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An article by Patricia Sempowich for the Ashland Daily Tidings (reprinted according to Creative Commons)

Among the eight sectors of the Peace Wheel that define the outreach of the Ashland Culture of Peace Commission (ACPC), education is key to developing a culture that promotes peace. Maria Montessori believed education is the most powerful and universal way to reconstruct society and said, “Averting war is the work of politicians; establishing peace is the work of education.”

Peace is a learned behavior. The process of learning to be peaceful is a path of discovery that never ends. Engagement with others in the community through caring, compassion and empathy provides an environment of trust in which peace education thrives.

Peace education promotes knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that create change. It encourages living in harmony with oneself, others and the natural world. The Ashland Culture of Peace Commission has joined a growing international movement of people and organizations who are bringing forward active peace-building programs.

The ACPC Peace Education Team consists of two educators, two mediation professionals and a filmmaker. We recently met with Patty Michiels, the Director of Instruction & Human Resources for the Ashland School District (ASD). We discovered that the ASD is dedicated to peace building through the use of MindUp, developed by the Hawn Foundation.

MindUP teaches social and emotional learning skills that link cognitive neuroscience, positive psychology and mindful awareness training utilizing a brain-centric approach. It is a research-based training program for educators and children. This program is composed of 15 lessons based in neuroscience. Students learn to self-regulate behavior and mindfully engage in focused concentration required for academic success (for more,go to thehawnfoundation.org).

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Where is peace education taking place?

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The MindUp curriculum supports social skills and emotional health through a framework known as Positive Behavior Support. PBS offers peace education tools that encourage listening and compassion and promote an environment of understanding. These tools, along with other strategies, teach students how to deal with difficult emotions and conflict.

Another peace-building expression found in area schools is brought by Medford-based Resolve Center for Dispute Resolution and Restorative Justice.

Resolve describes restorative justice as “a philosophy and practice based on a core set of principles that emphasize healing and repair over punishment, inclusion over exclusion, and individual accountability with a high level of community support.”

Restorative practices are increasingly being used to improve school climate and culture and to address student behavior. Resolve has been active in four area school districts this year, and the number of school-based projects will double next year. Students, staff and parents of the John Muir and Ashland Middle Schools benefit from these practices.

The ACPC Peace Education team meets twice a month to discuss strategies, develop programs and plan educational events. Current plans are to follow the lead of the StarShine Academy Charter School in Phoenix, Arizona, and establish Eleven Days of Peace in September. Beginning on 9/11 and culminating on the International Day of Peace 9/21, Ashland will celebrate peace in our community and in our schools.

Plans already in development for the Eleven Days of Peace include essays and poems by middle and high school students and singing, dancing, art and circle games for elementary students. The essays, poems and artwork will be collected into a book — a culture of peace treasure created by Ashland students.

In the coming months, the Education Team will be inviting special guests to share a variety of Peace Education programs, art and activities with the community. If you would like to participate, please contact Patricia at comco219@ashlandhome.net.

With active peace building programs in our schools and community, Ashland is working to help our young people understand and value a peaceful society. The powerful tool of peace education will help our youth resolve problems by developing self-responsibility and respect for others, which engenders leadership.

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An article by Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News (reprinted by permission)

Thousands of Americans have descended on Washington to launch one week of civil disobedience [as of April 12] under the banner Democracy Spring. Over 400 people were arrested today, and over 3,000 have pledged to risk arrest over the next week. Their main demand is to get money out of politics. Before the marchers made their way to the Capitol, Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks thanked the 200 people who walked 140 miles over 10 days from Philadelphia. Uygur pointed out that the mainstream media has ignored Democracy Spring and explained that the reason is that they are part of the establishment. Uygur said that the media don’t want money out of politics, they depend on that money when it is used to buy campaign ads. Uygur declared that while this is just the beginning, they are no longer coming for us, but we are coming for them.

Click on photo to enlarge and to see photo credit

Kai Newkirk, a lead organizer of the event, told the crowd that if “we don’t have a democracy that represents all of us, we are in danger of losing what makes America great.” Newkirk went on to say, “We are here to send a message that there will be a political price to pay for siding with the moneyed interests over the people.” The organization’s website says: “This week we began the process of taking back our democracy, with hundreds arrested in our first mass sit-in at the Capitol on Monday, April 11. Now day after day through Saturday, April 16th, we will continue to reclaim the Capitol in a show of hope and for the truly representative democracy we see in our hearts. Over 3,500 people, coming to DC from near and far, have pledged to risk arrest this week.”

