Programs Kansas State University

“412” and Nonviolence The U.S. Department of Justice statistics inform relationships and fair relationships) are inextri- us that 412 rapes occur on a campus the size of cably linked and that it is up to us to step up K-State in a given year. Advocates have no rea- and amend the injustices before the violence son to think that not the case. begins?

For the sake of argument (because it certainly In my opinion, the question that will determine does not happen this way), let’s pretend our the safety and wholeness or our lives in the 21st community does not deny this startling statistic. century is this: “can human beings choose to Let’s say 412 reports are made, 412 perpetrators evolve?” Can we transcend the dualistic world- are apprehended and sentenced, and that 412 view of our ancestors that led us to “survival of lives are restored to health. the fittest,” “win/lose,” problem solving? Can we take advantage of modern perspectives and My question is... What do we do next year - and technologies and move toward a more holis- the next? Do we follow tradition and wait for tic and sustainable mode of problem solving? the next 412 rapes to occur? And the next? Or... “ The bottom line is - if we want sustainable do we face the fact that a whole continuum of interactions, nonviolence is the only way to violence happens; that both perpetrators and the achieve them. victims are not aberrations but, rather, they are our brothers and neighbors and ourselves? Can we come to see that safety and fairness (healthy

For more information: Dr. Susan L. Allen Director of Nonviolence Education (785)532-5343 www.ksu.edu/nonviolence

