WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.000 Alright, I think we can get started. 00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:06.000 First of all, I'd like to welcome everyone and thank you for coing 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:11.000 to this social science symposium talk that happens maybe once a quarter. 00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:14.000 And we're very lucky to have a special guest Charles Busch 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:17.000 whose founder of an organization called Fields of Peace. 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:21.000 And Charles just to a class a 10 o'clock this morning, 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:25.000 my causes of peace, peace studies class. And now he's joining us for this talk. 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:28.000 And we also have some students from another class which is 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:33.000 immigration, politics and policy who are here. And you're welcome to 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:39.000 ask question about Charles' work with refugees after the talk as well. 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:44.000 So, Charles I think we're probably interested in your life and 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:47.000 what you've done and how it came that you founded Fields of Peace? 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:51.000 So you grew up on a farm, in Nebraska was it? Yes. 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:56.000 And then, tell us some of the highlights of your life, cuz I think we're interested. 00:00:56.000 --> 00:00:60.000 Well I could cover Nebraska by saying it's very flat 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:02.000 And we're all start out pretty polite. 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:06.000 We could give Canadians a pretty good run on that. 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:10.000 I first want to say what a privilege and I'm grateful to Eliot 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:13.000 whose a friend, inviting me, inviting me back. 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:19.000 I have a long history, I don't know if it's distinguished, 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:23.000 but a long history in this room. My wife Cathey and I have often 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:29.000 done peace work together. We came to do a workshop here 00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:37.000 For a class, of Jerry Braza's, a distinguished professor, former professor here. 00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:41.000 And I want to...and Kathleen is with him. 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:46.000 They are both mentors and teachers of mine, as is Eliot. 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:54.000 Jerry taught at our peace villages which I'll mention in a few minutes...but that 00:01:54.000 --> 00:01:61.000 that is where we teach non-violent ways of handling conflict to children ages 6-13. 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:04.000 And that's gone on for 25 years and 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:10.000 as a Buddhist darma teacher Jerry has come. 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:16.000 It's a great memory. I picture in my mind Jerry sitting 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:23.000 on a floor surrounded by 6, 7, 8-years olds. There's a candle going. 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:30.000 He hits the bell, the bowl and they just take Jerry in. 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:35.000 And they sit there so quietly, it's like that practice is natural to them. 00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:43.000 It's only when we get a little older that we have a little more trouble doing that. 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:47.000 So Jerry, so nice to be with you and Kathleen 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:52.000 and I continue to learn and be inspired by you both, the lives that they lead. 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:57.000 My background is business in Manhattan. 00:02:57.000 --> 00:02:61.000 I tried so many things before I really felt my calling. 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:05.000 I thought I was going to be a philosopher and as I was telling Ken, 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:08.000 I found out that to be a good philosopher, 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:12.000 it helps to be able to ask a really penetrating question 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:17.000 that might involve some irreverence and 00:03:17.000 --> 00:03:21.000 growing up in Nebraska I just had that polite streak. 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:27.000 So, my real calling was a spiritual approach. 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:31.000 And Jesus has a sense of humor and I became a Christian minister 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:36.000 in a parish ministry for a long time. But I quickly found that 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:40.000 at the heart of that message, that Christian message, 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:44.000 was Jesus' modeling and message of non-violence. 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:50.000 That started to be the most compelling part of that message for me. 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:56.000 And we had a bullying incident, not rare, in our local high school 00:03:56.000 --> 00:03:58.000 in Lincoln City which is where I had a church. 