Peace advocates preach nonviolence

Experts, doctors and professors took turns engaging a diverse audience in a two-day roundtable discussion about nonviolent communication. The Interfaith Chapel hosted the conference — the second-annual event sponsored by the Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence — on Friday evening and all day Saturday.

There were notable differences from last year, particularly in the demographic makeup of the attendees. According to the Director for the Gandhi Institute, Dr. Allison Stokes, the conference extended invitations to peace groups, such as Veterans for Peace, in hopes that they would network with each other and work together to spread their messages.

Professor of Philosophy Robert Holmes, recently named the Professor of the Year in Humanities, kicked off the conference Friday evening with a keynote address debating the merits of evil.  “Hatred is simply intensified fear,” he said.

A few of the underlying themes of Saturday’s conference were internal, personal struggles and nonviolent communication.

Spiritual counselor Karen Truehart’s solution to internal struggle was through meditation. Her presentation centered around a quote from the conference’s namesake, Gandhi.
“Gandhi didn’t say do the change, he said be the change,” she said. “There’s a huge difference between being and doing.”

Another stereotype Truehart sought to dispute was the notion that humans are naturally malevolent. She noted that when soldiers return from war, they’re often driven insane by psychological symptoms.

“What evolution favored was our big hearts and our ability to cooperate,” she said. “The idea we are inherently violent doesn’t hold up.”

Looking to expose conference participants to practical nonviolence activities, Truehart led a meditation exercise, hoping that attendees would work on focusing their attention inward to the sound of a reverberating bell.

“There’s nothing magic about meditation, it’s skill,” she said. “In the case of meditation and turning yourself inward, we have not been practiced at that.”

Duke Duchscherer, a veteran of United Nations and grassroots  peace trips on four continents, engaged the audience with a presentation on nonviolent communication.

“Violence is a tragic expression of unmet needs — the most costly way to get needs met,” he said.

The main focus of his presentation focused on four ways to analyze a predicament. Before considering nonviolence, Duchscherer said there were only two ways to hear a message, either judgements outward or inward.

To convey his point, Duchscherer gave a specific example — a thief breaking into his car. Before considering nonviolent communication, he was limited to judging the situation, either by criticizing the perpetrator or getting angry with himself.

However, with the benefit of nonviolent communication, Duchscherer was able to analyze the situation more deeply, pointing out he could feel empathy with the perpetrator, trying to understand his thoughts and feelings.

“Nonviolent communication allows me to drop into a deeper place, where I can connect to my feelings and my needs,” he said. “When I can relate in a nonviolent way it is much more effective and powerful. Some people call it a language of compassion, or a language of the heart. Transforming one’s internal relationship with oneself.”

Thomas Warfield then brought the crowd to its feet, hoping to convey nonviolent communication in song and dance. The crowd was very appreciative of Warfield’s youth and vigor following a series of presentations.

The mix of young and old generally seemed pleased with the conference. Senior Chelsea McGuire, a first-timer at a Ghandi nonviolence conference, attended to better understand the work of the Institute, along with conflict in the world.

“I thought all of the speakers did a fabulous job creating a sense of community,” she said.
 Participants took advantage of the networking opportunities available to them with a predominantly older population. Ronald Van Deusen, a member of Veterans for Peace, a non-profit dedicated to awareness campaigns about the costs of war, sought to recruit new members.

“This conference definitely helped me get out the message,” he said.
This year’s schedule was tightly packed and left little time for speaker and audience question and answer sessions. Stokes said a potential modification for the next conference may allow for more interaction between panelists and conference attendees.

Willis is a member of
the class of 2011.