#268 / Violence Is Not

I just recently heard about a group called Nonviolent Peaceforce. Click that link to find out what they're doing. Essentially, Nonviolent Peaceforce is training people all around the world in how to deal with violent conflict in a nonviolent manner. 

Here is what Nonviolent Peaceforce says on the stick-on button they provided me, in the letter I recently received: 

Conflict Is Inevitable

Violence Is Not 

That sounds right to me!

Up until recently, Nonviolent Peaceforce has been working in South Sudan, in Myanmar, in the Philippines, and in Iraq. They have an international office in Geneva, Switzerland, and their U.S. office is in Minneapolis. 

You remember Minneapolis, right? That's where George Floyd was killed by officers in the Minneapolis police department. 

I can't help but think that what has happened in Minneapolis has caused Nonviolent Peaceforce to decide that their expertise and intervention are now needed right here in the United States. Their latest projects are in Minneapolis, Portland, and Chicago. They're training local communities, here in the United States, on how to work towards security (and social change) without violence. 

I am glad that Nonviolent Peaceforce is turning its attention back home. We are going to need to figure out just how we can move forward with the social, political, and economic changes we have to make, without becoming enmeshed in the kind of military and quasi-military confrontations that our current president seems determined to promote. 

It is true that "conflict is inevitable." And John Lewis put his finger on it. That's "good trouble," he said. We're going to need quite a bit of that!

Conflict is inevitable. 

But violence is not. 

I think I'll send Nonviolent Peaceforce some bucks!

Image Credit:

https://www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org