00:03:58.000 --> 00:03:63.000 And two boys had locked the teacher out of the classroom and 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:06.000 beat up another boy and put him in the hospital 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:10.000 And so I had gone to talk to the principal to see if there was something 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:15.000 I might do to help. I think we were all shocked. 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:18.000 It was in the news. It was happening in so many communities. 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:22.000 And the principal did not have a suggestion but on the drive back 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:27.000 I just had one of those moments that, of course, my churches business, 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:31.000 My business should be teaching young people how to solve 00:04:31.000 --> 00:04:35.000 violent conflicts in non-violent ways. And so we started a little 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:39.000 experiment which grew called Peace Village. 00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:45.000 And we invited Rabbi and the mom, buddies drama teacher, 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:50.000 a shaman who came with a medicine wheel. We wanted it to be inter-faith. 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:56.000 Lincoln City in those days was pretty white and so we invited 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:60.000 A sister church from Portland who had a more diverse congregation. 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:07.000 And they sent students down and we had our first Peace Village 25 years ago. 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:12.000 That grew. And it grew because of students who came from universities 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:19.000 who'd been studying peace. And they started developing the curriculum. 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:24.000 I wasn't the developer. I sort of opened a space. 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:28.000 I felt a passion for the subject but they came with knowledge. 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:33.000 They developed a curriculum and over a period of the next 15 or 20 years, 00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:36.000 there were 26 Peace Villages in 11 states. 00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:40.000 I stepped away from Peace Village about 15, 10 years ago. 00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:44.000 And left it in the hands of two wonderful women who'd 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:50.000 come as college students and then became of leaders - Wintry & Elizabeth. 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:55.000 And they've changed the title from Peace Village Inc. to Peace Village Global. 00:05:56.000 --> 00:05:60.000 Because they started Peace Village in Kenya and Lebanon. 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:05.000 And we talked on the phone last week and I think they are interested in 00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:12.000 doing some things in South Sudan and the DRC. So they're leading it. 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:18.000 Fields of Peace came about as the adult wing of Peace Village. 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:21.000 Let me, did you have a...no, no, go ahead. Oh. Ok. 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:26.000 So parents would come to graduations, they would see some glee 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:29.000 and maybe some change in the children, and say... 00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:32.000 well, why don't we have a Peace Village from grown-ups? 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:37.000 And I never quite got around to that but as my parish duties ended 00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:41.000 I decided that that's what I wanted to do. 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:44.000 And so we started Fields of Peace. 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:48.000 And I'm fond of the name. I like the image that comes up. 00:06:48.000 --> 00:06:55.000 And I would share with you that the inspiration for that title came from the 00:06:55.000 --> 00:06:60.000 Sufi mystic Rumi, a couple of verses from him. 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:08.000 He said...Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:11.000 there's a field. I'll meet you there. 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:17.000 When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about. 00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:25.000 Ideas, language, even the phrase each other doesn't make sense. 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:33.000 So that not only gave us a title but it really kept me pointed to the fact 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:37.000 that some much of peace works of non-violent training 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:43.000 has to do with keeping in mind this whole concept of oneness. 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:50.000 And one of the ways I think about peace work is peacemakers 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:56.000 develop and eye for the threads that connect us to other people. 00:07:56.000 --> 00:07:60.000 What we have in common. What we can learn from one another. 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:06.000 Their humanity and other creatures and Mother Earth and trees. 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:11.000 These connections. And that so much of our teaching really is about 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:20.000 knowing that if I injure another person or whether intentionally or unintentionally 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:27.000 I do injury to creation to another of God's children then 00:08:27.000 --> 00:08:33.000 I've injured myself and so many others. Because it, it reverberates. 