Nonkilling Arts Research Committee Letter: Vol. 2, N. 3 (May-Jun 2018)

Bimestrially sent from our site: Nonkilling.org.

"Nonkilling art explores the spirit and practice of how to prevent, respond to, and to improve individual, social, and global well-being beyond killing." —Glenn D. Paige

Dear NKARC members and friends,

In NonKilling Arts Research Committee (NKARC) we are always aiming for creative  expressions towards realising a Nonkilling world. Colleague Francisco Gomes de Matos reminded us about Peace Stories that are needed to bring out such ethos:

PEACE STORIES let´s tell
that in HARMONY will excel

PEACE STORIES that will educate
and that human dignity will elevate

PEACE STORIES that interdependence will sustain
and that interpersonal intercultural respect will maintain

PEACE STORIES that conflict/war-prevention will inspire
and help children and youth a Life of serenity to aspire

PEACE STORIES that respect to ethnic diversity will advance
and a commitment to social justice and econodignity will enhance

PEACE STORIES that the blessings of humility will celebrate
and forms of creative empathy and solidarity will propagate

PEACE STORIES that will help GLOBAL PEACE LITERACY rise
and will empower learners to share PEACE as a human-improving enterprise

Globally, let´s tell PEACE STORIES that ‘LOVING ONE ANOTHER´ will prioritize
PEACE STORIES that citizens multilingually/multiartistically will fondly fictionalize.

(Francisco Gomes de Matos a peace linguist, is co-founder of ABA Global Education, from Recife, Brazil)

Colleague Francisco has always had an open invitation to all to add any missing attribute to his list.  These attributes are noted in the poetry, plays, cinema, museums, articles, video clips, photos etc mentioned in the current Letter; an outstanding piece in this issue is the section on Nonkilling Architecture - a Ted Talk by architect Michael Murphy who speaks about buildings that help to heal and reconcile, his talk provides context to the opening of a new National memorial commemorating thousands of Afro-American victims of lynching from past two centuries in Alabama, USA.

My sincere thanks to everyone who contributed or pointed to related material.

1. Poetry and Nonkilling

See below five poems from NKARC colleagues: Ada Aharoni and David Krieger; ‘A Blessing for Peace’ is a poem by Irish philosopher poet late John O’ Donohue (1 January 1956 – 4 January 2008).

(i) You Cannot Bomb Me Anymore

by Ada Aharoni
For International Women’s Day

Listen, little big man,
you cannot bomb me anymore
because I don't allow you
to bomb me anymore
nor to choke
nor rape me anymore,
for I have my own strength now
and my own creative
peace business now

With this woman's mind
this woman's body
this woman's heart -
we don't allow you
to bomb us anymore
for our sisters in Norway
have shown us the way and now -
you cannot, cannot, bomb us
anymore!

So now, we Global Women
We who are the largest
And mightier group in the world
We who give LIFE -
Will all join hands together and
We will not allow you
To bomb us, bomb us,
ANYMORE!

For now on, it is
the grandmother
who will eat the big bad wolf
and not the other way around!

(ii) Children Are Stars Of Peace

by Ada Aharoni

You were born with loving smiles
Star seeds of peace
You are life you are future
You do not want to die in wars

Smart children, armed
With smart phones and computers
You will shoot your peace beeps
All over our global village

Your rapid fingers will bring us
What we failed to bring you -
A world where not one gun is fired
A world of twinkling stars of peace.

(Ada Aharoni is founder of the International Forum for the Literature and Culture of Peace.)

(iii) Archeology Of War

by David Krieger

The years of war have numbed us,
grinding us down as they pile up one upon
the other forming a burial mound not only
for the fallen soldiers and innocents
who were killed, but for the parts of us,
once decent and bright with hope,
now deflated by the steady fall of death
and sting of empty promises.

(iv) A Bomber Pilot Speaks

by David Krieger

The stain of death spreads below,
but from my cockpit I see none of it.
I only drop bombs as I have been trained
and then, far above the haze and blood,
I speed toward home.

I am deaf to the screams of pain,
Do not smell the stench of slaughter.
I try not to think of children shivering
with fear or of those blown to pieces.

They tell me I am brave, but
how brave can it be to drop bombs
on a crowded city? I am a cog, only that,
a cog in a fancy machine of death.