Thousands marched from Columbus Circle to the east side of the Capitol, where hundreds of people, including Cenk Uygur and Kai Newkirk, made their way to the Capitol steps. They sat down and received warnings from the Capital Police to move away from the steps or be arrested. Many heeded the warning and moved away from the building. Hundreds, in what is being billed as the largest civil disobedience action ever at the Capitol Building, remained and were arrested one by one over five hours.

Before the arrests were made, Uygur addressed the crowd with a bull horn and the people’s mic from the Capitol steps. “It’s time for civil disobedience. They think they have all the power, but we have the people. We are tired of the corruption. We want free and fair elections. We want our democracy back! We want our government back! We want our country back! We want our Constitution back! We want our Congress back! Thank you all for fighting back!

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How should elections be organized in a true democracy?

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Why Democracy Spring? And Why Now?

According to the group’s website:

Every American deserves an equal voice in government. That is our birthright of freedom, won through generations of struggle. But today our democracy is in crisis. American elections are dominated by billionaires and big money interests who can spend unlimited sums of money on political campaigns to protect their special interests at the general expense. Meanwhile, as the super-rich dominate the “money primary” that decides who can run for office, almost half of the states in the union have passed new laws that disenfranchise everyday voters, especially people of color and the poor.

This corruption violates the core principle of American democracy – “one person, one vote” citizen equality. And it is blocking reform on virtually every critical issue facing our country: from addressing historic economic inequality, to tackling climate change and ending mass incarceration. We simply cannot solve the urgent crises that face our nation if we don’t save democracy first.

But if the status quo goes unchallenged, the 2016 election – already set to be the most billionaire-dominated, secret money-drenched, voter suppression-marred contest in modern American history – will likely yield a President and a Congress more bound to the masters of big money than ever before. And our planet and people just can’t afford that. But there is another possibility.

Democracy Spring is calling on Congress to pass four bills:

– The Government by the People Act and Fair Elections Now Act

– The Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2015

– The Voter Empowerment Act of 2015

– The Democracy for All Amendment

As the week goes on, many more high profile activists will risk arrest, including Mark Ruffalo, Gaby Hoffman, Lawrence Lessig, Talib Kweli, and Zephyr Teachout. The coalition putting on the event is endorsed by groups like the AFL-CIO, National Organization of Women, and MoveOn.org. On April 16th, Democracy Spring will be joined by Democracy Awakening, a broad coalition of organizations representing the labor, peace, environmental, student, racial justice, civil rights, and money-in-politics reform movements. According to their website, they “share a firm belief that we will not win on the full range of policy issues we all care about until we combat attacks on voting rights and the integrity of the vote by big money.”

They are fighting to protect voting rights, get big money out of politics, and demand a fair hearing and an up or down vote on President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee. Speakers will include Jim Hightower, William Barber II, and Annie Leonard.

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An article by Megan Pauly for Delaware Public Media

A community discussion Saturday hosted Wilmington’s Movement for a Culture of Peace focused on finding ways to deal with issues such as trauma that violent crime in the city is bringing into classrooms. Around 30 educators, activists and concerned community members participated in the event. Among them was Malik Muhammad, president of a restorative practices consulting group, Akoben, LLC. He says stressing connectedness and building positive relationships helps change behavior, not punishment.

Photo by Megan Pauly / Delaware Public Media

“The traditional approach to trauma has been one, individualized. So we’ve isolated those who’ve experienced trauma and attempted to deal with them on an individual basis,” Muhammad said. “That approach in and of itself isn’t necessarily a negative one, but we need to create environments of safety, connection, trust and bonding so that those who are facing trauma – whether it’s seen or unseen – are really feeling connected.”

Muhammad adds relying mostly on social workers and counselors to engage the students isn’t effective. He says teachers, administrators and even students themselves need to be involved.

In 2012, the state brought Muhammad’s organization in to hold four full-day workshops for around 145 education professionals. Since then, he’s worked with 16 of 19 Delaware school districts, tailoring workshops to their specific needs.

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Restorative justice, What does it look like in practice?

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Will Fuller, Principal at the Positive CHANGE Academy – the Red Clay School District’s alternative school – was initially skeptical of the broad “relationship building” concept, but has seen firsthand its positive effects.

“I thought hey, this is not going to work for our kids but what I noticed over the last two years is that the students really love the process. They’ve bought into the process, the culture has changed,” Fuller said. “The staff members have bought into the process; it hadn’t been overnight.”

Kelley Lumpkin, Success Interventionist at Baltz Elementary in Elsmere, says she’s also seen a positive shift in the school’s culture since these practices were implemented a few years ago.

But Lumpkin says she sees social media as a potential barrier to creating critical face-to-face connectedness.