What better place than a university campus to demonstrate that it’s possible to move our community and world from a “culture of violence,” where we accept violence as normal, and toward a “culture of nonviolence,” where we organize to get ahead of and prempt the violence? In 2000 K-State began The contents of this booklet are copyrighted and may not be used without permission of the author. (c) 2008 by Susan L. Allen creating nonviolence education programs to show that we can learn to practice nonviolence in our “Illiterate” quote, David Allan in Coleman McCarthy, 2000; “Be the Change”quote, Mohandas K. daily lives. What do learning nonviolent com- abuse of power; disease and dis-ease) us that nonviolence actually is a “force munications skills, yoga classes, an before crisis and violence. Human more powerful” than violence when international news television in the history and patterns throughout na- applied visibly and persistently. K-State Union, cleaning litter from ture show us that violence leads only KS Highway #177, making and fill- to more violence and that nonviolent However unfamiliar or misunderstood, ing “empty bowls” for a local hunger interactions are the only way to make nonviolence actually gives us a rela- project, shielding graduates and fami- our relationships sustainable. tively baggage-free, non-moralistic, lies from Topeka’s Phelps clan in a unemotional and perhaps most impor- “Date with Hate” and a “Run Against Local nonviolence education projects tantly, logical lan¬guage to set about Rape” event have in ? address problems at all level of inter- changing the way we resolve conflict action, from our self to our environ- -- locally and globally, personally and They are a few of the ways K-State ment. For example, yoga helps us institutionally. students, faculty and community “begin within,” to create better bal- members are acting to bring healthy, ance within our self. There are many dynamic balance to their relationships, ways to attain healthy equilibrium but 1. We have many requests for SafeZone trainings from campus and off-campus groups and for help large and small. They also represent yoga is something practical and fun, starting new SZ programs in other communities - various projects of the Campaign for that we can do every day. Watching *We need funds for trainers and a coordinator Nonviolence, Women’s Center and news and views from the perspective 2. We have created excellent nonviolence materials but we need more (for example, our “Bill Snyder other Nonviolence Education pro- of other cultures makes it possible to Win-Win” TV video cost $1000) grams at Kansas State University. understand the interconnected world *We need funds for design, development, printing, etc in which we live and thus helps bring *We need funds for public education, videos, media fees for ad space and airtime There seem to be a never-ending sup- safe interactions to our world. Practic- 3. We have a new Nonviolence Studies Certificate Program available from the College of Arts & ply of conflict in our lives that, tradi- ing good conservation is one way to Sciences - tionally, we focus on after the crisis move our shared environment toward *We need funds for faculty salaries; a (named) Chair in NVS and a NVS Department or and violence have begun. Nonvio- sustainability. Learning the ABC’s of Program lence education teaches us to address nonviolent communication is key to 4. We do applied nonviolence and violence prevention work as well as organizing academic pro- the complex sources of conflict before equitable and therefore safe interper- grams and for this we need coordination - it becomes so serious. Maybe it is a *We need funds for an office, operational expenses and an administrator/projects sonal relationships. coordinator fail safe mechanism build into the hu- man brain like catching ourselves be- K-State’s nonviolence education pro- 5. There are national and international resources available to broaden our programs and teaching fore a fall or maybe it is a miracle but, grams are based on an anthropological *We need funds for films, speaker fees, and travel as fortune would have it, just as hu- or holistic definition of nonviolence man beings are nearing system break- developed by Susan L. Allen, direc- Nonviolence Studies Certificate Program down on all levels of our lives, from tor of Nonviolence Education at K- You. Kansas State University. The World. stress to divorce to economic collapse State. Her previous job -- addressing Ever wonder how you can change the conditions that engender and global warming, holistic perspec- endemic problems of rape and other violence? tives, network-building technologies violence on our campus as director of and awareness of nonviolent problem the Women’s Center -- combined with Do you think there must be a better way to resolve conflict than solving methods are becoming avail- a background in the whole-systems ...bullying? ...abusing power? ....war? ....violence? able. perspectives of anthropology led Al- len to generate a logical and practi- Do you wonder why people care about...human rights? ...human wrongs? ...social justice? Nonviolence education helps us STEP cal approach to nonviolence she calls BACK to conceptualize conflict with- “every day nonviolence.” Do you want to learn to change for the better ...the world in the layers of systems that surround ...the environment ...your relationships ...your Self? them; begin to see connections, iden- Every Day Nonviolence (EDNV) tify patterns and precursors, and plan EDNV is based on a realization that Nonviolence strategies, tactics & tools help us resolve problems nonviolently. ahead much earlier in the develop- we don’t have to be Mahatma Gan- Introduction to Nonviolence Studies, ment of problem; and then asks us to dhi or Martin Luther , Jr. Applied Nonviolence Studies & Many Electives STEP UP to devise nonviolent “ways” to practice nonviolence; and, in fact, College of Arts & Sciences - 3 hours each/15 hours Certificate to correct the course of imbalanced re- Gandhi said this, himself, with his Open to all majors and departments. Ask your advisor! lationships (which we see as injustice, famous admonition to “Be the change www.ksu.edu/nonviolence 2 11 It may have been the anti-war fervor “ has been designed as an you wish to see in the world.” When we wait for a crisis and call the profession- of the Vietnam era or even the polar- effective substitute for violence.” The als, by definition, we always will be “a day late and a dollar short” because we ized “red-blue” era in which we live, study of nonviolence is still so new, are acting after the violence has begun. At K-State we are learning how to expect but something has created bad feel- however, that most people mistakenly nonviolence and assume some response-ability for creating healthy interactions ings among some about “peace and associate nonviolence with passivity. that will result in a more equitable and thus safer campus community. nonviolence” movements. Whatever They may even think it means being its cause, in order to have a successful cowardly. To the contrary, however, Most local nonviolence education work is carried out through the Campaign for Campaign for Nonviolence or nonvio- nonviolent methods are not passive; Nonviolence. Created in 2000, the CNV is both a grassroots, volunteer-based lence movement, in general, it is im- they are active. They do not oppose movement to build a nonviolent community and a presidential-level, campus- portant to acknowledge resistance to protecting oneself; indeed, they ask us wide committee. Some of our projects are listed in this booklet. For more infor- the word “nonviolence.” to stop waiting for crisis and abdicat- mation, see: www.ksu.edu/nonviolence ing responsibility for what is by then Part of the problem is no one knows for serious conflict to professionals (who sure what “nonviolence” means... Will arrive after the fact, after the system it offend military family and friends if has begun to fail). “Either:” I work on a nonviolence project? Does peace love it imply I oppose U.S. policy? Dare I Nonviolence shows us the importance flight question the status quo? Unfortunate- of “correcting the course” of a rela- passive Trad itio yin ly, conversations about peace and war tionship while the disproportion is at a Wo nal ns rldv black tio iew -- like all issues framed as polarities more manageable stage and while we p reduces nonviolence f o ) o s thinking to e ve (love/hate, win/lose, fight/flight) -- use have more options. Thus, it empow- ti limited, g c n e extreme a p extreme language that can make us ers us to “be the change we wish to r s e r either/or e e feel forced to choose between two op- see in the world,” as r P options g c i e t i posing camps. urged. Nonviolent methods certainly d s i 0 l o 6 demand courage, as those who faced H Worldview like a searchlight at 3 ( e night, sees narrow range of

