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'Hope For Peace Day' Shares Vision

May 19 at EMU was set aside for hope.

Nearly 200 people celebrated "Hope for Peace Day," which brought 125 to campus to join Summer Peacebuilding Institute learners in Saturday workshops, forums, storytelling, youth activities, music, dance and fellowship -- organized by the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding.

Katherine Morgan, Staunton, Va., adds a symbol to the 'welcoming table' at the opening ceremony of 'Hope for Peace Day.'
Photo by Jim Bishop

An opening ceremony paired flowers with qualities symbolized, such as black-eyed Susans signifying justice; dahlias, eloquence.

Citing grass-roots peacebuilding successes, CJP faculty member Lisa Schirch said,"We keep getting asked, when can we go to higher levels?"

Security and Foreign Policy

The "3D Security Initiative" attempts that, Dr. Schirch said in a workshop titled "Influencing US Foreign Policy" – one among 16 learning activities offered that day. As director of the 3D public education project, Schirch lobbies for attaining security through three "D’s" of development, diplomacy and defense – a concept first adopted by Canada; later, the U.S.

Schirch finds politicians listen better to discussions of "security" than "peacebuilding," though the goals are interrelated.

"We are spending $11 million an hour in Iraq," where unemployment is 70 percent in some areas, said Schirch, who visited Iraq guided by former SPI students. 3D attempts to show that ending poverty would enhance security at less cost.

"It’s not that there’s not enough money in the world; it’s that the political will is not there," she says.

"We have to build relationships with a lot of people we disagree with,” added Schirch, who recently taught West Point cadets bound for Iraq. She found they resembled EMU students in motivation to sacrifice.

Schirch cited "Track 2 diplomacy" successes – such as parenting classes bringing Serbs and Croats together in Bosnia, and an Iranian former SPI student becoming an advisor to President Ahmadinejad. He suggested Ahmadinejad "talk to the Mennonites" – leading to a groundbreaking conference.

Asked if supporting democracy conflicts with pacifism, Schirch said "Democracy and freedom don’t arrive in a helicopter. They grow from the ground up." She added that both in Iraq and at home, "Whatever happens with the troop surge, we have a duty to promote humanitarian needs."

Hope for Eliminating War

At the conference’s opening, CJP co-director Ruth Zimmerman had cited the virtual elimination of slavery as engendering hope for eliminating war. Two workshops focused on dialogue between descendants of American slaves and slave-owners, following up on EMU’s widely-noted "Coming to the Table" conference of January 2006.

Facilitator Will Hairston, whose family owned a plantation near Danville, was shocked to read in college that Virginia’s largest slave-owner had been his ancestor. Later, he encountered seeds of reconciliation: The late singer, songwriter and actor Jester Hairston sought out Hairstons, black and white, while touring, and racially diverse Hairston reunions date to the 1970s.

A recent video shows Jefferson and Hemings family members at EMU’s 2006 conference. Since then, more families have begun constructing interracial bridges.

"When you discover another part of your family, there’s joy and excitement," Phoebe Kilby, CJP associate director of development, said during the workshop, where her classmates included James Kilby - one of 21 black students to enter Warren County High School when desegregation began in Virginia. "It was really rough," he recalls. After graduating in 1961, he worked as a White House mail messenger under Presidents Johnson and Nixon.

A recent genealogy search led Phoebe Kilby to meet James Kilby and his sister. Both families have ties to Rappahannock County, said Phoebe Kilby (who is white), although "We still have a lot of research to do."

Phoebe Kilby, development officer for the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU, welcomes Father Boniface Turyahiko from Uganda to 'Hope for Peace Day.'
Photo by Jim Bishop

Elaine Zook-Barge, of CJP’s STAR (Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Recovery), said societies cannot simply "get over" historic trauma without facing it honestly.

'The martial art of pacifists'

Meanwhile, workshop facilitator Phil Easley called Aikido -- dating to 1920s Japan – "the martial art of pacifists."

Easley had a student feign punching him in the chest. Taking hold of her wrist, he comfortably turned them both to stand side by side.

Aikido movements are relaxed, Easley explained while leading stretches. He showed learners how to throw him on a mat after he simulated attacking them.

"A very basic Aikido principle is to blend with the attacker – you redirect all that energy," said Easley. Applying the principle to peacebuilding, he explained, "When pushed, turn. It’s about being centered."

Chris Edwards is a free-lance writer living in Harrisonburg.

— article by: Chris Edwards; posted May 25, 2007