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 By Stephen Dinan,
founder and CEO of The Shift Network
In this issue, we focus on The Gandhi King Season for
Nonviolence now underway, which has been created by our friends at the
Association for Global New Thought. This important yearly season spans from
the memorial days of Martin Luther King (January 30) and Gandhi (April 4) and
it takes us into the heart of how to create non-violent, evolutionary change.
To invite your full participation, we feature
an overview video plus articles from AGNT leaders Barbara Fields and
Michael Beckwith, peace pioneer Michael Nagler, an inspiring
report from the Nonviolent Peaceforce in South Sudan, and two profiles of
inspiring peacebuilders in New York and Rishikesh, India, including the amazing
world servers Swamiji Chidanand Saraswati and Sadhvi Bhagawati.
Movement News offers you more resources on how
to get involved—AGNT has made it easy, inspiring and fun for everyone to
participate. And if you would like to go deeper into the study and practice of
nonviolence, see the Metta Center for Nonviolence resources in Movement
News.
From the Sudan overview in this issue, you can see how the principles and
practice of nonviolence are global in scope. We each can apply them in our
daily lives and engage our places of worship and communities, right alongside
our brothers and sisters in Sudan and beyond.
This month also marks the 5th anniversary of the National Peace Academy, launched by the
courageous Dot Maver (see Movement news for more)—an essential part of
the "peace infrastructure" we need to build to create a culture of
peace worldwide.
We also honor Pete Seeger who passed away in January at the age of 94. Pete
Seeger's music and social activism inspired me and millions of people. We are
grateful for his life-long commitment to making the world a better place and
offer our love to his family. (see Featured Artist for more)
As Gandhi famously said, this is a great time for us to "be the change we
want to see in the world."
At Shift, we're doing that with a number of long-range initiatives, such as
initial work on a World Peace Summit in China and a new collaboration with
Green World Campaign to reforest the world's denuded lands in a single
generation. We are committed to making the Shift real, tangible and impactful
in lives around the world.
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 The Gandhi King Gyatso Season for
Nonviolence Celebrates its 17th Year: More than a Decade and a Half of
Spiritually-motivated Action
By Barbara Fields
The Gandhi King Season for
Nonviolence is a grassroots awareness campaign growing out of the passion
and creative expression of spiritual and civic-minded individuals and
communities worldwide. Our vision is of a world that works for everyone,
carried forth by the proactive, life enhancing philosophy of nonviolent action
as demonstrated by legendary leaders Mohandas K. Gandhi, Rev. Martin Luther
King, Jr., Cesar E. Chavez, and President Nelson Mandela, as well as living
legends such as His Holiness, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. Its
purpose is to focus educational and media attention on the philosophy of
attaining peace through nonviolent action . . . [read more]
 Love: The Ultimate Peacemaker
By Michael Bernard Beckwith
How fitting it is to compose this article on a day when millions of individuals
are participating in festivities honoring the life and contributions of Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Membership in what he coined as the "Beloved
Community" continues to find a home in countless lives, acknowledging our
interconnectedness as a global family . . . [read more]
 The Science of Being
Human
By Michael Nagler
I remember right where I was standing when my friend Sarah told me, "They're
massacring the students." It was June 4, 1989. For several weeks I, and
the other residents of the ashram, had been feeling hope not unmixed with
frustration because the students who were encamped at Tiananmen Square were
dedicated to nonviolence but—like those in many nonviolent movements
before and since, they did not have a clear idea how to go about it. Now my
frustration turned to agony, because I had not been able to do anything even
though I believed—and still do—that things could have been done
differently for a much happier result. It was when I heard about the needless
death of those students (I was still a professor at the time) that I dedicated
my active life to finding ways to help anyone caught up in a struggle like that
to "carry out nonviolence more safely and effectively" (the mission
statement of the Metta Center for Nonviolence, where I work). What could I
do? . . . [read more]
 Nonviolence Peaceforce: Update From
South Sudan – January 24, 2014
Update from Tiffany Easthom,
Nonviolence Peaceforce County
Director in South Sudan
Women in South Sudan are not waiting for peace to be delivered, they are making
peace happen. They are tired of the violence and the sense of helplessness that
the chaos of war brings. Women from both the Dinka and the Nuer communities
sheltering within the UNMISS (United Nations Mission in South Sudan) base in
Bentiu, Unity State came together as a women's peacekeeping team (WPT)—a
force for real peace. They started their work together by having both Dinka and
Nuer women meet for tea. This simple act of sharing tea and conversation
challenged the notion that Nuer and Dinka could no longer be together. This has
been the foundation for a rapidly escalating agenda of women's participation in
peace and security . . . [read more]
For submissions and recommendations, email editor@theshiftnetwork.com.
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 George Anthony and Students –
New York City
By Kathryn Carse, Assistant
Lifestyle editor at the Staten Island Advance
A group of students in the Conflict Resolution program at Susan Wagner High
School are preparing a presentation at the United Nations to celebrate the
Gandhi King Season for Nonviolence. The presentation seeks to dramatize the
relevance of the words of King and Mahatma Gandhi and the choices teens are
confronted with today.