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:39.000 But also when we do the good things that also connects with the web. 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:47.000 So that's how Fields of Peace began. It is a, 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:51.000 it's developed. First, we were doing workshops. 00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:58.000 Peace work has a lot to do with patient education. 00:08:58.000 --> 00:08:63.000 Spiritually, people like Gandhi and King, 00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:08.000 this power of love and the trust of love, even when you 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:12.000 end up taking great risks or even injury. 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:16.000 That that's the important way to go. And then the practical way. 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:21.000 The money spent on planes and ships and aircraft carriers and so forth 00:09:21.000 --> 00:09:27.000 to maintain war. That that, that is a theft from 00:09:27.000 --> 00:09:31.000 healthcare and education and housing, all the things that we want 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:37.000 for our citizens and for everyone. But I came across a document 00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:42.000 that someone had sent to me, a newsletter from Stanford University. 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:48.000 And in it was an article by Richard Goldstone, 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:54.000 who'd been one of the first prosectors, international criminal court, 00:09:54.000 --> 00:09:60.000 from South Africa on their supreme court. 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:04.000 And he said modern was has changed. 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:11.000 World War 1 for every 9 combatants killed, 1 civilian died. 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:16.000 Wars then were done on battlefield. 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:23.000 Then in World War II that ratio, for every combatant killed, 1 civilian was killed. 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:30.000 So it was 1:1. And modern warfare and now were talking about the last 3-4 decades, 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:35.000 modern warfare for every 1 combatant killed, 9 civilians are killed. 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:40.000 For every 1:9 and of the nine the majority are children. 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:45.000 So it's accurate to say that war has become the killing of children. 00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:50.000 That becomes a conscious issue once you now that. 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:56.000 if you're a philosopher like Ken, it gives you syllogism; it give you logic. 00:10:56.000 --> 00:10:63.000 It's an absolute wrong to kill a child. And if war has become the killing of children 00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:08.000 therefore, I cannot be a part of any war. 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:13.000 That became our message and it became promise to our children. 00:11:13.000 --> 00:11:18.000 Anyway, that's the beginning and that's been some of my evolution. 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:23.000 Would you care to say anything about when you were 17 you went into The Marine Corp 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:28.000 during the Vietnam War which I know had a big impact on your life and your thinking. 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:31.000 And also you went to Harvard Divinity School as well. 00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:36.000 I don't know if you care to say anything about those two events? Sure. 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:41.000 I joined The Marine Corps at 17. I was skinny then and I'm skinny now. 00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:45.000 And I was kind of hopping that they would put some muscle on me 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:49.000 nd I could be a real man. I had been a very different high school student 00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:55.000 Maybe some of you can identify for that. And my parents signed for me because 00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:58.000 they knew in a couple of months I was going to go anyway. 00:11:58.000 --> 00:11:67.000 And I loved The Marine Corp. They put about 50lbs on me and I was a true believer. 00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:12.000 And so bootcamp, combat training and I thought I'm going to make a career of this. 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:17.000 And they had a program and I applied for officer training 00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:19.000 So I thought if I'm going to make a career I might as well be an officer. 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:25.000 That allowed me to go to college and during college 00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:28.000 I go to Quantico for the officer's bootcamp. 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:33.000 Which by the way was quite gentle compared to the other operation. 00:12:33.000 --> 00:12:37.000 But by the end of college I knew that I really 00:12:37.000 --> 00:12:41.000 had other places to go. The indoctrination has worn off. 00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:46.000 And I went into other things and tried many other things before, 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:52.000 before I came to what suited my nature which was philosophy. 00:12:52.000 --> 00:12:58.000 And then eventually spiritual work. So... 00:12:58.000 --> 00:12:63.000 I was a partner in a business in Manhattan 00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:07.000 selling an honest product with 3 Jewish partners, they had started the business. 