nonviolence?

My roots as a peacemaker began with my upbringing and the value in the dignity of human life. My choice of nonviolence comes from my ability to think as a logical and rational being. I choose to be nonviolent because it makes sense. Consider for a moment the scene in which a child slaps another child. The parent then slaps the child saying “Don’t hit.” The child does not learn not to hit but rather learns not to use violence when the parent is around. A more effective parenting approach would be to model not hitting. Similarly, if I am working for peace I would not use violence because it contradicts the peace I am trying to achieve. I use nonviolence because it demonstrates in word and action to others that peace is based on respect not humiliation and submission.

What is the greatest challenge for achieving peace nowadays?

The greatest challenge for achieving peace is ignorance. We live in a society that longs for peace, yet few people study peace. Our society sets peace as a goal but often on the micro and macro level we use tactics that encounter violence. We often try to achieve peace through the use of violence, fear and intimidation. We humiliate individuals we hope to live in respectful co-existence with. We must rethink our way of interacting directly and indirectly with others.

What can common people do to achieve peace? We all believe that only people with power such as politicians can help with peace. What about us?

People can get educated. Study nonviolent movements and practice noncooperation with individuals and organizations that promote or use violence to achieve their goals.

What do you hope people take away from our events?

I hope people catch the courage to be peacemakers themselves. I hope that they are willing to stand behind their values and incorporate peacemaking into their daily lives by engaging in actions that work for the common good of all people.

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by | January 11, 2010

What to expect from us in 2010

Happy New Year! Let 2010 be peaceful!

We are excited to share with you all the great things we have planned for the first part of the year.

  

We will start 2010 with a 2-week Nonviolence Media Exhibit starting on January 25 in AMU. The very next day is the Peacemaker of the Year presentation at 4 p.m. in Cudahy 001. On February 2 is the Szymczak Peacemaking Fellows Presentation at 7 p.m. in AMU 252. Students will present their projects that put nonviolence into action. On March 4 at 4 p.m. at Cudahy 001 is the Faculty Symposium with Dr. Franco Trivigno. April will be busy and exciting. We have the honor to welcome Nomfundo Walaza as the Peacemaker in Residence. Walaza is the director of the Desmond Tutu Peace Center in Cape Town, South Africa. She will stay at Marquette from April 7 to April 10. She will share her experience and views on peace and nonviolence in an open presentation on April 8 at 7 p.m. in Cudahy 001. An interdisciplinary faculty panel on Motherhood and Peacemaking and (M)other, one woman play, will stir the spirits on April 15 from 5:30 p.m. in the Wasler Auditorium. Individuals, who have devoted their lives and efforts to peacemaking will be recognized at the Center for Peacemaking Awards Ceremony on April 25 at 5 p.m. in AMU 252. We will finish the semester with our nonviolent study groups and the departure of the Israel-Palestine Group on May 15. Don’t forget our Undergraduate Nonviolent Study Group meets the second and fourth Wednesday of every month at 7 p.m. at the center and the Graduate Student Faculty Nonviolent Study Group meets the first and third Thursday of the month (check schedule for locations). Check our calendar for more events and application deadlines.

This year we are committed to making communication with us as easy as possible.

We have a new and easy to navigate Web site that provides news and information about events and programs. It also has links to helpful resources.

You can sign up for our bimonthly newsletter.

You can follow us on Twitter  for quick updates and words of wisdom.

You can become our fan on Facebook to know everything about our events and see pictures from them.

You can check out our pictures on Flickr.

Of course, you can read this blog, which we promise to update every week, and share your thoughts and opinions.

We have plans for Pecha Kucha presentations, but more information on that later.

Of course, you can also reach us the old-fashioned way: via e-mail at peacemaking@mu.edu and phone at 414 - 288 -8444.

So get in touch! Share your ideas, thoughts, opinions, suggestions and concerns! Ask questions!  Become part of our peacemaking and nonviolence community!

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by | January 10, 2010

Violence in Cabinda

Cabinda rebels for independence attacked Togo’s football team on its way to the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola on Friday. Three people were killed and nine were wounded. The Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC), responsible for the terrorist attack, threatened that “This operation is only the start of a series of targeted actions that will continue in all the territory of Cabinda.” FLEC has fought for independence for a few decades.

Although we respect people’s right to independence, we condemn violence of any sort as a means to freedom. Violence doesn’t solve anything. The people who were killed and wounded weren’t responsible for the condition of Cabinda. The families of the Togo’s football team members didn’t have to suffer for something they had no power to change. Violence only causes more violence. With so many people already dying in Africa because of famine, diseases, water pollution, and genocides, why do FLEC members think that terrorist attacks can solve their problems? Why do FLEC members think that killing innocent people is justified?