(David Krieger is founder of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.)

(v) A Blessing for PEACE

by John O' Donohue

As the fever of day calms towards twilight
May all that is strained in us come to ease.
We pray for all who suffered violence today
May an unexpected serenity surprise them.

For those who risk their lives each day for peace,
May their hearts glimpse providence at the heart of history.

That those who make riches from violence and war
Might hear in their dreams the cries of the lost.
That we might see through our fear of each other
A new vision to heal our fatal attraction to aggression.

That those who enjoy the privilege of peace
Might not forget their tormented brothers and sisters.
That the wolf might lie down with the lamb,

That our swords be beaten into ploughshares
And no hurt or harm be done
Anywhere along the holy mountain.

(vi) Poetry Book Review
NKARC colleague Sumeet Grover’s new collection of poems, Signals.

2. Plays, Theatre and Nonkilling

(a) Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco
The play considered one of the masterpieces in the 'theatre of absurd' genre was written by Eugene Ionesco just after World War II, and produced widely in late 1950s and then on Broadway in the 1960s. Ionesco grew up in the late 1930s in Romania and France under the lengthening shadow of Fascism in Europe with rise of dictators and popular support for those leaders. American director Frank Galati who adapted the play for its contemporary production at Asolo Rep recently noted: "Since theatre is "of the moment", theatre artists are drawn to works of dramatic literature that may resonate with contemporary moments. I am drawn to Rhinceros because, like sudden silence of a canary in a mine-shaft, it is warning. It sounds an alarm. It signals that the atmosphere has become lethal."

The plot is about Berenger, a simple man with a simple life. He has a regular job, drinks too much, and has a flirtatious relationship with his co-worker Daisy. But his day is interrupted by a rhinoceros charging through town – then another and another, until all of the townspeople transform into rhinos. As one of the few humans remaining, Berenger ponders the ramifications of literally following the herd. Berenger is faced to make a choice in order to live. Ionesco writes: "The supreme trick of mass insanity is that it persuades you that the only abnormal person is the one who refuses to join in the madness of others, the one who tries vainly to resist. We will never understand totalitarianism if we do not understand that people rarely have the strength to be uncommon." With global rise in corrupt political leadership, authoritarianism and a mass culture, the Rhinoceros’s message is timely posing important questions in increasingly incomprehensible becoming world on how to maintain individual integrity. A compelling intelligent play. {PDF of playscript}

(b) The Mountaintop by Katori Hall
The play Mountaintop is a fictional depiction of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s last night on earth set entirely in Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel on the eve of his assassination on April 3, 1968. After delivering one of his most memorable speeches, “I Have Been to the Mountaintop”, an exhausted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. retires to his room at the Lorraine Motel amidst a raging storm. When a mysterious stranger arrives at his door, Dr. King is forced to confront his destiny and his legacy as a leading figure in the American Civil Rights Movement. The play has been described as “a powerful, poetic take on his legacy — its triumphs and still-unfulfilled promises — from the perspective of a generation that followed him.”

Playwright Katori Hall is currently the Artistic Director of Hattiloo Theatre in Memphis, TN, USA. The play premiered at a small theatre in London, England before transferring to the West End and winning the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play in 2010.  Following its London success, The Mountaintop opened on Broadway in 2011 starring Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett. Regional productions of the work began one year later in 2012. Last year, it was premiered in Montreal, Canada by the Black Theatre Workshop. {Full play PDF}

3. Museums, Memorials and Nonkilling

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice: Lynching in America  
Designed by Architect Michael Murphy together with the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) group, this powerful and moving memorial museum opened on April 26 in Alabama.
 
Murphy echoes the belief that "Great architecture can give us hope. Great architecture can heal." And for any Reconciliation to happen, the Truth has to be revealed and accepted. Murphy in a TED talk speaking last year about this monument explained: "The memorial will take us on a journey through a classical, almost familiar building type, like the Parthenon or the colonnade at the Vatican. But as we enter, the ground drops below us and our perception shifts, where we realize that these columns evoke the lynching, which happened in the public square. And as we continue, we begin to understand the vast number of those who have yet to be put to rest. Their names will be engraved on the markers that hang above us. And just outside will be a field of identical columns. But these are temporary columns, waiting in purgatory, to be placed in the very counties where these lynching occurred. Over the next few years, this site will bear witness, as each of these markers is claimed and visibly placed in those counties. Our nation will begin to heal from over a century of silence."