h In fact, a core reason to adopt nonvio- the tanks in Tiananmen Square and the options, leads us to extremes. lence as a strategy to prevent violence dogs in Selma can attest; and also by T is that a primary goal of the nonvio- the growing number of nonviolence lence movement is to create a “third proponents today who speak truth to way” to approach conflict, which actu- a playground, boardroom, or bedroom ally means the 358 degrees of “ways” bully. when the crisis beyond the two-degrees of either-or: comes (from imbalance) we us or them, active or passive, ‘my way What nonviolence theory asks is that react with the “other” extreme “Or:” or the highway.’ Nonviolence shows we understand one thing: violence war that there always are viable alterna- always leads to more violence; thus hate it never can resolve underlying prob- fight tives to begin unraveling the knotted active ball of a problem. lems (imbalances) that led to conflict. yang Further, it helps us see that by agree- white Another difficulty with the word “non- ing only to organize ourselves around violence violence” is that, in English, it appears “mopping up the blood” (literally, le- to mean simply “not” violence rather gally or otherwise) - after the violence than doing something to prevent vio- has begun - we can never change the lence; and it seems to be “against” conditions that engendered the vio- This drawing adapts an image created by Sir Karl Popper during WWII, while the something rather than “for” something. lence in the first place. bombers flew over London, to show how human views are transitory and limited. Mahatma Gandhi was so dissatisfied In past times, we attended to problems and conflict as though they existed within with the word, in fact, that he coined Thus, for practical, outcome-based the spotlight, ignoring interconnected systems that surround them. With the in- a new word, “Satyagraha” as a substi- reasons alone nonviolent methods sight that our ‘given’ views are too limited we now can make an effort to gain tute. To Gandhi, nonviolence or sata- are the only way to resolve conflict in holistic perspectives and attend to conflict as a process instead of as a fragmented graha is a “relentless search for truth” ways that make relationships (between event. This systems view allows us to identify connections and precur¬sors much and a truth force....Satyagraha is an spouses as well as between countries) earlier so we can act to correct the course of a dysfunctional system before it attribute of the spirit within....He said sustainable. Nonviolence theory shows crashes. 10 3 The K-State Campaign for Non- * Noontime Yoga - provides free yoga The hypothesis of EDNV is that the We challenge generations of abuses violence (CNV) - began in 2000 as five days a week to the campus and same “force more powerful” applied and imbalances of power that have re- an over¬arching, university-wide community at noon, in Ahearn gym. suc¬cessfully to the liberation of peo- sulted in a “culture of violence” with “home” for applied and academic Our philosophy of nonviolence in- ples also can be applied at the local the logic of changing from people who nonviolence educa¬tion projects cludes learning to take better care of and personal levels; and in fact it sug- accept violence as normal to people and programs. our own well being as a prerequisite gests that nonviolence teachings can who expect and work together for to bringing a healthy, whole self to be applied to all relationship sys¬tems nonviolent interactions. We develop *SafeZone - SZ Allies are peers/ broader interactions. in ways that can help preempt violence and model situation-specific, inven- fellow citizens who attend train- (and that help even the oppressor). It tive, intentional “ways” to practice ing to become visible, accessible * Awareness Meditation is a “nonvio- suggests that when we learn to recog- nonviolence with the goal of bringing allies for fellow community mem- lence begins within” program with the nize relationships as systems we can healthy balance to a system before it bers who may be troubled or who same underlying aim. http://www.k- create nonviolence methods to main- becomes so imbalanced it fails. are in trouble. SZ allies offer a safe state.edu/nonviolence/links/yoga.htm tain relationships, in the same way place to talk and to find additional we practice good nutrition over time Locally help. Allies display the SZ symbol * KIOSK and International News to maintain equilibrium in a physical on an office door, backpack or oth- Television - The CNV, SafeZone and system or move a dysfunctional one In our community this means -- er location and thereby, indirectly, Wom¬en’s Center (which provides toward wholeness. through practical projects and classes also help build the expectation for a a 24-hour service for victims of rape -- that we are learning to recognize the non¬violent community. Over 700 and other kinds of violence) now has Optimistic, yes; but today human be- logic of creating a just environment allies have been trained and more a Kiosk in the Student Union. This ings have new perspectives and tools by resolving conflict with the positive take training every semester. We location increases the visibility of never before available. We are at a de- power of nonvio¬lence rather denying also help off-campus groups begin our programs and makes them more cisive moment in human development imbalance and then applying addition- SZ programs. acces¬sible to fellow community because today we can consciously al, ineffective negative force. members who need help. Our televi- choose evolve. Amazing but true. To- * Season for Nonviolence -- is the sion, tuned only to international news day we have the information we need In this context nonviolence means 64-Days between and sources, allows Union visitors to get to modernize how we attend to change, examining a relationship within the April 4 (assassination anniversaries views directly from other countries/ to conflict and to the interconnected frame¬work of whole systems and car- of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Lu- cultures. We believe multiple perspec- elements of our global systems. The rying out actions intended to move it ther King, Jr.). It provides an annu- tives make nonviolent interactions question is, can we build the aware- into dynamic balance -- justice, health, al, international fpcus for localized more likely at the global level. ness, the expectation, and the skills peace. By devising creative interven- events designed to increase aware- needed to create and maintain nonvio- tions into dysfunctional systems we ness of nonviolence teachings and * Nonviolence Studies Certificate lent interactions before crisis and vio- can alleviate many problems before a techniques and illustrate the prac- Program – This 15-hour certificate lence lead to system failure? crisis occurs; and we can apply con- ticality of nonviolence strategies. program is a major new academic ini- flict resolution, direct action and other Each year the CNV spon¬sors tiative open to all UG majors through Nonviolence is an integrative, positive nonviolent methods to stop violence many, varied events that focus on the K-State College of Arts & Sci- force with sustainability (not senti- even after problems begin. nonviolence and relationship sys- ences. See: http://www.k-state.edu/ ment) as its aim. Because the mental tems. See: http://www.k-state.edu/ nonviolence/ images and logic of systems is im- In our educational setting it also is nonviolence/ personal, EDNV augments nonvio- exciting to note that EDNV suggests lent methodologies by providing the the potential for new and re-focused * Fall CNV Rally - a one-day event common ground and shared language jobs. A society that attends to conflict that gives a broad network of social of systems to help overcome the ob- before the crisis will require profes- service and social justice groups stacles of personal blame and reaction- sions designed to make relationships an opportunity to interact with the ary, fragmented extremes. Nonviolent more ecological or “green.” Instead commu¬nity. We have information actions can be passionately felt but of or at least in addition to professions tables, music, and annual “Be the systematic and science-based in ap- organized by violence and around Change” awards. Awards are given proach. We attend to the health of hu- ‘cleaning up’ after it, new “opportu- to individuals, groups and local man interactions as pragmatically as nity makers” of various types can help businesses that have made a differ- we would apply Dopplar radar to fore- individuals and institutions ‘get ahead ence for positive social change in Inaugural CNV Rally, see a storm and ecological understand- of’ the violence. our community. 2001 ings to maintain the environ¬ment. 4 9

