Category Archives: nonviolence

Back to Basics: Six Principles of Nonviolence

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While researching yesterday’s post on the peacebuilding conference scheduled for South Carolina next month, I came across this classic from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Special thanks to the Trinity Presbytery of South Carolina and its Peacemaking Committee.  (Trinity is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church, USA.)

To read about Dr. King’s 6 Steps of Nonviolence, click here.  If you’re interested in nonviolence and peacemaking, why not bookmark these links?

study and practice nonviolence

Random acts of kindness are fine, but a life of nonviolence requires study and practice.

Six Principles of Nonviolence

Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people.

  • It is active nonviolent resistance to evil.
  • It is assertive spiritually, mentally, and emotionally.
  • It is always persuading the opponent of the justice of your cause.

Nonviolence seeks to win friendship and understanding.

  • The end result of nonviolence is redemption and reconciliation.
  • The purpose of nonviolence is the creation of the Beloved Community.

Nonviolence seeks to defeat injustice, not people.

  • Nonviolence holds that evildoers are also victims.

Nonviolence holds that voluntary suffering can educate and transform.

  • Nonviolence willingly accepts the consequences of its acts.
  • Nonviolence accepts suffering without retaliation.
  • Nonviolence accepts violence if necessary, but will never inflict it.
  • Unearned suffering is redemptive and has tremendous educational and transforming possibilities.
  • Suffering can have the power to convert the enemy when reason fails.

Nonviolence chooses love instead of hate.

  • Nonviolence resists violence of the spirit as well as of the body.
  • Nonviolent love gives willingly, knowing that the return might be hostility.
  • Nonviolent love is active, not  passive.
  • Nonviolent love does not sink to the level of the hater.
  • Love for the enemy is how we demonstrate love for ourselves.
  • Love restores community and resists injustice.
  • Nonviolence recognizes the fact that all life is interrelated.

Nonviolence believes that the universe is on the side of justice.

  • The nonviolent resister has deep faith that justice will eventually win.

After long silence…back with a word from Alice Walker

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Friends of Fairnessworks, I apologize for my long absence from my own blog.  Absorbing and processing the rich experiences of the 3rd National Conference on Restorative Justice has left my mind buzzing and my heart full.  I promise to be back in the rhythm of regular postings very soon.

Native Georgia writer and activist Alice Walker

Alice Walker tells, "Why I'm Sailing to Gaza"

Thanks to Amy, a friend from my past, I heard about writer Alice Walker’s first-person piece on cnn.com about her planned trip to Gaza, as a participant in Freedom Flotilla II.  I agree with my friend that this is a good fit for Fairnessworks, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to you.

Strength in numbers: a case for more I.T. to bolster Restorative Justice

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On Tuesday, June 7, advocates of a restorative approach to criminal justice will begin arriving in Raleigh, NC, for the 3rd National Conference on Restorative Justice (RJ).   Speakers from around the world will bring their perspectives.

Fairnessworks.com is honored to be working with United Community Builders, a loose consortium of restorative justice practitioners, trainers, journalists and a systems analyst to present a case for strengthening the RJ community through wider user of information technology (I.T.).   Deb Galerneau-Scanlon will tackle these issues in a proposal for a new RJ360 Initiative.

It’s often said that information is power.  The creator of this Power Point presentation – The Business of RJ- the RJ360 Initiative — adds that actionable information leads to knowledge, and intelligently analyzed information leads to wisdom.

The full program for the three-day conference is available at www.restorativejusticenow.org

 

Data circles for an I.T. approach to Restorative Justice

Deb Galerneau-Scanlon's concentric circle concept for the use of hard numbers in R.J.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Healing Power of Storytelling in Sudan: Another Gem from Odyssey Networks

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Milcah Lalam is a peace building development specialist who serves in war-torn countries, focusing on the devastating trauma of war. She specializes in helping victims of rape and abuse, women, children and the many people who are displaced by endless war in their homelands.

In her work with RECONCILE International (Resource Centre for Civil Leadership), she helps survivors of a wide range of war-related trauma work toward healing through the process of storytelling, whether through words, drama or visual arts. Listen as she describes an example of reconciliation and the reunification of a family, even after the attempted murder of a husband by his enraged wife.

http://www.kaltura.com/index.php/kwidget/wid/0_nkrnen0f/uiconf_id/48501

Click here to subscribe to Odyssey Networks, a multi-faith media coalition.