4. Peace March and Nonkilling

(i) March for Our Lives
Background: On March 24, about a million came together to share their collective voice against all forms of gun violence in America, mainly 15 students and 2 teachers of Marjory Stoneman High School in Florida who were killed by a high powered gun totting fellow student on February 14. In communities across the country, people of all generations came together for “March For Our Lives” to demand that their lives and safety become a priority and that the gun violence, in all its forms, must end now.

This student-organized and led moment had three goals: 1. Pass a law to ban the assault weapons frequently used in school shootings; 2. Prohibit the sale of high-capacity magazines; and 3. Close loopholes in America's background checks and implement laws that require background checks on every gun purchase.

Parkland, FL shooter was taught how to shoot a lethal weapon in the very school that he later targeted in the tragic Valentine's Day Massacre. A parent wrote: "Yes, our children are trained as shooters in their school cafeterias, as part of the U.S. military's Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) marksmanship program. This link between rampant gun violence in this country and military recruitment in schools is largely ignored in the ongoing gun debate. If one wanted to end gun violence, stop training kids in schools as shooters!” Nearly 2,000 U.S. high schools have such JROTC marksmanship programs, which are taxpayer-funded and rubber-stamped by Congress. Cafeterias are transformed into firing ranges, where children, as young as 13 years old, learn how to kill. The day the student who opened fire on his classmates, he wore his JROTC t-shirt. JROTC's motto? "Motivating Young People to Be Better Citizens." By training them to wield a gun?

• Posters

• 31 powerful photos from the march

(ii) Palestine Gaza Peace March — The Great March of Return
Many thousands of Gaza’s residents had gathered on March 30 for a nonviolent march to the border with the Israel of the Palestinian refugees and their descendants to go back to their historical homes as part of The Great March of Return. The date to start this pacifist action was chosen as a reminder that the loss of land remains a constant reminder under the occupation. In absence of any political solution, all this pointing to what steps can be taken to building trust so that Palestinian population and Right to a Just Future can express the repression experienced in this conflict of David - Goliath proportion.

Uri Avenery in his thoughtful article, “Eyeless in Gaza” made an insightful observation, about the demo as watched from the other side by onlookers.  He writes: "This week a short video, recorded by a soldier at the time of such an action, was widely seen in Israel. It shows the action from the angle of a soldier who was obviously standing next to a sharpshooter. The sharpshooter sees the demonstrators from a distance of hundreds of yards. The hairs of his sights move at random, than settle on an individual. He shoots. The person drops on the spot. A joyous cry “Yesh” is heard all around from unseen soldiers who have been watching. “Yesh” means “got him”, a jubilant yell, such as would accompany a hunter’s success in killing a rabbit.“ 21 unarmed participants in the demonstration were killed by Israeli forces.

5. Nonkilling Song - Two Docs

(i) The World Is My Country by Arthur Kanegis
The World is My Country, the forthcoming documentary from director Arthur Kanegis, chronicles the origin and validity of the World Passport, a document issued by the World Service Authority (WSA) in Washington, D.C. and the epic true story of the daring, controversial and decades-ahead-of-his-time World Citizen #1, Garry Davis.

Friend Jan commending the doc writes: "While the film is mainly about giving us a vision, with deep and universal roots, for where to go, for what we can do, it also gives a vision of what human life can be. … I’m reminded of a quote, attributed to Thomas Jefferson, but also to Andrew Jackson: “One man with courage is a majority.”… and what we know about courage, that it is very much related to “heart” or love.

Of course, there are lots of people who have shown great love and courage. What is extra special about this effort is that I sense it has “legs”; it feels big enough to possibly made the kind of shift that we so desperately need.”

{The film on Youtube}

(ii) Oslo Diaries by Erez Laufer
Following coverage of Erez Laufer's doc In His Own Words in the last Letter, Nahum Laufer from Education for Peace films informs of the new doc being prepared by the company, the Oslo Diaries. It is a documentary that he describes as "a tale of peace and human friendship in spite of politics and three Dum-dum bullets that kill the peace".