00:13:08.000 --> 00:13:12.000 So we were 3 Jews and the German and 00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:17.000 I wanted, I felt a call to the ministry and so I started looking. 00:13:17.000 --> 00:13:21.000 There are good seminaries all around. I was already in my early 40s. 00:13:21.000 --> 00:13:27.000 And I was fortunate to get into Harvard Divinity School and I went there because 00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:33.000 I wasn't sure what I wanted to do spiritually and because the World School 00:13:33.000 --> 00:13:36.000 of Religion was right next door to the Divinity School, 00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:39.000 so there were scholars from every religious faith there, 00:13:39.000 --> 00:13:43.000 and so when you took a course in Hinduism or Jewish mysticism, 00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:48.000 it was taught by the woman or the man who had written the book. 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:55.000 So, and if you go to grad school in your 40s, which I recommend, 00:13:55.000 --> 00:13:60.000 you really, ah, if you're going to sit in the classroom you really get 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:03.000 as much as you can and their catalogue was wonderful. 00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:10.000 It was not a religious experience. Knowledge puffs up, somebody said. And... 00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:16.000 Harvard is not a modest place. You develop your own spiritual practices 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:19.000 which is good practice for your own parish ministry because 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:24.000 you need those practices. So, ah... 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:32.000 then I decided that I wanted to not have a big church. 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:36.000 But to go where nobody else wanted to go. 00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:40.000 One of the books I'd read and later somebody said, 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:42.000 if you want to meet Jesus, go where nobody else wants to go. 00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:47.000 Pretty good advice in many areas and I thought well, 00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:51.000 I'll go to a rural parish ministry which nobody else wants to go 00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:55.000 and I went to Tombstone, Arizona to a little adobe church. 00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:60.000 They had 30 members, waiting to 10 to die so that they could close the door. 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:03.000 But I showed up and said this is my idea of fun. 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:09.000 And as you may remember, may know, Tombstone is the shrine of the shootout. 00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:14.000 And tourists come everyday for this kind of glamorized shootout. 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:21.000 But for the most part they were kind to me there and I started talking about non-violence. 00:15:21.000 --> 00:15:27.000 So you founded Global Peace Village and then Fields of Peace. 00:15:27.000 --> 00:15:31.000 And then you've written a few booklets which we have here, 00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:38.000 And this is really a collection of stories. You're a storyteller. 00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:41.000 Would you care to share 1 or 2 of the stories with us? 00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:50.000 I will, I've learned a lot from the Dao. It's sort of an antidote to our culture in many ways. 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:55.000 At least part of the culture that first hooked me. And I'm not fond of 00:15:56.000 --> 00:15:59.000 argument and reason only takes us so far. 00:15:59.000 --> 00:15:63.000 But I'm very attracted to story. And I like learning by story. 00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:08.000 And stories allow us to just enter and take what we can. 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:13.000 from what it offers rather than push us around. 00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:15.000 It's sort of a non-violent way to learn. 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:20.000 And so the first book I put together was 52 stories. 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:26.000 They're the stories that other people tell and then I do my own little comment. 00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:31.000 And given our attention span each story is about a page long, 00:16:31.000 --> 00:16:35.000 and my commentary not more than a page. 00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:40.000 So it, it lends itself to that kind of easy learning. 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:47.000 So what, um, what stories would I tell? I'd do Number 2. 00:16:47.000 --> 00:16:51.000 There's a poet, William Stafford, 00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:53.000 I have a feeling many of you know the work of William Stafford. 00:16:54.000 --> 00:16:59.000 He's the one who said, "if you don't know the kind of person I am 00:16:59.000 --> 00:16:63.000 and I don't know the kind of person you are, 00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:08.000 a pattern that others made may prevail in the world. 00:17:08.000 --> 00:17:12.000 And following the wrong God home we may our star." 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:17.000 So a pattern that other made may prevail in the world. 00:17:17.000 --> 00:17:21.000 He was a conscientious objector during WWII, 00:17:21.000 --> 00:17:26.000 a world class poet and his son following in his footsteps, Kim, 00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:31.000 one of our most recent Oregon Poet Laureates. 