Dear friends,

As a National Peace Academy (NPA) partner, the Metta Center for Nonviolence is excited to share information with you about the National Peace Academy’s 2^nd annual Peacebuilding Peacelearning Intensive (PPI) that will take place this summer in Burlington, VT from July 17-23, 2011.

Most importantly, the National Peace Academy is pleased to extend a 50% tuition discount to friends and supporters of the Metta Center who wish to attend the PPI.

The PPI is a one-week immersion learning program for people who wish to create significant, meaningful and sustainable change in their communities.  The PPI provides a holistic introduction to the theory and practice of peacebuilding and engages participants in cooperative learning experiences, including the preparation of a peacebuilding project proposal to take back to their organization, workplace or community. The program supports the development of the full spectrum of knowledge, skills and capacities of the peacebuilder – inner and outer, personal and professional.

Space is limited, so please apply today!  You can find more information and the application here.

To receive the friends of Metta Center tuition discount please enter the following code when applying: 07META11.

The Science of Nonviolence: Theory and Practice
Dates: May 7-8, 2011
Location: Berkeley, California
Conducted by: Metta Center for Nonviolence in partnership with the National Peace Academy
Course Instructors: Michael Nagler, Metta Center President and Professor emeritus and founder of Peace and Conflict Studies Program, UC Berkeley; Stephanie Van Hook, Metta Center Co-Director and adjunct faculty at Portland State University
Course fees: $300
NPA Certificate Points: 2 certificate points
CEUs: 1.4 CEUs 
Spheres of Peace: This workshop meets the requirements for the Personal and Social spheres.

This course will give participants a grounding in principled nonviolence, which Gandhi called “the greatest power mankind has been endowed with.”  Students will be exposed to an inspiring vision of this power and its many applications, and familiarize themselves with its logic, history, and potential future.  

Click here to register

Instructors will explain carefully the basic principles of active nonviolence (‘what makes it tick’) and laws of its operation as worked out by Gandhi in his fifty years of experimentation with that principle in almost every walk of life. Then, in the more active or interactive part of the series, participants will get practice in analyzing current events from a nonviolence standpoint and finally design their own project to apply nonviolence to a selected problem.  One session will be devoted to “the state of the art:” new developments since Gandhi and King, with emphasis on the contributions of history and science.  At all points we will keep in mind the needs of educators, whether they have prior familiarity with the subject or are new to it (like most of us). 

Learning goals 
In addition to the capacity to understand and explain nonviolence to others, and to analyze past and current events from a nonviolence perspective, students will be poised to carry out their  “experiments with truth” in their own lives, personal and political.  Special attention will be paid to the needs of educators who wish both to conduct a more nonviolent learning experience and to introduce nonviolent history, logic, and theory as subject matter in various courses.

Additional Information
A course syllabus will be provided upon registration.  Venue details and directions will also be provided.

Statement:

Eight years ago, on March 19, the United States led the attack on Iraq. This year, on that same date, US forces, in conjunction with those of other countries, embarked on an aerial assault of another Arab country, Libya.

The American Friends Service Committee is appalled by the countless deaths, the untold suffering, the displacements of people, and the physical destruction in Libya. We pray for those who have already lost their loved ones through violence, whatever may be the source.

Our long experience in the Middle East and Africa, along with our Quaker witness for peace, compels us to speak out about the crisis in Libya. We deplore the violence and killings inflicted by Qaddafi’s government on its citizens, as we abhor the actions of any government that places their own self-preservation above the well being of their people. However, our revulsion does not justify violence, or war.

Our experience has shown the futility of challenging violence with violence. We have seen that history has proven time and again that war and violence do not bring about justice or a lasting peace. Instead, they always take a terrible toll on civilians. This is why, as a Quaker organization, we advocate for nonviolent social change.

We support the people of Libya as they struggle to protect their human rights and to transform unjust social and political systems in their country. We note that in Egypt and Tunisia, remarkable change has been achieved in a short time with minimal violence or outside intervention. Recent history shows how nonviolent approaches can prevail to overcome extraordinary oppression. Unlike military action from another country, these approaches serve the people over the long term.

In addressing the serious issues of international peace and security, we urge the use of non-military methods by all involved. In this case, the international community has not exhausted the available nonviolent alternatives to protect the people of Libya. The significant resources required by the chosen course of military intervention could be better used for intense diplomatic and political efforts to alleviate the crisis.

We believe that it is morally unacceptable to allow military tactics to lead our response to human crises. The current foreign military assault on Libya is a step in the wrong direction, one that may lead the country to further instability, human suffering, and protracted violent conflict.

We therefore ask:

The Libyan government to end all violence against its own citizens and to fulfill its obligation to protect its citizens.
The coalition forces, including the United States, to cease the air bombardment and military involvement in Libya, and renounce any intention to impose regime change by force.

The United Nations, the African Union, and the Arab League to increase diplomatic efforts to engage all parties to the conflict in dialogue, to support an immediate ceasefire, and to find political solutions that serve the needs of the Libyan people.
All parties to allow full access for humanitarian agencies to provide urgently needed assistance to internally displaced people, refugees who fled to neighboring countries, and the tens of thousands of migrants stranded in Libya. We urge that emergency assistance and protection be extended to all in need on the basis of humanitarian principles and not on the basis of political criteria or military objectives.

Tikkun magazine’s  25th anniversary celebration  March 14th. Many liberals and progressives complain about the religious right and various forms of fundamentalism, so it is important to support the
very few and courageous media voices in the religious world that unabashedly support a progressive agenda.

Tikkun is one such voice–and has been since it began 25 years ago. Even more so it deserves your support for this particular event, because Tikkun will be giving one of the Tikkun awards to Judge Goldstone, the courageous South African jurist whose report on Israel’s human rights violations during its assault on Gaza in Dec. 2008 and Jan. 2009 was embraced by the peace and justice movements around the world and in Israel, but condemned not only by the government of Israel and the American Jewish establishment, but also by the US Congress and the US State Department.

When Tikkun editor Rabbi Michael Lerner announced that Tikkun would be extending this honor to Justice Goldstone in Berkeley, his house was attacked by right-wing Zionists and some of them may be
picketing or even disrupting when Tikkun acknowledges Goldstone for the good he did for humanity in his UN reports of Rwanda, Bosnia and Gaza.

Tikkun needs and deserves support from those of us who recognize that in giving this award, Tikkun has once again distinguished itself as one of the most courageous progressive voices in the U.S.

To register for this incredible evening, go to www.tikkun.org/celebrate or call 510 644 1200