6. Song and Nonkilling

The enthusiasm and positive attitude of young and courageous participants in last month's peace marches reminded me of Katy Perry's 2016 song "RISE", a song about life, resurrection about striving to overcome adversity. Perry says she wrote the song after years of feeling a "need for our world to unite".

"I won't just survive
Oh, you will see me thrive
Can't write my story
I'm beyond the archetype
I won't just conform
No matter how you shake my core
'Cause my roots, they run deep, oh."

7. Nonkilling Journalism

(i) Carter to Trump - Shun Military Action, Keep country at peace
Words of wisdom from Nobel Peace Laureate 93 year old former US President Jimmy Carter.

(ii) From Action Network of the World Beyond War team - excerpt from a Letter to Presidents Trump and Putin on Nuclear Disarmament:

This past summer, former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn and former Russian Foreign Minister Igor S. Ivanov were two of the signers of a letter to Presidents Trump and Putin. In it, they recommended the following four steps:

• 1) "A new Presidential Joint Declaration by the United States and the Russian Federation declaring that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought."

• 2) "Increase military-to-military communication through a new NATO-Russia Military Crisis Management Group."

• 3) Collaborate to secure "nuclear and radiological materials" so that they do not fall into the hands of terrorist groups.

• 4) Create "informal understandings on cyber dangers related to interference in strategic warning systems ... to prevent war by mistake." (...)

(iii) Gun Violence as State Sponsored Domestic Terrorism
by Henry A. Giroux (Prof Giroux teaches Critical Pedagogy at McMaster University)

There are 300 million guns in the United States and since the mass murder at Sandy Hook Elementary School of 20 young children and 6 teachers a decade ago, 11,000 more children have died of gun violence... Giroux writes: “What are we to make of a society in which young children have a greater sense of moral courage and social responsibility than the zombie adults who make the laws that fail to invest in and protect the lives of present and future generations". {Read full article.}

(iv) Change is Coming by Bob Koehler
For a thoughtful piece on “March for Our Lives” across USA, NKARC colleague Bob Koehler writes: “Moments such as this transcend rhetoric. People’s lives matter. Their murders cannot be reduced to statistics and merely laid to rest. The cry of anguish across this planet, for all the lives that have been needlessly cut short, will reverberate for as long as necessary: until this country’s politics catches up to the will and the awareness and the suffering of its people.” {Read full article.}

(v) Treaty to Formally End Korean War Is Being Discussed, South Confirms
By Choe Sang-Hun and Jane Perlez.
{Read full article.}

8. Center for Global Nonkilling (CGNK) news

• In memory of Prof. Glenn Paige on April 9, 15 students (in three groups) at Creighton University, Omaha, USA using Professor Paige’s book, Nonkilling Korea: Six Culture Exploration presented their understanding on Nonkilling philosophy and the significance of the Nonkilling action for today.

• Professor N. Radhakrishnan on visit from India to USA delivered on April 09 at the World Bank India Staff Club in Washington, D.C., a Talk on "Give Nonviolence a Chance and Make Nonkilling a Mission".

Last Word

Anis Hamadeh’s lyric “Nonkilling” was composed for his musical project, The Flood (April 2013)

Here’s a new word, have you heard “nonkilling”?
Sound and alert, it’s the word “nonkilling”.

Dr. Johnson, get out your book, and write it down for me.
Spread the word in Bangor, Maine, and Memphis, Tennessee.
Nonkilling here, nonkilling there, nonkilling politics, nonkilling care.

There is a number, count the killings, count them well,
for every killing has a tale that we can tell.
Index high, my oh my, index low, here you go.

Reduce the killings, that’s the first priority.
Respect for leaders who can act responsibly.
Values here, values there, take the microscope and compare.
Here’s a new word, have you heard “nonkilling”?
Sound and alert, it’s the word “nonkilling”.

My deep gratitude to all who contributed and pointed to the material for
the letter.

Looking forward to your inspirations and comments as always.

Nonkillling Regards,
Bill

Bill (Balwant) Bhaneja
Coordinator
NonKilling Arts Research Committee (NKARC)
Center for Global Nonkilling (CGNK)
www.nonkilling.org

"Nonkilling Culture crosses all the lines." —Glenn D. Paige

Nonkilling is THE measure of Human progress

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