00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:40.000 Well, I interviewed Kim and a camera person came with me 00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:42.000 and so thanks today for the camera work. 00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:50.000 And I asked Kim to tell a story about his father 00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:50.000 and so here's what he said - 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:56.000 when my father was first in school - this was Kansas, he was a little boy maybe 00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:05.000 So William Stafford is little Billy at this point. 00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:11.000 When he was first in school he came home to report that two black children 00:18:11.000 --> 00:18:15.000 on the playground had been taunted by the others. 00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:20.000 And what did you do Billy, his mother asked? 00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:26.000 I went a stood by them. That's an iconic story in the Stafford family. 00:18:26.000 --> 00:18:31.000 But it's a story I love because it means that 00:18:31.000 --> 00:18:37.000 this instinct which many of us, I didn't have and many of us don't that early 00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:43.000 Billy's instinct was to step out of the crowd 00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:43.000 and to go and stand with. 00:18:43.000 --> 00:18:49.000 Just to simply go and stand with and not to mirror the behavior. 00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:53.000 And to take the risk, take the risk. 00:18:53.000 --> 00:18:57.000 So that's a story I love to tell and pass on from their family 00:18:57.000 --> 00:18:61.000 because I think it's simple and it has a lot to say. 00:19:01.000 --> 00:19:07.000 It's a great collection of stories, one per week, a whole year long if you like. 00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:12.000 And there's also "A Promise to Our Children" which talks about the promise. 00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:16.000 Can you you say more about that? Yes. 00:19:16.000 --> 00:19:20.000 When I read Richard Goldstone's report about the nature of war 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:25.000 and it was now the killing of children. That became 00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:34.000 the message of Fields of Peace. I felt now there's a way to talk about ending war 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:41.000 that gets past the immediate good for you you're still an idealist, 00:19:41.000 --> 00:19:47.000 sure you're going to end war. And actually meet people at a place where we can gather, 00:19:48.000 --> 00:19:55.000 which is around the children we love. And writing about this 00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:60.000 we came up with a promise to our children. It's 48 words, it's very, very simple 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:04.000 And we encourage people to repeat it each day. 00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:11.000 And that it become part of their practice. The promise is this - 00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:18.000 I will not be a part of the killing of any child not matter how lofty the reason. 00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:23.000 Not my neighbor's child, not my child, not the enemies child. 00:20:23.000 --> 00:20:28.000 Not by bomb, not by bullet, not by looking the other way. 00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:34.000 I will be the power that is peace. So that became 00:20:34.000 --> 00:20:41.000 the teaching tool that allows anybody to start doing peace work immediately. 00:20:41.000 --> 00:20:49.000 And it starts at the vow level. I've read that one of the characteristics 00:20:49.000 --> 00:20:54.000 of a human being is the ability to make a promise and keep it. 00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:59.000 To make a promise and keep it. So this starts at the promise level. 00:20:59.000 --> 00:20:63.000 But by repeating each day these words, 00:21:03.000 --> 00:21:08.000 it has a way of instructing us about who I am. 00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:12.000 The image of which I'm made, my deepest human feelings. 00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:17.000 But it also shows me what can be possible in the world. 00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:23.000 And as we developed the promise, I put together a book 00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:29.000 that showed that it had a foundation, a 4-part foundation. 00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:32.000 The first part is conscious. 00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:37.000 I will not be a part of killing a child no matter how lofty the reason. 00:21:37.000 --> 00:21:43.000 The second is empathy. 00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:49.000 Every parent has absolute love for their child, their grandchild. 00:21:49.000 --> 00:21:53.000 And this is, this is universal. 00:21:53.000 --> 00:21:57.000 The great fear of every parent is that something will happen to their child. 00:21:57.000 --> 00:21:63.000 That would be their great grief. And, it doesn't take a great deal of empathy 00:22:03.000 --> 00:22:07.000 or imagination to know that our enemy feels the same way. 00:22:07.000 --> 00:22:11.000 So this gives us a profound common ground to meet on. 00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:16.000 And the third foundation is the power of the spoken word. 00:22:16.000 --> 00:22:24.000 Once we act out of conscious, say the promise and apply some empathy, 00:22:24.000 --> 00:22:30.000 then we become, we have an obligation to share that message. 