The K-State Campaign for Nonviolence (CNV) is a university-wide * Empty Bowls - is a collaborative * Our participation with the KDOT committee as well as a voluntary affiliation of individuals and groups who reject event that brings together local potters “Adopt-a-Highway” program illus- violence as a viable way to resolve human conflict and who are willing to step and citizens who make bowls, area trates one way to bring better health up to “be the change” we wish to see in our community. businesses that “sell” bowls for dona- to our human relationship with the tions, and restaurants that fill bowls Earth. Maintaining that relationship The CNV invites all citizens to take part by: joining SafeZone (as over 700 with free soup - all to raise funds for in healthy working order is key to sus- K-Staters have done); joining us for Noontime Yoga or Awareness Meditation; local groups who provide hot means tainability. The CNV and an alliance participating in or initiating a Season for Nonviolence event; joining a social for hungry community members. See: of area social justice groups regularly justice-related student group; enjoying alternative international television at the http://www.k-state.edu/womenscen- picks up litter from the “Bill Snyder” SafeZone/CNV/Women’s Center Kiosk; and/or by enrolling in or just sitting in ter/empty_bowls_project.htm section of KS177 Highway south of on Nonviolence Studies courses. Manhattan. * Date With Hate - is an annual The CNV & Community Cam¬paign for Nonviolence (CCNV), located in our nonvio¬lent event to counter the hate- There are more programs and events, satellite office at the UFM House, 1221 Thurston, are organizations devoted to ful mes¬sages of Topeka’s Fred Phelps too numerous to mention, including assisting individuals and groups practice and educate about nonviolence. The lo- clan who routinely pickets the K-State collaboration with Hale Library in cal community learning center, UFM, currently houses some of our Nonviolence graduation ceremonies. the annual social justice film series, Edu¬cation programs and helps provide space for Awareness Meditation and Movies on the Grass. The “Season” Noontime Yoga * Nonviolence Walk in St. Patrick’s alone makes available a dozen or Day Parade - is a fun way to bring more speak¬ers, films, and workshops How the CNV Began awareness of nonviolence teachings each year. We also create awareness- to the entire community. We know raising posters, t-shirts, public service In the late 1990s, the CNV, itself, grew from the realities of a culture of you can’t change hearts and minds announcements and other materials vio¬lence faced daily by the campus Women’s Center and other offices whose by countering a negative with another to help make the abstract ideas of mission tra¬ditionally has been to assist people harmed by harassment, discrimi- negative - so all of our signs share a nonvio¬lence more concrete and ac- nation, physical violence and other abuses of power. We know that reacting to way to practice the integrative power cessible. and “cleaning up after” violence is essential, but it also is nec¬essary to reframe of nonviolence: “Want Peace? Work violence-and-nonviolence within its complex environment and begin culture for Justice,” kids dressed in green change projects if we are ever to achieve a safe and harmonious community. with signs, “Whirled Peas for World Social justice based on nonviolent principles is our unifying challenge. Peace.”

