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WHAT WE ARE ABOUT

Please share with us what you are doing relating to nonviolent change. If you send us a short report of your doings, learnings, ideas, concerns, reactions, queries we will print them here. Responses can be published in the next issue.

Bill and Oma Pemberton (PEMBILOMA@cs.com): Simply amazed at the number of organizations in your focus, Steve. Just too bad they don't all get together and make a pitch to influence THE INFLUENCERS. I feel sorry for our naive and ignorant President. Simply does not have the sophistication to deal with the complexity of terrorism. Somehow believes that once he calls someone 'evil' that he has established a reality. You'll find about the "new thinking" in my book Sanity for Survival, the revision from Euclidian to nonEuclidean geomety, the revision from Newtonian to nonNewtonian physics (The Bomb, if you need evidence) and revision from Aristotelian to nonAristotelain logic THE "NEW THINKING" I've been pushing for over half a century. The repopularized song "The world, you'll never change it!" is about the way it is, I reckon. Still trying to keep the world from self-destructing. Letter to Saddam Hussein in January with plea "to talk" and a billion people will send accolades. Said that to Bush-too several times, in different ways. Two letters back from the Whitehouse, neither on the subject sent. Being 90 is burdensome, and #1 problem: fatigue! Dr Bill had a fun time Aug and Sept, doing a talk show for KFNX Phoenix called THE WORLD ACCORDING TO DR. BILL. But after a few weeks, too stressful. so cancelled it out. As I mentioned earlier, we're rollin' along at 90 and 88, but a long trip to a meeting is out now. Had the following piece turn up in the local, Marin I, after having sent it the SF Chronicle: Lessons and Learning

As a 90 Year resident on planet earth, a Quaker grandson of Quaker ministers and witness of wars from World War One to now, I have been waging a losing appeal to convince human beings that war as a problem solving strategy is crazy, pure insanity. That judgement is based on my early training as a psychologist. As the Kingston Trio used to sing it, "When Will We Ever Learn?"

Marilee Niehoff: Created a "Local Heroes of Ground Zero" poster, honoring local people who went to help at the World Trade Towers disaster site, which was published in "Letters About September 11" in the December-January Issue of Association for Humanistic Psychology, AHP Perspective. She continues to work in aquatic fitness to help people attain inner peace, as an aspect of creating peace among people on a small scale, to increase peace on a large scale. She is a professional member of the Aquatic Exercise Association.

Darling G. Villena-Mata, an ongoing contributor to our publication, holds a doctorate degree in social psychology, with a focus on trauma and conflict studies. Aside from being a consultant, mediator, and intercultural trainer who specializes in intergroup conflicts, Darling has written several articles in the areas of societal trauma, conflict resolution, and the effects of discrimination and societal violence on recipients, as well as re-authoring one's life and transforming life difficulties into adventures of the soul. She recently presented at a national trauma conference in Los Angeles, California on "The Impact of Societal Trauma", which addressed trauma's effects on large scale conflict resolution. She recently guest lectured on "What Perpetuates Societal Violence?" at Mount St. Mary's College in Los Angeles. She is often asked to guest lecture on "How 'isms' Impact Treatment of Diverse Clients" at Antioch University's Clinical Psychology department. Some of her talks are based on her book, Walking Between Winds: A Passage Through Societal Trauma and Its Healing, which can be requested from her.

She is available for speaking engagements, consultation, teaching, and training. You may reach her at circlepoint@earthlink.net or 310.994.6606 in the United States.

Steve Sachs: I am enjoying my final semester teaching at IUPUI, and looking forward to being "indefinitely on sabbatical," writing (including editing Nonviolent Change and Native American Policy Network Newsletter) and continuing to engage in service work (particularly with Indian nations and Americans for Indian Opportunity - which is scheduled to move Leah and I to Albuquerque in a little over a year from now).

I am excited about being invited to be a teacher in Bear Song I, an international program with indigenous elders and spiritual teachers in August, beginning in London, moving to Dublin and concluding in Belfast, closing with a peace rally. Organizer Grandfather Michael Bromley, a Druid elder, says that it is time for traditional elders and teachers to talk with the public about overcoming the World's many ills and moving to the next level.

I will also be on the road in April and at the end of August with a pair of panels I have put together. At the American Indian Studies Section of the Western Social Science Association Meeting in Albuquerque, I have organized a session, "Honoring the Circle: Developing Government to Government Relations Between Indian Tribal Governments and Federal State and Local Governments." With LaDonna Harris, President of American Indian Opportunities, and Barbara Morris, in Political Science at the University of Redlands, I am presenting a paper of the same name. It is an extensive overview and analysis of the whole topic that will become a chapter in the volume we are writing on American Indian renewal. Recognizing Indian nations as partners in a federal system has relevance for overcoming the subjugation of native people around the world. At the American Political Science Association Meeting in Boston, I have organized a discussion and am presenting a paper, "Acknowledging the Circle: The Impact of American Indian Tradition Upon Western Political Thought and its Contemporary Relevance." It is often overlooked how much impact European contact with the extremely democratic societies in the Americas had on Western thinking. Contact came as a democratizing struggle was in progress in Europe that could only rely on reports of ancient Greece and Rome and a few existing small city states for inspiration in Europe. But those who came to the Americas experienced wide spread participatory democracy. The profound effect of this is clear in reading John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau.

It is well documented that Marx and Engels developed important parts of their historical theory from Morgan's reports of the Senaca. The U.S. Founders took a great deal from Indian ways of governance, and a strong case can be made that Indians are responsible for there being as much democracy as their is in the United States. Traditional native ways are particularly relevant today as many developing practices including democratization of work places, reinventing government, consensus decision making in policy development and conflict resolution, restorative justice, equality for women, and human harmony with the natural environment are all emerging recreations of traditional native ways. Even the cutting edge of contemporary physics is returning to a view approaching that of traditional native people. I am happy to share copies of these papers on request.

Looking forward to seeing many of you at the Palwaukee Inn.

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These articles and opinions of the authors do not constitute the endorsement of Nonviolent Change nor its publisher, Organization Development Institute, or any of its staff.

©2002, 2003, 2004,2005. All rights reserve. The Nonviolent Change Journal is published by the Research/ActionTeam on Nonviolent Large Systems Change - an interorganizational and international project of The Organization Development Institute.

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