Film Review: The Day After Peace

Film Review

The Day After Peace

Review by George Payne

The Day After Peace chronicles the extraordinary 10-year journey of filmmaker and nonviolence activist Jeremy Gilley to establish an Internationally recognized global ceasefire day on September 21.
This inspirational film features political leaders (Kofi Annan), spiritual teachers (The Dalai Lama), and celebrities such as Angelina Jolie and Jude Law. But what I appreciate most about this film is the way it unabashedly confronts people’s cynicism about ending war while still inspiring all of us to become active peacemakers in our daily lives.
The Day After Peace is an excellent classroom resource for discussing international conflicts, the history and purpose of the United Nations, and the power of the individual to overcome hatred and intolerance on a global scale.

The Search for a Nonviolent Future

The Search for a Nonviolent Future

Review by Kit Miller

This book was one of the earliest ones I read on the hope and possibility represented by nonviolence. Michael Nagler is a gifted storyteller as well as teacher who founded the Peace and Conflict Studies Program at UC Berkeley. He shares the unfolding story of nonviolence as it has played out across the globe over the course of the 20^th century. Michael is a proponent of principled nonviolence and makes the argument for a nonviolent lifestyle very well indeed. I have recommended this book many times as a great place for people to start their nonviolence learning journey.

Long Walk to Freedom

Long Walk to Freedom

Review by Shannon Richmond

The way in which South Africa transitioned from apartheid to democracy is a model of how strategic nonviolence can work on the national level. This book of Mandela’s stories about his childhood to his first involvement with the African National Congress to his imprisonment on Robben Island where he began writing this autobiography is one of my favorite books for digesting the rich history of South Africa in the twentieth century. The details of Mandela’s and other activists’ choices during this movement can act as a guide for today’s peace-builders.

After Gandhi: One Hundred Years of Nonviolent Resistance

After Gandhi: One Hundred Years of Nonviolent Resistance

Review by Shannon Richmond

Combining beautiful charcoal portraits of peace activists with short descriptions of the movements which they supported, this book is easy to enjoy in small delicious bites, whether you are a youth or adult. Including the Civil Rights Movement, the Antiapartheid Movement, and the Aboriginal Rights Movement among others, this is a great book to read to or with a young person in your life. Another favorite feature of mine is the selected quotations from each peace leader: encouraging and uplifting. Great gift for younger readers!

Active Hope – How to Face the Mess We’re in without Going Crazy – Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone

Active Hope – How to Face the Mess We’re in without Going Crazy – Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone

Review by Jason Olshefsky

For those drawn by the allure of the title, “Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in without Going Crazy”, feel confident that the book delivers on its promise. The journey is not easy, but this acts as a remarkable guide. Frequently I would be thinking, “this makes me feel so …” and before I could finish the thought, there it was in print; it’s so strange how this journey can be so individual, yet each one of us comes across familiar mile posts. I do recommend reading it with another person or a reading group and taking the time to complete the numerous exercises throughout, especially when you think you know its outcome.

This story is from Vadivu Govind, a blogger and social activist from Singapore, who visited the M.K. Gandhi Institute in October 2010.

My only exposure to Gandhi, while growing up, was a statue we had at home of him and the movie, Gandhi. But my own transformation from using anger as a fuel for social change to using more love led me to visit the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence in Rochester, New York in October 2010.

Gandhi was thrown out of the first class area of a train in South Africa because he was Indian. This made him want change. And using nonviolent means, he freed India from British rule.

Conversation with Kit
I truly enjoyed my conversation with Kit Miller, the director of the Center and staff member, George Payne who was my learned guide for the day.

What I took away most from my conversation with Kit was the openness with which she embraces skeptics. I learned to see skepticism as opportunities for mutual transformation, when handled with humility and empathy.

I confess that I had grown up thinking people who hurt others should be punished and should suffer. It was “justice” in my mind and it is only in the past few years that I have learned to view this issue differently. So being up close to someone working on restorative justice was special for me. While researching for this post, I learned about restorative practices in Singapore and would love to hear from those involved about their experiences.

I like that I got to learn about not just the clearly positive parts about Gandhi but also how he was fully human, made mistakes and took responsibility for them.

“Be the change” Workshop
During the workshop on the day we met, Kit asked us, “What is Gandhi’s relevance today”. It’s sad that his name is mainly only in the history books (and even then I am not sure the children of today know who he was) because his work can help us heal so many kinds of relationships today.

