Who is the Nonviolent Peacemaking Group for?
Anyone interested in social justice issues.
When does the Nonviolent Peacemaking Group meet? What do they do?
The Nonviolent Peacemaking Group has been meeting for a little over 3 years. We focus on presenting events that will help people understand the importance of nonviolence and being involved in various liberation struggles. Over the years, our group has hosted benefits for Haiti; presentations concerning the Palestinian/Israeli conflict; reflections on Hiroshima & Nagasaki; and a yearly civil rights presentation for our teen & preteen youth in faith formation.
Upcoming Events
John Dear S.J., a long time peace activist, will speak at Newman Hall on Friday, February 17, at 7pm. Dear writes a weekly online column for the National Catholic Reporter and has authored many books. He will be talking about his newest book, Lazarus, Come Forth!: How Jesus confronts the culture of death and invites us into the new life of peace.
“The raising of Lazarus in John’s Gospel is one of the most dramatic and poignant episodes in scripture. While traditionally read as a story about friendship and faith, Dear shows through his extended meditations how it also summarizes the persistent theme of the Gospel. If Lazarus represents humanity, the story of his raising is about the God of Life confronting the power of death itself, calling humanity to walk out of its tomb—the culture of violence and war—and into the new life of resurrection peace.”
Future Events
On Tuesday, April 17, at 7pm, we will be showing the documentary Procedure 769, followed by a question and answer session with one of the witnesses, a writer on the subject, and the founding director of the Death Penalty Information Center. Procedure 769 is a powerful documentary film about the execution of Robert Alton Harris in 1992, the first person to be executed in California in 25 years. Although this is the story of a specific prisoner it has a much broader relevance to the general capital punishment issue. The dispassionate and even-handed approach to the material avoids the usual special pleading associated with such documentaries and therefore makes it more accessible for both supporters and opponents of capital punishment.
Contact
If you wish to be added to our email list to receive updates and reminders of our events please contact Kara Speltz at kara4peace@aol.com
Testimonials
“The Newman Nonviolent Peacemaking Group has helped me understand and appreciate the power of Jesus’ message of nonviolence. It has reinforced my conviction that all humans are created in God’s image and deserve dignity and respect. I enjoy going to each event because they are unique, informative, and give me hope that we can overcome our problems not with weapons but with words.”
Links
The National Religous Campaign Against Torture www.nrcat.org
The Catholic Campaign to End the Death Penalty http://www.usccbpublishing.org/client/client_pdfs/5-723DEATHBI.pdf
Quote of the Month
Ten Steps to a Nation of True Justice and Peace
By John Dear and Bill Quigley, in the National Catholic Reporter February 7 2012
http://ncronline.org/blogs/road-peace/10-steps-nation-true-justice-and-peace
One of the nation’s sharpest, clearest and brightest voices for justice and peace is Loyola University-New Orleans law professor Bill Quigley, who is also associate director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Besides teaching, Bill volunteers with the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) and the Bureau de Avocats Internationaux (BAI) in Port au Prince as well as with disenfranchised people in New Orleans and anti-war activists on trial, such as the recent Creech 14 trial in Las Vegas.
Recently, Bill published on CommonDreams.org an essay on what he considers to be the top 10 steps needed right now to move our nation toward true justice and peace. I found his list of urgent national priorities to be startling, provocative and right on target, especially when compared to the drivel of current presidential campaign talk. I thought they were worth sharing, in case readers hadn’t seen them. Here are his words and 10 national priorities:
One: Human rights must be taken absolutely seriously. Every single person is entitled to dignity and human rights. No application needed. No exclusions at all. This is our highest priority. (Credit: WagingNonviolence.org)
Two: We must radically reinvent contemporary democracy. Current systems are deeply corrupt and not responsive to the needs of people. Representatives chosen by money and influence govern by money and influence. This is unacceptable. Direct democracy by the people is now technologically possible and should be the rule. Communities must be protected whenever they advocate for self-determination, self-development and human rights. Dissent is essential to democracy; we pledge to help it flourish.
Three: Corporations are not people and are not entitled to human rights. Amend the U.S. Constitution so it is clear corporations do not have constitutional or human rights. We the people must cut them down to size and so democracy can regulate their size, scope and actions.
Four: Leave the rest of the world alone. Cut U.S. military spending by 75 percent and bring all troops outside the U.S. home now. Defense of the U.S. is a human right. Global offense and global police force by U.S. military are not. Eliminate all nuclear and chemical and biological weapons. Stop allowing scare tactics to build up the national security forces at home. Stop the myth that the U.S. is somehow special or exceptional and is entitled to act differently than all other nations. The U.S. must re-join the global family of nations as a respectful partner. The U.S. is one of many nations in the world. We must start acting like it.
Five: Property rights, privilege, and money-making are not as important as human rights. When current property and privilege arrangements are not just they must yield to the demands of human rights. Money-making can only be allowed when human rights are respected. Exploitation is unacceptable. There are national and global poverty lines. We must establish national and global excess lines so that people and businesses with extra houses, cars, luxuries, and incomes share much more to help everyone else be able to exercise their basic human rights to shelter, food, education and healthcare. If that disrupts current property, privilege and money-making, so be it.
Six: Defend our earth. Stop pollution, stop pipelines, stop new interstates, and stop destroying the land, sea, and air by extracting resources from them. Rebuild what we have destroyed. If corporations will not stop voluntarily, people must stop them. The very existence of life is at stake. We respect the human rights and human dignity of others and work for a world where love and wisdom and solidarity and respect prevail.
Seven: Dramatically expand public spaces and reverse the privatization of public services. Quality public education, health and safety for all must be provided by transparent accountable public systems. Starving the state is a recipe for destroying social and economic human rights for everyone but the rich.
Eight: Pull the criminal legal prison system up and out by its roots and start over. Cease the criminalization of drugs, immigrants, poor people and people of color. We are all entitled to be safe but the current system makes us less so and ruins millions of lives. Start over.
Nine: The U.S. was created based on two original crimes that must be confessed and made right. Reparations are owed to Native Americans because their land was stolen and they were uprooted and slaughtered. Reparations are owed to African Americans because they were kidnapped, enslaved and abused. The U.S. has profited widely from these injustices and must make amends.
Ten: Everyone who wants to work should have the right to work and earn a living wage. Any workers who want to organize and advocate for change in solidarity with others must be absolutely protected from recriminations from their employer and from their government.
We work for a world where love and wisdom and solidarity and respect prevail. We expect those for whom the current unjust system works just fine will object and oppose and accuse people seeking dramatic change of being divisive and worse. That is to be expected because that is what happens to all groups which work for serious social change. Despite that, people will continue to go forward with determination and purpose to bring about a radical revolution of values in the U.S.