Theories "Just Peacemaking" much more than non-violence There is a compassionate rebel in everyone Healing the wounds Peacemakers Children can learn to be Peacemakers Local Peacemaker Makes a Difference The landmine issue Banning landmines: why the US won't sign the treaty Kids on the edge of a minefield |
|
|
Open Letter I N February, when the earth was still frozen here in Minnesota and the only birds perching on campus trees were large dark grackels, I invited a small group of journalism students to join me in producing an online collection of stories about peace. Our plan was to begin by collecting stories from speakers and dignitaries who came to the Peace Prize Forum held here at Augsburg. We would then move into the community, gathering stories from local Minnesota people who had survived war and made peace. It did not occur to us when we began this project that by the time we were ready to post our collection of stories on the web--by the time the earth was green and cardinals and robins were in our trees--we would be writing from a country that was at war. To spend the day writing about peace and then to go home to a television screen full of images of war has been difficult. I find that it has given me an insatiable desire to hear opera, to listen to the one entertainment in which even we stoic American journalists expect grown men and women to stand before us on a stage crying out in grief. Now, on Saturday afternoons, I turn off the news of war on my television and I listen to opera on the radio instead. On Sundays I slip CD's into my stereo and listen to Puccini. On Mondays as I drive to work, I drop cassette tapes into the player slot on my dashboard and hear sopranos echoing tenors, echoing violins. But during the week, when I walk from office to class, when I read what the journalism students are writing about peace, I realize there is no opera stage but the one we're working on. I understand the contralto humm riding just below our discussions is actually a moan coming from somewhere deep inside of me. This is when I would like to travel with friends who go from country to country dancing for world peace. It is when I understand Jody Williams simple message: ordinary attempts to bring about world peace could have extraordinary effects. About Our Stories Cristian Carlson writes with radical clarity about the feelings he experienced as he composed stories about four uncompromisingly peaceful sisters and a classroom full of children who understand the consequences of war.
Carrie Childers expresses her hope that writing about peace in a time of war will provide readers an inspiration for peace. Her stories tell about a local woman's efforts for neighborhood peace, a young man's survival of war, and a teacher's suggestions for teaching children to make peace.
Laurie Forner's brief memoir is a poetic testimonial to the peacemakers she writes about: an international peacemaker from Norway, a Twin Cities woman who carries peace with her on her travels to Guatemala, a woman who has experienced violence and war, and the people who offer hope through the Center for Victims of Torture.
In her letter to readers, Carriann Mikish speaks of the importance of changing the small corners of the world we inhabit. Her pieces in the 'zine preview a soon-to-be-released book full of the stories of Twin Cities peacemakers known as "compassionate rebels." She also talks to Joe Carter, a local performer who sings for peace, and Robert Kennedy Jr., who believes peacemakers need to pay attention to the earth.
Jennifer Rensenbrink's letter invites us to think about the importance of the words we use, and she tells us how writing stories about Jody Williams and Larry Rasmussen, and a trip to the School of the Americas made her consider carefully the meaning of such words as "just" and "impunity."
Dove Stamps
We invite you to write back to us, about any of the people featured here in our stories. The writers of this 'zine have established a discussion group where you can talk about issues of peace. To join, go to egroups.com and follow the instructions posted there. |