I had read Marshall Rosenberg’s book on Nonviolent Communication, which is where I first learned about this powerful communication method. Seeing Kit role-play this method during the workshop made it seem easy and inspired me to practice it more. I find that it is most difficult to practice it with those close to us, so I’m looking forward to trying this method more diligently.

Honoring the Environment
The Institute is based by a river. George shared with me about their “Riverkeepers” project, in which students, members of the community and the staff clean the river periodically. They do this to save the wildlife, promote the idea of stewardship and thirdly, to change perceptions of such tasks from mundane to sacred. Typically manual work is given to those who have done a misdeed as a punishment. So this project helps people see all forms of labor as precious. (I offered one more interpretation: that clearing the physical clutter is a symbol for us clearing internal clutter from our minds, hearts, souls and bodies.) Through this project, I understood how the Institute’s environment informs their work and how they positively influence the environment. Often we don’t see this connection to where we are and what is around us that needs care.

Because of my visit to the Institute, Gandhi is no longer a distant historical figure to me. In fact when we put people on pedestals, we somehow think we cannot be like these great souls, when in fact, they often want us to emulate their positive messages.

I had asked a few friends and members of my family what questions they may have for the Institute.

My mum sent me an email when I was in Rochester, saying, “If only a quarter of people practiced what Gandhi did, the world would be a different place. Yes, and the question for us to answer is whether we are one of the 25%”

This letter is from Alykhan Alani, volunteer and board member of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, to the President of the University of Rochester: Joel Seligman.

Dear President Seligman,
My name is Alykhan Alani.  I sincerely thank you for your audience, and would like to take this opportunity to describe the Gandhi Institute’s involvement in my life and contextualize its importance to not only our University and the Rochester area, but to the world and inherently global socio-political discourse.

Aside from the Rochester Center for Community Leadership (RCCL), the Gandhi Institute is the most accessible outlet for sustained community engagement and service on our campus.  Kit, Shannon, George, and a host of other dedicated individuals’ work tirelessly alongside students to help align their passion for service with opportunities both on-and-off campus.  The sheer number of undertakings by the Institute within the last couple of years is a prime example of this.

From urban farming, community garden management, and micro-farm entrepreneurship, the Gandhi Institute demonstrates environmental stewardship and a commitment to local agriculture and sustainability. The Restorative Rochester campaign, conflict resolution and the alternatives to in-school suspension workshops at Monroe and Wilson High School seek to empower our youth by addressing this wide-spread concern while promoting the use of restorative practices in our communities, courts, and schools. Initiating dialogues on race at public libraries, and close partnerships with the Hillside Center, Baobab Cultural Center, Nazareth, RIT, and St. Joe’s House of Hospitality show how the Gandhi Institute exhibits an awareness of, and commitment to mitigating issues of social justice. The non-violence workshops made available throughout the year via the Gandhi Summer and Autumn Institutes, as well as the Season for Nonviolence among many other programs and initiatives, provide the foundation for sustained involvement in, and dialogue about these critical socio-political issues. The Gandhi Institute continues to play a very active role in the community while maintaining its commitment to, and responsibility toward fostering a civically engaged and compassionate student body.

The Gandhi Institute is an integral component of our vibrant campus, but it is also a community institution.  The University is a stakeholder in this community, and the Gandhi Institute’s effort to expand the University’s role in the community serves to strengthen this relationship.  It also makes the resources available through the Institute more accessible to the community, and in turn brings concerned students and community members together.  This allows for growth and increased understanding between the Rochester community, the University, and individuals involved with the Institute in any capacity.

As I reflect upon the last 4 years I’ve realized that the Institute will always hold a special place in my mind and heart. Aside from a few professors whom I consider mentors and friends, it is the Gandhi Institute that has continually shaped my commitment to social, economic and environmental justice as well as my future career aspirations and personal philosophy. No other institution on campus offers such genuine and intimate experiences with the surrounding community, based on applied principles of non-violence, sustainability, and compassion.  It is an institution that seeks to inform, empower, advocate and organize to help overcome some of our city’s most challenging issues, and encourages true university-community partnerships to address them.  It is an internationally recognized institution, allied with like-minded organizations around the country and the world.  It serves to protect and promote non-violent conflict resolution and sustainability in theory and application, and it chronicles, celebrates, and recognizes the work of peacemakers worldwide. We are incredibly fortunate to have such an institution as a member of not only our campus community, but the city of Rochester as well.