00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:33.000 And so the third foundation is the power of the spoken word. 00:22:33.000 --> 00:22:36.000 It may be something people hear immediately. 00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:40.000 It's always a planting, as teaching is, 00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.000 It's a planting of seeds and they may be time-released but it's a planting. 00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:51.000 And then the fourth, which Daniel Berrigan and other leaders would encourage us, 00:22:51.000 --> 00:22:59.000 is action in the world. Finally, as Camus said, you need to stand somewhere a pay up. 00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:06.000 So we are all inheritors of people who have done peace work, 00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:11.000 and done teaching, and taught us about our humanity, and our religious traditions perhaps. 00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:21.000 And so those were indebted and we need to act. And we need to take the risks to act. 00:23:21.000 --> 00:23:26.000 A year ago, almost to the day you came to our campus and gave a talk. 00:23:26.000 --> 00:23:31.000 So year ago in February was right before the Ukraine war broke out. 00:23:32.000 --> 00:23:36.000 Yet, we didn't know it. Nobody could really tell when it would actually start but 00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:40.000 we sensed that it was coming. And so you gave a talk on campus. 00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.000 And in the meantime this disaster has unfolded in front of us. 00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:49.000 So there's a lot of looking away, don't you think, in our society where 00:23:49.000 --> 00:23:52.000 we're supporting the military industrial complex. 00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:56.000 We're supporting all of these things that contribute to war. 00:23:56.000 --> 00:23:60.000 And yet we seem to be so helpless watching this war unfold. 00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.000 And all of the children that are being killed. All of the people that are being killed and 00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:08.000 all the refuges that are displaced. Is there anything we can do... 00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:13.000 from our perch here in Oregon, in our little corner of the world? 00:24:13.000 --> 00:24:20.000 Well, one of my first takes when that war began, 00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:27.000 along with standing on the highway with some others and really wanting to support Ukraine. 00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:32.000 But I was also very conscious of the hypocrisy. 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:37.000 I'm a citizen of this country and with no more justification 00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:43.000 than Russia we had no problem doing shock and awe in Iraq. 00:24:43.000 --> 00:24:51.000 Very comparable in my mind. But I, as I looked at the headlines 00:24:51.000 --> 00:24:60.000 this 1:9 ratio keep coming up. All of the children, all the civilians being killed. 00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:07.000 And in conversations, you know coffee, beer, meals with friends with visitors, 00:25:07.000 --> 00:25:14.000 Ukraine became the subject. And I felt like 00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:19.000 a child really doesn't have age. We think of 12-year-old or someone 00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:24.000 under the technical age of 18. But really 00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.000 to a mother and father it doesn't really matter what age you are. 00:25:29.000 --> 00:25:31.000 You are their child. 00:25:31.000 --> 00:25:35.000 And I'm thinking of the Russian soldiers, I don't want to hand a rifle 00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:42.000 or a weapon to a Ukrainian soldier and I have lots of sympathy with Ukrainians 00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:48.000 to aim at a Russian. There's an 18-year-old boy or 00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:54.000 young man or young woman and they have mothers at home praying. 00:25:54.000 --> 00:25:59.000 That young man or woman, most of them don't want to be there. 00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:05.000 They have dreams for their education, for their career, giving their gifts. 00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:13.000 And so I can't support the giving of arms or war. 00:26:13.000 --> 00:26:20.000 So often it's presented to us war is necessary to stop 00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:23.000 the evil in the world, or a particular evil. 00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:30.000 And to war is the evil itself. And that 00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.000 I would like all of us to have done enough training in our own county 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:39.000 and other countries that when somebody decides, 00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:45.000 the gargoyles who are sometimes our world leaders, our country leaders, 00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:51.000 that they want to start a war, that we have created non-violent ways to go about 00:26:51.000 --> 00:26:55.000 not participating. And so if we had been that advanced I would have loved 00:26:56.000 --> 00:26:60.000 to have seen villages of Ukrainians instead of taking up arms. 00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:03.000 just going and standing in the road and saying 00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:08.000 I'm not going to take my risk as a soldier but I will take my risk standing here. 00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:13.000 If you want to bring your tanks in, if you want to bring you armored vehicles in, 00:27:13.000 --> 00:27:20.000 my village stands here. And they're are lots of ways to say well you may want to come in 00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:25.000 but we are not going to cooperate. Non-violence is not passivity. 