We pray for Togo’s football team and the families of its members. We pray for Cabinda and its people. We pray for FLEC to remembers the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., the 14th Dalai Lama and all others who have tried to make the world a better place through nonviolent ideas and movements.

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by | November 12, 2009

Reflection on Pledge2Protect Anti-Genocide Conference

This post is written by Center for Peacemaking staff member Liz LaJeunesse.

This past weekend I ventured to Washington, DC to attend a conference called Pledge2Protect. It was a genocide prevention conference held by the Genocide Intervention Network and their student-lead organization called S.T.A.N.D., and sponsored by genocide education and advocacy groups such as The Enough Project and the Save Darfur Coalition. www.standnow.org

As president of Marquette’s Darfur Action coalition (DAC), which happens to be virtually nonexistent on campus for a few troubling reasons, I found it imperative to go to this conference for up-to-date news on areas facing genocide and for innovative ways to recruit members and hold enticing, productive events. DAC’s Vice President, Lexi Newell, and a member, Nadreen Bagoun, accompanied me on this trip.  I should add that I’d like to thank MU Student Government for financing this trip, because it would never have been possible without their Student Organization Allocation committee.

When going into this experience, I knew the conference would be primarily focused on political and Congressional action. And I embraced this, knowing that DAC was lacking in taking political initiatives to end and prevent future genocide. However, at the end of the conference, it was clearer than ever to me that the political movement, however important it may be to the cause, was not my place in the anti-genocide movement.

I see the great impact that political action can have in preventing future genocides. And so I am happy for all the young constituents who gathered in DC and lobbied for Congressional action to prevent genocide. For me, however, serious moral issues kept me from lobbying. The main issue: I do not want military action to be a factor in genocide prevention. It took some extra research, a deep ethical discussion with friends, and a near sleepless night for me to realize that the organization I was intending to lobby in behalf of did, in fact, call for military action when “all peacekeeping efforts have proven to be exhausted”.

Let me make it clear why this statement disturbs me. When can peacekeeping efforts ever be exhausted? The way I see it is this: violent military action has been conducted for thousands of years to “create peace” and it obviously isn’t working. So, wouldn’t it make sense to say these actions are much more exhausted than the less commonly used method of peacemaking, which is proven to create a longer lasting peace and happier solution for all?

Peacemaking is always the answer. Violence is never successful. It makes no sense to fight and kill in order to create peace. Peacemaking may take longer and requires more intellectuality, but its outcome is a longer lasting peace and a clear conscience. It is as simple as this: hate generates hate. If we hate and kill the people responsible for genocide, we make it easier for us to be hated. If we love the perpetrators and work for a peaceful end to their fighting and just consequences of their actions, then we leave no room for others to hate us for our response.

This conference opened up my eyes to the injustices we may be creating when taking military and political action. I am very grateful for the knowledge I gained about politics, both good and bad, from this experience, but for now, my action in this movement will be focused toward humanitarian aid and relief. I hope that with more experience and further studying of political responses to genocide, I can come up with action that I can fully and ethically support. And until then, I will continue to spend my time working for peace and relieving the victims of genocide.

I want to add another special thanks to the people at the Center for Peacemaking who are always there to listen to my ethical dilemmas and to add their words of wisdom, especially Fr. Simom, Lexi , and Nadreen. You guys are amazing and I’d be pretty lost without you.

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by | October 17, 2009

Exploring the power of nonviolence conference a big success

Over the past weekend, over 350 people came to Marquette to participate in the Peace and Justice Studies Association Conference hosted by the Marquette University Center for Peacemaking.

Marquette Tribune writer Marie Gentile covered the conference:

National peace convention hosted on campus

Conference attendees enjoyed addresses from Sr. Helen Prejean, Jonathan Schell, and Will Allen.

Videos of some of the speakers at the conference will be posted on the Center for Peacemaking website soon.

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by | October 14, 2009

Prejean receives honorary degree

Sr. Helen Prejean received an honorary theological studies degree from Marquette on October 8th, 2009. Marquette Tibune writer Glenn Oviatt covered Prejean’s address to the Marquette community and sat down with Prejean in a one on one interview. Read his two stories at the links below.

Prejean speaks on acceptance, forgiveness

Prejean sits down for a Q & A

The video of Prejean’s address will be posted on the Center for Peacemaking website soon.

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