The Gandhi institute is one of the few and most authentic ways students at University of Rochester can engage the community in which we live and study.  It is my hope that the Institute continues to cultivate these relationships and makes available even more opportunities for increased civic engagement and global citizenship. The Institute’s interaction with our campus and the Rochester community remains incredibly positive and fruitful. To see such admirable work continue would be wonderful, but to see it expand further and grow would be truly remarkable.  The existence of the Institute and its unique approach to programming encourages us to imagine; to re-envision our society as one that embodies the principles of service, justice, compassion, education and love. The Gandhi Institute’s power lies in pluralism, its proven ability to encourage greater understanding between people of all walks of life. When we are conscious of the fact that our welfare is directly dependent on those around us, we can collectively seek to mitigate our most divisive issues.

Thank you for your time,

Alykhan Alani

University of Rochester Class of 2012

This is a blog entry by Kevin Varkey who supported the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence for 2 months as an intern:

The first time I heard about the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence was around three months ago.  I distinctly remember frantically talking to anyone and everyone about possible summer internships, while at the same time writing papers for grad school and studying for my exams that were fast approaching. Needless to say, it was a very stressful time for me, as I was finishing up my first year of a Masters in Theological Studies at Boston University.

Thankfully, Brother Larry, the chaplain of BU’s Marsh Chapel got me in touch with Kit Miller, the director of the Gandhi Institute. I remember being slightly terrified but very excited, when Kit surprised me by calling me randomly during the day and then telling me that she had the other three staff members with her and that they were hoping to conduct a group interview via speakerphone. And so I heard the voices of George, Shannon, and Anna for the first time. They asked me about my views on Gandhi, nonviolence, my past experiences, and what I hoped to gain from working at the Gandhi Institute. I can’t really remember what exactly I told them in the midst of going through this verbal gauntlet (just kidding), but there was one thing in Kit’s questioning which really stood out to me. She kept asking me what I could teach them and what I could share and whether I had any particular skills or knowledge that I would be willing to teach to others.  I’ll be honest: this confused the hell out of me, because I had never been asked such a question before. Obviously, every other employer and internship wanted to know what my skill set was so I could help them complete assigned tasks, but Kit wasn’t asking me about my technical skills. Rather, she wanted to know what I knew about nonviolence, Gandhi, and social justice, and if I could teach others. Still a little confused, but very impressed, I said yes.  I had just gotten a first glimpse of the love, humility, and respect that the staff of the Gandhi Institute projects outwards as they work towards their goals. They truly look at everyone as equal partners in their quest for a just and better world; this is what made me want to intern there, and be a part of the Institute.

Only several days after getting here and meeting Kit, George, Shannon, and Anna, I was referring to the Gandhi Institute as if I had worked there all along. This is a testament to the loving and inclusive environment that they work hard to provide at the Gandhi house, and which I’m sure is felt by countless others who visit.

Another surprise was how much I would learn and be a part of in my two months’ time with the Institute. Within three weeks of my arrival, I had participated in a workshop on “Nonviolence and the Problem of Evil” led by George, walked alongside hundreds of other Rochester residents as they partook in Teen Empowerment’s peace march, and sat in on a meeting of Pathways to Peace as they discussed the problem of gang violence in Rochester and at-risk youth in the community.

Soon after this George and I participated in a weeklong seminar at Nazareth College entitled “Train the Trainers in Understanding World Religions and Interfaith Relations.” Led by Dr. Muhammad Shafiq and Rev. Gordon Webster, this workshop included lectures and presentations on different religions, dialogue between religions, and the rules and etiquette for discussing matters of faith between members of different faith traditions. We also visited a different house of worship on each day, including a Hindu temple, a Sikh gurdwara, a Mormon chapel, and an Orthodox Jewish synagogue. It was an incredible learning experience and I truly felt humbled to have been a part of such wonderful dialogue and understanding between people of different faiths.

Soon after that I was exposed to Joanna Macy’s “The Work that Reconnects” at Anna and Shannon’s community building barbecue that was a great success. It was the first time I had ever really heard of Joanna Macy and her incredible work, but the idea that all beings are radically interconnected and interdependent was a view that appealed to me immediately. The exercises and conversations we had further instilled the sense of this truth in me.