00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:32.000 I think of inviting soldiers, Russian solders into my house as a Ukrainian and saying, 00:27:32.000 --> 00:27:40.000 We just baked this and here's some hot coffee and now please go home. 00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.000 We're not your enemy. But we're not going to support in any way. 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:49.000 But we haven't done that kind of education and it's so quick to think 00:27:49.000 --> 00:27:55.000 this is a just war. And it's just war, war. 00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:60.000 So a couple of months ago Congress passed an enormous 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.000 Defense, we should call it war opening bill, $858 billion which was 00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:12.000 There's this enormous spending on weapons and war. 00:28:12.000 --> 00:28:17.000 It's seems the only people that are truly profiting from this 00:28:17.000 --> 00:28:19.000 are the arms makes, the weapons makers. Yes. 00:28:19.000 --> 00:28:22.000 Whereas, for everyone else its a complete disaster. 00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:28.000 What could we do if we just took a 1/4 of that military budget and spent 00:28:28.000 --> 00:28:34.000 A few $100 billion on food, and health care, and tuition for students? 00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:37.000 What would the world look like if we did that? 00:28:37.000 --> 00:28:41.000 It would look different, it would look different. 00:28:41.000 --> 00:28:46.000 We're a military empire. Those words are not spoken by presidents. 00:28:46.000 --> 00:28:50.000 They're not spoken by generals. But we are the Rome of our day. 00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:57.000 And, the way I understand that and it leads to the money 00:28:57.000 --> 00:28:63.000 we have 800 foreign bases outside our borders, 800. 00:29:04.000 --> 00:29:08.000 They are spread out over 70 countries. That's an empire. 00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:12.000 UK, France and Russia together have about 30 foreign bases. 00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:18.000 Our country spends on war, this $800 billion plus, 00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:28.000 more than the combination of the UK, China, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea. 00:29:29.000 --> 00:29:36.000 Did I mention Russia? So we spend more than all those countries together. 00:29:36.000 --> 00:29:41.000 We were warned about this. You many remember the Cross of Irons speech that 00:29:41.000 --> 00:29:48.000 Eisenhower gave in the early 50s. And he could speak with considerable credibility. 00:29:48.000 --> 00:29:53.000 When he was president he said beware of this industrial military complex. 00:29:53.000 --> 00:29:55.000 And it's become that. 00:29:56.000 --> 00:29:64.000 Lockheed Martin, $67 billion in business last year making weapons. 00:30:04.000 --> 00:30:12.000 So, I guess the headline the last week it had to do with the Republicans,Democrats 00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:19.000 arguing over debit limits. Where are we going to cut? Where are we going to cut? 00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:25.000 I haven't heard one, one politician talk about cutting the military budget 00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:30.000 which has only gotten fatter, which you mentioned. 00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:36.000 Maybe we should cut school lunches, maybe we should cut social security. 00:30:36.000 --> 00:30:41.000 The sacredness of this military budget. Well? 00:30:41.000 --> 00:30:48.000 I don't think we'd be any less safe if we had 400 instead of 800 foreign bases. 00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:51.000 That we didn't build that new aircraft carrier. 00:30:51.000 --> 00:30:57.000 And I think of what could happen with taking care of this homeless population, 00:30:57.000 --> 00:30:63.000 taking care of hunger, the mortality rates of children. 00:31:03.000 --> 00:31:05.000 All of the social things that we could mention. 00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:11.000 So it would make a vast difference and it's to our shame that we're blind to that. 00:31:11.000 --> 00:31:15.000 But what congressman or senator is going to vote to have 00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:24.000 A military base smaller in their state. Or, 00:31:24.000 --> 00:31:31.000 General Dynamics not have a contract for more Abram tanks. 00:31:31.000 --> 00:31:36.000 Nobody's going to vote for that because it's so embedded. So it has to come from us. 00:31:36.000 --> 00:31:40.000 Maybe the last subject we can talk about is your work with refugees 00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:48.000 through Fields of Peace. So you have talked with people in Africa and you're helping 00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:51.000 refugees there resettled refugees here I think. 00:31:51.000 --> 00:31:55.000 And you have a truly unique invitation to students, 00:31:56.000 --> 00:31:60.000 maybe you could share that with them. I would be happy to. 00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:03.000 On Wednesday mornings, thanks to the technology, 00:32:03.000 --> 00:32:11.000 Google and Zoom, I meet with two African men from East Africa, 00:32:11.000 --> 00:32:16.000 And they are teaching our curriculum, our Fields of Peace, 00:32:16.000 --> 00:32:21.000 a field guide to peace, curriculum of the promise. 