Choosing Peace

I attended a Zoom presentation last night by Mel Duncan, one of the founders of Non-violent Peace Forces, a group that trains and deploys people to go into regions of violence to protect civilians from warring factions. The protectors carry no weapons and accomplish their mission through the non-partisan clarity of their purpose (to prevent protect unarmed civilians and to reduce violence) and the relationships they build will all sides that allows them to communicate with all parties. Their peace keeping force which is recognized by the UN and invited into situations of ongoing instability and conflict is nearly 50% women.

Mel is from the Minneapolis area and although his work over the past two decades has been internationally focused, he is now back in Minneapolis working with schools and police and activists to create strategies to reduce the violence. He reported that the City Council’s bold vote to ‘defund the police’ has become more and more diffuse due to the lack of consensus on alternative proposals. He also said that gun shops in Minneapolis are selling guns so quickly that they are having a hard time keeping guns in stock.

I have not yet digested all I heard last night but I had long and complicated dreams of being up through the night in parts of the city I could not recognize—of being lost and in danger without knowing how or when I would get home. Let me offer a few of the things still with me from this evening sponsored by the Worcester Center for Non-violent Solutions many issues were raised, I’ll relate just a few that are still with me this morning:

• Security is a basic need of all humans. We require security to live healthy and productive lives, no matter our age, political views or circumstances.
• Many acts of violence are perpetrated in the name of security and thereby engender less security.
• Taking guns away from some police and banning choke holds will not solve our problem. The necessary protesting violence must be linked to new ways of thinking and the creation of new models of peace keeping that involve everyone.
• Oftentimes, just the presence of people committed to non-violence is enough to dramatically reduce acts of violence. One of the basic strategies of the Non-violent Peace Force is ‘accompaniment’ just to be there and walk with those in danger. Presence is a powerful force.
• Mel referenced and recommended Choose Democracy, an organization that is doing ongoing on-line training in non-violence for these times and is inviting people to join with them in their pledging

o We will vote.
o We will refuse to accept election results until all the votes are counted.
o We will take to the streets if a coup is attempted.
o If we need to, we will shut down this country to protect the integrity of the democratic process.

• Our country is exhibiting many of the conditions that have led other regions into conditions of ongoing violence: increase in polarization, increasing rumors and conflicting view of reality, increasing acts of violence associated with politics, lack of commitment to a peaceful transfer of power.
• There are more trained non-violent peace-keepers in the world than at any point in its history. (I must add parenthetically that I would associate this with the loss of the cultural norms that fulfilled this function. Though I may be looking back on an imagined past that was actually much more unstable and violent than I realize.)
• The outcome of our election on November 3rd will probably not be clear for days or weeks or even months. We must be patient and resist spreading the rumors and allegations that will inevitably arise.
• Security comes from relationships we build with people who are ‘not like us.’
• To support peace, make an unusual friend – someone who is different from you, someone with whom you may have large disagreements.
• To build a stable coalition for a peaceful and just society we must get out of our houses and onto the streets and make connections beyond our zone of comfort.

Thomas Jefferson once said that the cost of liberty is eternal vigilance. So let us stay engaged and vigilant. Let us not fall in to fear and panic. Let us avoid the comfortable trap of total distraction and avoidance. Stay engaged in the larger unfolding drama of this moment, but don’t put your life on hold until after the election. Love who you love, and treasure each day. Being alive is a precious, difficult and brief privilege.