I had another taste of Joanna Macy and her work during the Gandhi Institute’s 4-day Nonviolence and the Work that Reconnects Summer Intensive. During the first two days, I learned even more about Gandhi and nonviolence from George, as well as listening to guest lecturers Dr. V.V. Raman and Bob Good. I also had the honor of presenting for an hour and a half on my own topic, “Nonviolence and Religion.” Although I was a little nervous, I was incredibly grateful to be given the opportunity to present on a topic that I had studied and learned about for so long, and which I was very passionate about. The third and fourth days of the Intensive were spent learning more about Joanna Macy and The Work That Reconnects. Anna and Shannon’s exercises and activities brought our entire group closer together and led to some incredibly emotional scenes as we shared our pains, worries, and joys with each other. It was a beautiful experience that I shall never forget.

I also greatly enjoyed the work party that we organized in the time that I was here. It was really inspiring to see so many people from the neighborhood working together to dig up dirt to create garden beds, mow the lawn, and even pull weeds. It felt like a real community effort. It was a group of people coming together for the common cause of making the Gandhi Institute’s little plot of land a little more beautiful. As I looked out at everyone working hard, I could imagine how beautiful it would look in the coming years. By coming together to create something as simple as garden beds, the people of Rochester were taking control of the destiny of their city and the direction in which it is heading. As an outsider from Boston, I could see that they were saying that they had the power to affect positive change. Despite all their city’s problems, they had come out to do something positive because they still believed in their city and its people. This was a beautiful thing to be a part of.

I’m incredibly thankful to everyone who helped make my time here at the Gandhi Institute such a wonderful experience. To Erinne, Zeek, Marian and Brenda, thank you for your laughs and friendship- I will miss you. To my amazing landlords, David Knoll and David Skinner, thank you for all your help and kindness throughout my entire stay. You are both a shining example of the kind of community that is possible if we all take our part in this world seriously and are willing to lend one another a helping hand. Thank you David Dornford for your stories, wisdom, and friendship. Thank you for being so kind and for listening to me. Thank you Debrine, for being another shining example of the kind of positivity that we can bring about in our communities through hard work, an open mind, and an open heart.  Keep fighting. Thank you to Anna and Shannon for being such kind and wonderful people and for teaching me so much. I will miss your sincerity and laughter. Thank you to George, for taking me under your wing, and for sharing yourself and your learning with me. From the time you picked me up at the airport, you helped make me feel welcome and I sincerely appreciate that kindness and friendship. And finally, thank you to Kit, for believing in me and seeing within me the possibility for growth and learning. Thank you for always encouraging me to do more, and for treating like I was a member of your family. Your genuine kindness and concern has touched me, and many others, and I know that it will continue to guide you and the Gandhi Institute in the time to come.

This is an ‘Open Letter of Gratitude to the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence’ by Anna-Kristina Pfeifer who spent 11 months at the Institute as intern, researcher and videographer:

*Love as an action*

This letter has been wanting to be written for weeks and months. And the waiting deepened the richness of the gratitude that lives within me. This gratitude is widening, ever extending in continuous circles and is rooted in a strong foundation in love.

When I speak of love, I mean “the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth”[1]. Radical writer bell hooks understands love as an action, as a blend of care, affection, recognition, respect, commitment and trust as well as honest and open communication in order to have the ability to nurture growth. She affirms Scott Peck: “We do not have to love. We choose to love.”

From day one at the Institute, this blend of care, affection, recognition, respect, commitment and trust as well as honest and open communication surrounded me, transmitted through the faces and hearts of Kit, Shannon and George. From day one at the Institute, this radical lived practice of love has supported me in opening and liberating spaces inside myself: places previously numbed or locked. From day one, I felt and saw clearly that it is not at all exclusively the WHAT we focus on but largely the HOW we do things. From day one, I understood that there was a continuous striving in my co-workers to align their own lives along the principles of nonviolence and to embody an integrity of thought, speech and deed.

*From product to process*

This radical practice of love and the focus on process is inherently subversive. It counteracts the societal pushing to isolate and atomize human beings and to treat and form each of us as insular and identical individuals. Both Joanna Macy[2] and Gene Gendlin[3] speak about the act of de-isolating as the crucial step in co-creating a sustainable and regenerative world. The act of de-isolating encompasses a shift towards comprehending and engaging with all beings as interrelated processes woven into a fabric of diversity and radical interdependency.