George Anthony, coordinator of the program, coached the students through their
parts. In it, students Jubin and Jesus are ready to go at it, but are
interrupted by students who inspire them to consider an
alternative . . . [read more]
  Swami Chidanand and Sadhvi Bhagawati
– Rishikesh, India – Divine Shakti Movement in Rishikesh Joins
Season for Nonviolence through Service for All
Violence is not merely that which is committed through wars, bombs, grenades
and guns. Every choice and decision we make has the potential to be a decision
for peace or a decision for violence. Making choices that lead to polluted and
depleted water, soil and air due to which our brothers and sisters suffer and
die from hunger, thirst or water-borne illnesses is also violence. Making
choices that lead to a grossly inequitable distribution of critical resources
such that vast percentages of people in our world needlessly perish is also
violence. Making choices to permit—through apathy, indifference or
complacency—a continuation and growth of global starvation, lack of
sanitation and hygiene, inadequate health care, illiteracy, and subjugation is
also violence . . . [read more]
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The Gandhi King Season for Nonviolence
(SNV) – FREE RESOURCES
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Find SNV events near you – click here (and then click on the
events listed on the calendar for more details).
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Submit your own SNV events – click here.
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See Selected SNV Events for Inspiration – click here.
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Program templates and materials – click here.
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Resources for individuals, schools, spiritual centers, and families – click here.
Nonviolence Tools, Trainings and Studies – From the Metta Center for Nonviolence
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Roadmap Compass: a tool to learn about
nonviolence while building community and strategy – click here.
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Short Roadmap "Prezi" – a short presentation about the Roadmap
and what it offers as a tool for strategic thinking – click here.
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Roadmap Training Guides – click here.
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Metta's latest issue of Emergence Magazine – click here.
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Metta's Certificate in Nonviolence Studies, next cohort starts April 7, 2014
– click here.
Nonviolent Peaceforce
– learn how you can support frontline nonviolence peace efforts in
Sudan and around the world – click here.
The National Peace Academy USA
is celebrating its 5th birthday with a special teleconference on March 4 from
8-9pm ET. NPA President, Dot Maver and Vice President of Academic Affairs,
Tony Jenkins will be joined by Abigail Disney—the producer of the
film Pray the Devil Back to Hell and the groundbreaking PBS mini-series
Women, War & Peace. She will be sharing her thoughts about Building
a Culture of Peace in the USA: Addressing the "Entertainment Industrial
Complex". Abigail will also take questions from the NPA community
– click here to join.
ADMISSIONS is a film that
stars Academy Award nominee James Cromwell and tells an inspiring tale about
what it takes to find lasting peace, even in conflict-ridden places like the
Middle East. The film's purpose is to start a conversation that heals. To
date, Admissions has been honored with 25 International Awards. ADMISSIONS is
now being offered as a free screening in conjunction with a global campaign to
promote PeaceNow.com and their efforts to
gather ONE BILLION signatures for global peace. The signatures will ultimately
be presented to the U.N. and will be used to help enact The International
Resolution for the Establishment of Peace Departments and Ministries of Peace
in governments around the world. To lear more about the film – click here. Also, go to PeaceNow.com to sign the petition.
The Institute of Global Education is
sponsoring a conference "Focus on the Future: Empowering Agents of
Change" in San Jose, Costa Rica on March 3–4, 2014.
An afternoon of the conference is co-sponsored by the United Nations mandated
University for Peace and the Earth Charter International Secretariat at their
campus in San Jose. To learn more - click here.
On Tuesday, March 11, Idealist will launch a new
network—online and on the ground—that will help people
everywhere connect and take action on any issue that concerns them, locally or
globally, online and in person. "We will start with a live online
presentation, take your questions, and then start building this network with
you." To learn more – click here.
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2014 Catalyst: (#4, 2/22) (#3, 2/8) (#2, 1/26) (#1, 1/12)
2013 Catalyst: (#22, 12/14) (#21, 11/30) (#20, 11/16) (#19, 11/3) (#18, 10/20) (#17, 10/6) (#16, 9/21) (#15, 9/8) (#14, 8/25) (#13, 8/4) (#12, 7/21), (#11, 7/7), (#10, 6/16) (#9, 6/2) (#8, 5/12) (#7, 4/28) (#6, 4/14) (#5, 3/24) (#4, 2/24) (#3, 2/9) (#2, 1/26) (#1, 1/13)
Birth 2012 Catalyst: (#15, 12/9) (#14, 12/1) (#13, 11/22) (#12, 11/10) (#11, 11/3) (#10, 10/20) (#9, 10/6) (#8, 9/16) (#7, 9/8) (#6, 8/25) (#5, 8/16) (#4, 8/4) (#3, 7/28) (#2, 7/21) (#1, 7/14)
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The Gandhi King Season for Nonviolence
(SNV) commenced for the 17th consecutive year on January 30, 2014 in
cities across the globe. The annual 64 day campaign, co-founded in 1998 by Dr.
Arun Gandhi and The Association for Global New Thought, is an educational,
media and grassroots awareness campaign spanning the January 30th and April 4th
memorial anniversaries of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This
year the celebration has a new program honoring Nelson Mandela. To learn more
– click here. (See extensive
resources in Movement News.)
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Remembering Pete Seeger
By Eleanor Tara
Pete Seeger died this past January at the age of 94. Pete Seeger was
America's best-loved folksinger and an untiring environmentalist. He was at
the forefront of the labor movement, the struggle for Civil Rights, the peace
and anti-war movements, and the fight for a clean world. We thank Pete for
being an inspiration and source of hope for millions of people around the
world. We send our love and best wishes to his family and friends. To read
more about Pete Seeger and to listen to his music, visit his appreciation page
– click here.
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