“It’s not like the schoolyard where these arguments used to happen and they could see the effect, right there. And it might give them a cue to stop it,” Lumpkin said. “Now they’re doing it where they’re not even seeing the effect, they’re not seeing what happens to the child as they’re doing it and other kids tagging in. And then the come to school and the rumor mill has spread it to another 20 kids.”

Lumpkin says her approach to working with kids varies depending on the situation.

It could include a group discussion for 10-15 minutes, or an hour-long talk. For other school-wide issues, she’s even held them in the gym for the entire 5th grade.

Muhammad says his work in Delaware has largely been in New Castle and Kent counties. This year, he’s working with the Red Clay and Christiana school districts.

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An article by David Wick in the Ashland Daily Tidings (reprinted according to Creative Commons)

“My experience and research have convinced me that the world is on the verge of the greatest change in human history: The transition from the culture of war that we have had for tens of thousands of years to a new culture,” and that new development, states UNESCO Director David Adams, “is a culture of peace.”

A 1999 United Nation’s Culture of Peace resolution called for a transformation from a culture of war and violence to one of peace. Aligned with this and Margaret Mead’s notion that it’s only been small groups of thoughtful committed citizens that have changed the world, a group of eight inspired local thinkers collaborated for two years before creating a Culture of Peace Proclamation with the Ashland City Council in March 2015.

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The city’s proclamation, unanimously adopted by the council, says “(we) strongly encourage residents to work toward development of a Culture of Peace community, and pledge to lend appropriate encouragement and support to that effort.”

Soon an independent, community and citizen-based Ashland Culture of Peace Commission was created. Commission members were chosen to represent many aspects of Ashland’s culture: education, business, the arts, science, environment, religion, law and habitat. An active community support team was also formed. On Sept. 21, 2015, the UN International Day of Peace, the Ashland Culture of Peace Commission was launched in a community-wide celebration.

The commission and the community support team’s first actions have been to define the Ashland Culture of Peace as a community-wide movement dedicated to transforming our attitudes, behaviors, and institutions into ones that foster harmonious relationships with each other and the natural world.

Initial focus areas being developed are:

1. The Peace Ambassador Program — Training volunteers to be a positive presence in our community and on our streets, engaging in person-to-person dialogues and arranging peace forums on topics important to our community.

2. Peace Education — Offering exciting, skill-based and peace-focused learning experiences to schools in the Ashland School District.

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How can culture of peace be developed at the municipal level?

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3. Community Resource Directory — Identifying, listing, and dialoguing with organizations and people in our community who are already contributing or want to contribute to a culture of peace for Ashland.

4. World Peace Flame Monument — Establishing the venue and financial support for Ashland to be the 12th site in the world for the World Peace Flame, a symbol of peace, unity, freedom and celebration that will draw visitors from around the world.

5. State of the Culture of Peace in Ashland Report — Writing an annual report that will be presented to the community and City Council to provide a view into how we are doing in co-creating a Culture of Peace in Ashland.

Cities are the real societal structural level where a Culture of Peace can take root. The individual person is always the essential component for building peace through his or her daily choices, but it is the city that has the reach, authority, responsibility and influence to set the positive tone and direction for so many. When the City Council and Mayor adopted the Culture of Peace Proclamation, they strongly encouraged residents “to work toward development of a Culture of Peace community” and pledged “to lend appropriate encouragement and support to that effort.”

With our unique approach, Ashland has the opportunity to become a model of this new culture for cities around the world. It is about shifting mindset and behavior in all aspects of our societies to embrace humanity’s interconnectedness as we move from force to reason, from discord and violence to dialogue and peace-building. For sustained change there must be a larger context, a vision that inspires and unifies citizens to move forward. This vision has launched the Ashland Culture of Peace.

This is the first of a regular series of articles by the ACPC on various aspects of creating a culture of peace, both here and elsewhere. Next time we’ll address the question, “What is a Culture of Peace?”

Current commissioners include: Amy Blossom, Ben Morgen, Bert Etling, Bill Kauth, Catherine McKiblin, David Wick, Eric Sirotkin, Greeley Wells, Jack Gibbs, Jeff Golden, Joanne Lescher, Joe Charter, Norma Burton, Pam Marsh, Patricia Sempowich, Richard Schaeff, Tighe O’Meara and Will Sears. The original developers included some of the current commissioners, plus Elinor Berman, Irene Kai and Kathleen Gamer.

Contact David Wick via email at ashlandcpc@gmail.com, or drop by the ACPC office at 33 First St., Suite 1, Ashland. The commission’s website is at www.ashlandcpc.org.