"waging" nonviolence and Peace

"Waging" nonviolence and peace

Op-Ed By Alice Holstein, Ed.D.

December 5, 2021 La Crosse Tribune

If you watch the news lately, you may see several short articles about China’s growing military threat. Their increasing objection to Taiwan’s free status (maintained with U.S. protection) is backed with a  military budget  that has increased 6.8% from 2020. You can bet that the U.S. response will be racheted up accordingly, despite the fact that U.S. estimated defense spending is a healthy 4 times China’s figures in recent years.  (U.S. defense spending, estimated at 934 billion for 2021, is more than the combined top spending nations in the world.) This is obscene. The nine top spenders include China, India, Russia, UK, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Japan and South Korea. (This does not include counting the wild card threat of North Korea.)

First, she points out that hope is essential.  It moves us forward in the face of extreme adversity. For me, this means facing the existential threat of climate change, the worldwide rise of autocracy, the ugly face of racism, lethal virus threats, the persistence of poverty and more. The media reveals the sensational, the negative and lately, the disinformation of cults and lies. How are we to cope?

What if the U.S. and China and all the rest were to devote even half their expenditures to non-violence and peace?  Imagine the dollar benefits to solving world problems, not to mention the corresponding hope in our minds and hearts.

Tackling this subject of non-violence and peace was inspired by a recent stunning presentation given by Dr. Deborah Buffton, historian, lifelong peace activist and Professor Emeritus UW-L. She suggested that non-violent practices were the way to push back against violence, that they were not cowardly or weak but that it took hard work and could be a way of life for courageous people.  Non-violence is a Third Way, beyond war or pacifism, grounded in love without demonizing the other side. The enemy is the evil, not the perpetrator, which can be disarming and seem a threat.

Her words triggered my emotional response because I know a few things about war. As a Vietnam-era Intelligence Officer, I was the first woman to run a combat intelligence shop for the B-52 nuclear mission and then the first woman sent overseas to Guam and Okinawa to brief B-52 pilots and command staff personnel for Vietnam operations. I was disturbed enough about the war to accept an early out.

Years later, in a Kubler-Ross healing workshop, I listened to Vietnam ground troops describe what had been done to them and some horrific things they had done to others. The acts were unspeakable on both sides. Even later, in my 60s, I served as a Peer Support Specialist in a VA mental health clinic where I encountered veterans who could not let go of their wartime trauma. Their long lasting scars helped me understand the power of the words, PTSD and “moral injury.” People can be traumatized for life; many commit suicide years later. It makes me sick at heart to know and remember these things. I tear up with the knowledge. Why cannot the men of this world, who seem to control the levers of military power, see beyond the carnage to also formally wage nonviolence and peace?

Dr. Buffton suggested there were nearly several hundred ways to conduct non-violence. You will find 198 of them at aeinstein.org/nonviolentinteractions/198-methods-of-non-violent-actions/  Some  methods or actions include speeches, letters, petitions, slogans and symbols, pamphlets and books, newspapers, media, group lobbying, picketing, prayer and worship, paint as protest, vigils, plays and music, singing, marches, parades, motorcades, processions, protest meetings, teach-ins, walk-outs, silence, boycotts, strikes, sanctuary, lockouts, withholding rent, embargos, sit-downs, sit-ins, pray-ins, noncooperation, fasts, alternative institutions and more.  She also listed many, many encouraging examples of successful non-violent actions.

When I asked her if there were places where non-violence was being taught, she noted that there were a number of peace studies programs initiated in the last 20 years.  I say these are promising, but hardly enough. We should be teaching non-violence everywhere, plus the “principles and practices” of peace in every classroom in the country. We study wars at length; why not learn about peace?

One organization attempting to do the latter is a peace literacy organization. They offer a curriculum FREE for every student and school around the globe. You can download their video and text programs for various educational levels, from pre K to 5th grade, Middle School, High School and College/Adult ages. As they say on their website, www.Peaceliteracy.org “Humanity can no longer settle for peace as an abstract concept or sentimental wish.” And, “education is the first line of defense against humanity’s most serious global challenges.”

Amen! When will we wake up?

Alice Holstein, Ed.D. is a Veteran United States Air Force Intelligence Officer (Vietnam era), a retired organization consultant/college instructor, community activist and a spiritual companioning practitioner. She lives in La Crosse, WI and can be reached at aholstein@centurytel.net.

© Alice A. Holstein, 2022. Please feel free to share this document while acknowledging its authorship.

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