Season for Nonviolence

Welcome to MAPs year-round Season for Nonviolence page. 

The Season for Nonviolence
January 30 through April 4.
Remembering, respectively, the deaths of
Mahatma Gandhi (Jan. 30, 1948) and Martin Luther King Jr (Apr. 4, 1968).

• More on the Season, globally at www.agnt.org.
• The Albert Einstein Institute has published "198 Methods of Nonviolent Action" (.pdf 53Kb).
• For a local thought on the Season and Martin Luther Kings comment on nonviolence, go to  www.mapm.org/presidentpage.htm.
• The items below, and MAP's calendar (click here), will publicize events and recommendations for and from people like you.
• If you have an idea to include here, send it to us at info@mapm.org, with SEASON FOR NONVIOLENCE in the Subject Line.

Events and Speakers

High School teachers can contact Mary or Vanessa at Women Against Military Madness at 612-826-5364 or wamm@mtn.org for speakers on foreign policy issues,nonviolent options for conducting conflict resolution among nations, analysis of the federal budget in regards to war and peace, and American media/journalism. WAMM also provides speakers to classroom and community groups on Conscientious Objection. See www.worldwidewamm.org for current educational forums featuring speakers from foreign countries who provide analysis and information. The WAMM office at 310 E 38th St #222, Minneapolis, MN 55409 has literature available about topical issues such as Conscientious Objection and alternative service to the military. Opt-Out forms can be found on-line. With membership each school receives 10 newsletters
per year.

For the Season of Nonviolence invite Frank Kroncke to speak. Sample topics:

1. Can a follower of Jesus be a “Good American”?
2. How must a ”citizen of conscience” act when the hierarchical Church falters?
3. “Resisting illegitimate authority”: Is America a Chosen Nation?
4. “Christian Americans” - Christians as interfaith worshippers and Americans as global citizens: an impossible dream?

Frank Kroncke served 14 months on a five year sentence at Sandstone FCI, Minnesota. He has a Masters in Theology from the University of San Francisco, and an “ABD” in Historical Studies from a joint doctoral program of UC, Berkeley and the Graduate Theological Union. He served at the Newman Center, UMn campus, and for four years directed a prison reform project for the American Friends Service Committee. After twenty-five years as a senior manager for small and medium size firms, Frank returned to Minnesota to promote “Peace Crimes.” The youngest of his two sons is still of draft age. See, www.minnesota8.net

Contact:  Frank Kroncke, 387 Pelham Boulevard #B, The Cottage, Saint Paul, MN 55104 cell: 651-895-0607 fkroncke@minnesota8.net

WAMM recommends the following resources:

• Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land (VHS, 80 minutes)by Media Education Foundation. U.S. media and the Israel-Palestine conflict. Footage and interviews in Israel and Palestine, plus actual media reports.
• Arlington West (32 minutes) Based on a symbolic cemetery for Iraq War Veterns with curriculum guide
• A Force More Powerful (VHS)Films for the Humanities and Science. People's successful nonviolent struggles for justice and peace.
• Life and Debt (VHS 86 minutes) by New Yorker. From the point of view of people of Jamacia, accompanied by music by Bob Marley, Ziggy Marley, and Peter Tosh. Demonstrates how World Bank and the International Monetary Fund affects people.
• Four Sisters for Peace The McDonald sisters are biological sisters who are also Catholic nuns who devote their lives to the peace movement. Produced by Southside Family School students and available at www.humanrightsandpeacestore.org. Appropriate for elementary and junior high as well.

Nonviolent Peace Force recently completed a training for trainers in nonviolent strategies in Thailand and Nairobi with another training scheduled for Colombia.  The Nonviolent Peace Force stationed in Sri Lanka is recognized as nonpartisan and reliable in protecting children from abduction as child soldiers.  A video/DVD, further describing the work of a nonviolent peace force, can be accessed at www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org.  Patricia A. Keefe is available as a speaker to senior high school students and adults and can be contacted at 612-871-0005 or pkeefe@nonviolentpeaceforce.org.

At Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Paul, there is a new outstanding exhibit on Race.  This is a world premiere.  When you go, give yourself plenty of time.  There is a lot to learn. www.smm.org for complete information.

Citizens for Global Solutions Minnesota Chapter speakers are available for high school teachers and students. This non-profit organization envisions a future in which countries work together to abolish war, protect rights and freedoms and solve the problems facing humanity that no country can solve alone. They work towards this vision by educating Americans about global interdependence, communicating to global concerns to public officials and developing proposals to create, reform and strengthen international institutions such as the UN.

Students, Teachers and Families are encouraged to attend the Third Thursday Global Issues Forum which  is a monthly presentation and discussion that aims to promote understanding and foster dialogue about global issues. CGS-MN brings in one or more expert presenters for each Forum, which in the past have covered topic such as United Nations reform, public transportation, migration and citizenship, Haiti, torture, and moral capitalism. The Forum is held the third Thursday of each month from 7:00-9:00pm at Hennepin Avenue Methodist Church in Minneapolis (at Lyndale and Hennepin, directions). Abundant parking in church parking lot, with main entrance off the parking lot. (Click here for an archive of past Forum programs.) All Third Thursday Global Issues Forum programs are free and open to the public. Click here for the current Forum schedule.

Become a member and you can be part of the Partners for Global Solutions Program - Every two months, Citizens for Global Solutions hosts a national conference call where an expert is interviewed on the issue that CGS is working on for that two-month period. Some CGS-MN members gather at a member's house for the call and for socializing afterward, while others participate in the call from home. It's a great opportunity for CGS members to get the latest news on the hottest global issues. By participating in the Partners program you join a network of activists around the country who are taking action in their local communities to build political will for positive multilateral US global engagement.

The Partners for Global Solutions Program is open to all CGS members. Click here to become a CGS member. For information on how to participate in the Partners program please send an email to Verlyn Smith, CGS-MN Board member: vosjh at aol.com.

Citizens for Global Solutions Minnesota highly recommends an outstanding classroom resource called An Affirmation of Human Oneness."

Call 651-429-9562 or e-mail president Joe Schwartzberg at schwa004@umn.edu a global solutions speaker for your school.

Molly Culligan, http://www.mollyculligan.com for many years has done a very inspirational one person play, RIPENINGS, by Meridel Lesueur .  She also does an inspirational reading of Martin Luther King's anti war speech.  She is interested in working with your organization.  Visit her website, above, for more information or email elyplace@umn.edu.

Look for, publicize, and thank individuals and businesses engaged in work for nonviolence.  For instance, one reader noticed in a local McDonald's restaurant  a newsletter on a "Ronald McDonald Anti-bullying program. 

Consider becoming a founding member of the U.S. Peace Memorial Foundation - a group whose goal is to fund a U.S. Peace Memorial in Washington D.C., a city with many monuments to War, but few if any to Peace.  www.uspeacememorial.org.  Several Minnesota individuals and organizations are already enrolled in this effort.   

Websites

Resources and Information for Season for Nonviolence: www.agnt.org

Mahatma Gandhi website: http://www.mkgandhi.org

Martin Luther King Jr website: http://www.thekingcenter.org

Martin Luther King Nobel Prize: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-or.html

Cecil Ramnirane invites you to visit his website on teaching peace and non-violence at www.cecilram.com.

Visit and consider joining the International Mayors for Peace organization, which is working to stop nuclear proliferation http://www.mayorsforpeace.org/english/campaign/2020vision.htm.  

Dick Bernard has a personal site focusing on peace at www.chez-nous.net/peace.html.

PRODUCTS

A Force More Powerful, a video illustrating nonviolent strategies for youth, can be purchased at www.humanrightsandpeacestore.org