Call 532-5343 to find out how to be involved, find a speaker, or plan a nonviolence-related project or program.

Most of us associate “nonviolence” that identifies human relationships as with famous people like Mahatma systems: within one mind or body; be- Gandhi and drastic circumstances like tween individuals, among groups; even the in the U.S. between humans being and the Earth We do not associate it with something (ecology) and between humans and the practical, that real people can do universe (spirituality). It shows that by every day. re¬framing conflict within the context of interconnected systems, individuals and Nonviolence Education at K-State ex- people-to¬gether can apply strategies pands on traditional teachings to focus traditionally used to “refuse to cooperate on the practice of nonviolence in our with injustice” after the fact of violence daily lives. but apply them affirmatively - to “get ahead of the violence.” Nonvio¬lence Every Day Nonviolence (EDNV) is often is called the ‘third way’ because it an anthropological, holistic/systems seeks solutions beyond the extremes. Manhattan St. Patrick’s Day Parade, K-State Peace Pole (every day) approach to nonviolence 2008 September 21, 2009 8 5 We couldn’t make music without learning the notes. We couldn’t read without the Nonviolence is a rela¬tively new way Think Globally - Act Locally - ABC’s. So, what makes us think we can attain peace or justice or fairness until we to think about problem solving that Act Now learn the skills to achieve them? takes complexity into account. Every Day Nonviolence defines nonviolence Like the nonviolence movement in gen- The traditional problem-solving “MO” in our world has been to deny conflict as an ecology of relationships to help eral, the Campaign for Nonvio¬lence and act after the crisis. When violence results from the conflict, we call 911 -- the us reframe problems within the con- at K-State (CNV) and the Women’s police and the therapists, for example -- and close our eyes again until the next text of whole systems so we can rec- Center where it is housed are working time. ognize options beyond extremes and to change the organizational principle give ourselves time to correct imbal- of this community FROM a dualistic Mechanistic - linear model ances in an ongoing way, as early as worldview where we ignore the little possible. A key principal of EDNV is: and big injustices, abuses of power “It’s never either-or; it’s more.” and other precursors to vio¬lence and YES! NO! system breakdown; and move it TO a The global nonviolence movement Up Down holistic worldview where we can or- WAR PEACE axiom, “If you want peace, work for ganize around the principle of “getting justice” translates locally to: If we ahead of the violence”; where we “go want a safe campus/community, we upstream” to devise positive ways and Organic - contextual model need to work for fair rela¬tionships at correct precursors to violence so we all levels. can prevent it. Concentric Circles of Relationships - Individual pyramids: a problem, Modernizing our conceptual and or- an issue, an element within a system For example: ganizational frameworks in this way The web-like reality from which seemingly “separate parts” will require overcom¬ing generations are plucked We need to care about and then work of bad habits based on the dualistic to build a healthy, well-balanced mind worldview that has led to denial, to ex- and body to maintain the whole sys- tremes and to system failure. The ho- tem that is our Self. listic worldview demands new skills, Through Time more collaboration, honest communi- We need to care about and then work cation, greater visibility and persever- to build relationships where one part- ance - but/and it leads to sustainability. ner does not abuse his or her power Practicing nonviolence is much like crisis point over the other - to maintain the whole learning to use seatbelts and resolving What we see system that is a friendship or a mar- to practice healthy nutrition. riage. connections and precursors We need to create a just community that promotes equal opportunity if we context want a safe community. background and We ignore the rumbling of the context “volcano.” We wait to react at the The same pattern holds as we move crisis point. out through the concentric circle of hu- man systems that compose our world. The fact is -- as long as we agree to wait for a crisis before we act to improve Human beings also have relationships the conditions that are leading to it, by default our only option is to “clean up the with our environment and the universe mess” after the violence has begun. Further, and importantly, if we only react itself. after the fact, we can never change the imbalances that engender the conflict in the first place.

Conflict in a system of interconnecting elements -- including relationships, large and small -- is as inevitable as “bad” weather because life moves and changes. But, how we attend to conflict is a choice. 6 7