Creating
a Culture of Peace
by
Jeremy Corey-Gruenes
Late last October, I spent two days
cloistered in the Episcopal Church in
Albert Lea
with 15 others crazy enough to believe that Creating
a Culture of Peace is possible. Led
by two trainers from the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), we experienced
FOR’s Active Nonviolence for Personal and Social Change training.
The Fellowship of Reconciliation is an interfaith and
international movement with branches in over 40 countries.
FOR members include Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, people of other
faith traditions, and many who claim no religion.
Susan Moore, a fellow member of Paths to Peace, had taken part in FOR’s
Active Nonviolence training a year earlier in Circle Pines.
Last summer she suggested that we contact FOR to set up training in our
community. Susan described the
training as “transforming”, and I was immediately intrigued.
The training began with a wonderful breakfast followed by some sharing of hopes
and fears about the weekend. We also
called upon peaceful spirits of the past and present to be with us that
day—Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Paul Wellstone, and others. We
later attempted to actually define violence, first verbally and then by
responding to hypothetical situations and placing these on a “continuum of
violence”.
After that exercise we could all agree that a physical assault in any form is
violent, and most of us agreed that business practices that promote
discrimination or pollute the environment could also be considered acts of
violence. But other situations were
not so easy to pin down.
For example, is refusing to speak with a difficult co-worker an act of violence?
Is it violent to label
political leaders and others currently at-odds with the peace movement as hopelessly lost, idiotic,
or evil?
When do thoughts, assumptions, words, and tone reach the level of
violence? And how can our own
passion for nonviolence actually become violent itself and thus unhelpful?
The questions we discussed—as well as the role playing, strategizing, problem
solving, and meditating we did throughout the weekend—proved very
enlightening. I learned that most of the violence in my personal life is not
physical, but rather verbal, mental, and spiritual.
Moreover, this sort of “soft” violence can be as harmful and
debilitating as more extreme forms of physical violence, especially when left
unchecked.
Three additional lessons from the training have stuck with me.
The first is that the journey toward nonviolence can be a long and
difficult one, but we must keep our paths to peace in sight and attempt each day
to travel further down them. These
paths lead to many places but must begin within our own hearts and minds.
Secondly, we cannot underestimate the value of intergenerational relationships
when working toward peace. Our group
included 16 year olds who were just beginning their peacemaking journeys,
peacemakers in their seventies whose activism had called them to three
continents, and many others (like me) who fell somewhere in between. Together
we formed a very unique and nourishing group for such training.
Finally, the active part of
active nonviolence is extremely important. After
all this great training, what do we do?
Being a peaceful person means putting those beliefs into action, which
can mean risking much more than mere convenience
After experiencing FOR’s Active
Nonviolence for Personal and Social Change training, I agree wholeheartedly
with Susan. It was indeed
transforming. We hope to continue
bringing FOR facilitators to
Freeborn
County
and sharing this transforming experience with others.
For more information about FOR, nonviolence training or Paths to Peace,
visit our website at www.freebornpeace.org
or email us at info@freebornpeace.org.
Jeremy
Corey-Gruenes is a high school English teacher in
Albert Lea
and Co-Chair of Paths to Peace in
Freeborn
County
.
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