Most of us are strongly conditioned to think in entitites and to comprehend reality as a bunch of ‘given whats’. There is such a commitment at this Institute to approach life as a process, as a continuous experiment, as a testground for what works and what does not work. This commitment to experiment is opening wide and creative possibilities and potentials. It reframes how questions are asked.

There is such commitment to stay present and awake and to ever freshly respond to what comes towards us.

Another world is not only manifesting itself at the Institute. It is being crafted and strenghtened in this place. It is being crafted by choosing to base our work in the principles of service, embodiment, responsibility, accountability, and meaning and it is being strengthened by saying yes to our ideals and aspirations.

*On metamorphosis and the becoming human*

A dragonfly spends most of its life cycle in the nymph stage in which it is only visible if you are swimming underwater in a lake or pond with your eyes opened. It can take years for their development into dragonflies.

Once the dragonfly nymph is fully grown, and the weather is right, it will complete the metamorphosis into a dragonfly by crawling out of the water up the stem of a plant. The nymph will shed its skin onto the stem of the plant and will then be a young dragonfly. I believe that the nymph carries the experiential knowledge of its potential within itself and I believe that it cannot quite know how life will feel like once it spuns its wings open and flies lightly into the world. Similarly to the metamorphosis of a dragonfly, I transformed from a retreated and insecure being who was more comfortable to not speak in groups to daring to speak out and daring to be fully seen.

Carl Rogers and Marshall Rosenberg inspired me to intellectually understand myself as an “essentially positive”[4] living system striving to fully actualize my potential. Instead of solely relying on guidance from outside, Rogers believed in an inner source of wisdom which is accessible to every person and can act as internal locus of evaluation. Rogers believed in the necessity of three core conditions in order to enable a person to develop trust and confidence in their ‘inner compass’: unconditional positive regard, empathy and congruence.

There is a lived culture and practice of empathic receiving, honest self-expression and unconditional appreciation at the Institute. I believe that these external conditions allowed me to learn how to fly and step towards my inner strength and truth.

The last 11 months at the Institute have taught me that every living organism, whether dragonfly or human being, has the ability to thrive within a life-sustaining context.

*Open systems*

I am sitting in a train in Europe and notice my nervousness around finishing this letter. It is hard to not leave it open ended because my gratitude seems to change and grow every day. Every day, I realize how much I have grown as a person in my time in Rochester and how my choices and reactions to reality have shifted. I am noticing how choices for self-care and self-connection come with much more ease and natural flow in navigating reality around me. Equally I notice the spaciousness inside myself for other people and their experience of reality which might differ from my own in crucial ways.

I have often heard and strongly internalized the judgement that self-care is indulgent. What seems more true in my experience and in my inner and outer journey is that self-care is crucial in order to care for the wider system. In a deep ecological understanding of the world, the wider system and the self are not separate but part of each other. The self is a holon of the wider system and crucial part of the whole. In this open systems perspective, the notion of self-care shifts to a notion of care for life rather than care for a separated and disconnected self. In this perspective, intrapersonal, interpersonal and systemic aspects of reality are not separate but densely woven into the same fabric of the complexity of life and our precious all-encompassing web of inter-existence.

These are the impressions from Erin Obi (Transitioning Post –Secondary Students with Intellectual Disabilities. (TPSID)

We visited the Gandhi House on a cold December morning.  We were greeted outside the house by Mr. George Payne.  We received a warm welcome and a very detailed tour of the new premises.  My students and I felt welcome and received.
The overall experience was incredible.  My students were asked open ended questions that made them critically think and problem solve.  The content was on their “level” as well as pushed them to think outside the box and beyond their prior knowledge.
George unified us with team building activities, the kids participated in, and learned from.   The students shared both their thoughts and feelings.
It was around a table of food, where George explained the meaning of Gandhi’s life long journey, hardships and inspiration.  He made Gandhi real and relatable to the students.
We shared in a family style meal, where we continued to talk and imagine a Rochester, NY where children are not afraid to walk in their neighborhoods and gun shots are rarely heard.
We ended the morning with some centering meditation exercises.  The students learned a lot about themselves and the complexity of clearing one’s mind.
I am thankful for the opportunity to work with such an empathetic, educated, simple man.  George gave my students an opportunity to explore an element of critical thinking they seldom experience.  The subject matter taught with such passion and simplicity was a perfect match for my students.
We intend to go back to the Gandhi House in June, for the end of the year.  It was a bonding, uplifting experience for all in attendance.