00:32:21.000 --> 00:32:27.000 And it's very heartening to me to find out that in areas where people have 00:32:27.000 --> 00:32:31.000 experienced war and are experiencing war and violent conflict 00:32:32.000 --> 00:32:35.000 that the promise is something that takes hold for them. 00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.000 And these are people who run their own peace organizations. 00:32:39.000 --> 00:32:44.000 They're familiar with many curriculums but the promise is working on the ground for them. 00:32:44.000 --> 00:32:46.000 That's very heartening for me. 00:32:46.000 --> 00:32:53.000 The two teachers Bjorg Gurran, he is a refugee from South Sudan. 00:32:53.000 --> 00:32:59.000 His family is there. His history is there. He's right over the border in Kenya 00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.000 so that he will not be killed and his family will be safe. 00:33:04.000 --> 00:33:08.000 But he runs a peace organization called 64 Voices Organization 00:33:08.000 --> 00:33:12.000 which really refers to the 64 tribes of South Sudan. 00:33:12.000 --> 00:33:18.000 And he is training other refugees to then go back into South Sudan 00:33:18.000 --> 00:33:21.000 and teach a promise to our children. 00:33:21.000 --> 00:33:25.000 And so we talk every Wednesday morning. 00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:30.000 And I'm learning so much from them and I'm learning the complications. 00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:35.000 These historic ethnic rivalries and antogonisms 00:33:36.000 --> 00:33:41.000 and how difficult it is to reach peace and forgiveness. 00:33:41.000 --> 00:33:47.000 And the other person on the Google is James Osaka who live in Nairobi. 00:33:47.000 --> 00:33:53.000 And he's part of the Center for Non-Violence & Peace Building in Nairobi. 00:33:53.000 --> 00:33:59.000 But their main work is in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 00:33:59.000 --> 00:33:66.000 one of the most conflicted areas in the world, 00:33:59.000 --> 00:33:66.000 violence, and Rwanda and Uganda. 00:34:06.000 --> 00:34:13.000 And so he is doing internet classes with students from those areas. 00:34:13.000 --> 00:34:18.000 And I'm learning from them about these, you know if you have a 130 different 00:34:18.000 --> 00:34:25.000 ethnic cultures and many tribes going on in the Congo 00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:31.000 and all of this ragged history, how do you bring peace? 00:34:32.000 --> 00:34:37.000 And I see the complications. I see the bravery. 00:34:37.000 --> 00:34:40.000 And I'm heartened that our little promise. 00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:43.000 along with all of the other peace organizations, 00:34:44.000 --> 00:34:48.000 and they've been around longer, they know so much, they have networks, 00:34:48.000 --> 00:34:56.000 and we are allied with them. We're tiny, our little headquarters in Lincoln City. 00:34:56.000 --> 00:34:61.000 But we are allied with other organizations, Rural Beyond War, would be one. 00:35:01.000 --> 00:35:05.000 And they help us with their network and their teaching 00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:10.000 So I'm very excited to have these going. I guess I'll last mention 00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:18.000 the pope decided that for his peace message he would go last week to the DCR. 00:35:18.000 --> 00:35:23.000 And then he met with the Archbishop of Canterbury and they went to South Sudan. 00:35:24.000 --> 00:35:29.000 And so I'm going, wow, and those are two place where 00:35:29.000 --> 00:35:33.000 our curriculum is being taught and we're doing peace work. 00:35:33.000 --> 00:35:38.000 And so that was exciting. Ok. We do have some time for questions. 00:35:38.000 --> 00:35:43.000 Although, if you do have a question we have a mic set-up right there. 00:35:43.000 --> 00:35:47.000 No one has to ask a question, of course, but if you want to this is your opportunity. 00:35:47.000 --> 00:35:51.000 And there's the mic. On your way there I forgot to mention what you'd asked for. 00:35:51.000 --> 00:35:54.000 Right, so the very unique invitation to students. 00:35:54.000 --> 00:35:59.000 And opportunity to go to Africa and work and live a do something meaningful. 00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.000 This Wednesday I mentioned to James Osaka in Nairobi that 00:36:04.000 --> 00:36:09.000 I would be coming to Western Oregon University and meeting with some students. 00:36:09.000 --> 00:36:16.000 And he immediately said, we would love to have an intern from Western Oregon 00:36:16.000 --> 00:36:22.000 University that community. And if that person can get to Nairobi 00:36:22.000 --> 00:36:28.000 we'll take care of the housing, we'll take care of the living situations, the food. 00:36:28.000 --> 00:36:32.000 And we will give them peace and community development work to do. 00:36:32.000 --> 00:36:37.000 And we will also make sure that they are in safe sectors, 00:36:37.000 --> 00:36:40.000 which I think just means reasonably safe. 00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:43.000 They won't put you on the border of Somalia or South Sudan. 00:36:43.000 --> 00:36:47.000 So I'm thinking what a life changing opportunity that could be. 00:36:47.000 --> 00:36:51.000 So on behalf of them I issue that invitation. 00:36:51.000 --> 00:36:57.000 If someone has interest, if you'll contact Eliot, he and I will put that connection together. 00:36:57.000 --> 00:36:61.000 So the students in the class if you want to go to Africa and 00:37:01.000 --> 00:37:05.000 do peace work or work with refugees here's your invitation. 00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:08.000 Well, Charles, our hour is coming to an end. 00:37:08.000 --> 00:37:11.000 So I think we can slowly wrap it up but 00:37:12.000 --> 00:37:15.000 thank you so much for coming and talking with us. 00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:17.000 Somebody once said, blessed are the peacemakers, so thank you. 00:37:17.000 --> 00:37:24.000 Blessed are. Thank you all, thanks for being here. It's a privilege, privilege. 00:37:24.000 --> 00:37:29.000 applause