Wise Words from Men to Men

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Men Stopping Violence is a strong presence here in the Atlanta, GA, area.  They’re all about accountability and responsibility, and their programs draw on the higher instincts in men to end violence and abuse of women.  Chapter of MSV are all over the world.
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Men Stopping Violence is not a “bumper sticker” organization.  They’re not about “lock ‘em up and throw away they key.”  They are not afraid to do the hard work of helping men of all ages look deep into themselves for their own reasons for committing violence against women.  It’s painful, courageous work.  It’s a lot harder than simply putting offenders in orange jumpsuits and warehousing them in jails.

Sometimes the first step to making peace is simply not committing violence.  Sometimes that first step is not so simple.  Training and peer support helps immensely.  It’s about creating a culture of care.

preventing domestic violence and violence againsst women through peer counseling and support

Men Stopping Violence worldwide offers training and counseling to prevent violence against women.

Men Stopping Violence worldwide is an indispensable resource in addressing the causes of violence, looking first within to the hidden justifications for the abuse and humiliating treatment of women.

“Bully” Helps Middle Schoolers Confront School Violence

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Matthew Kuehlhorn

You might not think of a middle school counselor as a “seat-of-the-pants peacemaker.”  If your child is facing daily bullying, you might see him in a different light.  If your child is withdrawing from life, suddenly uncommunicative, maybe you think about talking to the school administration.  If you are lucky, you will find someone like Matthew Kuehlhorn.

Matthew Kuehlhorn is a Colorado middle school counselor who is passionate about helping create a community of care in schools.  He is exploring ways of implementing Restorative Justice methods in his workplace — your child’s school.  At my invitation, he submitted the following.  Recent postings in fairnessworks.p1r8.net have featured examples of programs which implement restorative, peacemaking methods.  Matthew’s efforts are a timely example of what an individual can do to help create peace.

Matthew is passionate about a graphic novel entitled, Bully.  I hope you will check this out and find ways to implement his peacemaking passions into your own local school.

Bully is an educational illustrated novel.

An illustrated novel

The book is designed to “Ignite the Voice Within” classroom, as he terms it.  Bully is an illustrated novel that teaches relationship building skills and introduces restorative justice practices and theory.

Bully is an amazing story where characters talk directly to middle school readers. The story is emotionally charged and very real for students in today’s classrooms.

After speaking with an educator who used this book in individual sessions, Matthew says, she remarked:

“I have had readers tell me that they have not finished a book in five years. They love this book and have a high interest in finishing it. The book offers great conversation topics which can affect student behavior in our school–for the better!”

Students report this book being like “real life” and the feedback has been amazing.

Bully is 130 pages, which are broken into five sections with “Ignite Now” lessons offered.  Lessons teach:  how to listen, how to tell our story so it gets heard, how to feel empathy, and the book concludes with introducing talking circles and restorative justice.

The book is authored by Teresa Milbrodt, a published short story author and Creative Writing Professor at Western State College of Colorado.  Compelling illustrations were created by Nathan Kubes, a freelance artist, also in Gunnison, CO.

What other people say about Bully:

“I had students, who had not finished a book in years, unable to put this book down.”
Middle School English Teacher

“This is like Real Life”
7th Grade Student

“I recommend this book for students, parents, teachers, counselors, administrators and those people interested in education.”
Dr. Tom Cavanagh

Dr. Tom Cavanagh

 

Dr. Cavanagh, whose current focus is on creating a “Culture of Care” in schools,  has published a review of Bully which can be viewed at:

http://restorativepracticesinschools.blogspot.com/2010/11/new-book-addresses-bullying.html

If you are a school teacher or counselor, and have ideas about reaching the potential peacemakers in your local community, please share your comments below.  I’d suggest this mental exercise:  what Google searches would your students’ parents enter to find help for their concerns troubled teens?

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Tomorrow’s National Day of Silence Highlights Bullying of LGBT People

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On Friday, April 15, students across the U.S. will engage in a nonviolent, peaceful protest against the daily abuse LGBT people endure year-round in silence.

On the National Day of Silence hundreds of thousands of students nationwide take a vow of silence to bring attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment in their schools.