"If we want to reap the harvest of peace and justice in the future, we will have to sow seeds of nonviolence, here and now, in the present." - Mairead Corrigan Maguire

Racism Makes Me Sick campaign launch
A national campaign calling on all Australians to take action against racism and tackle the Indigenous health crisis has been launched by ANTaR (Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation) in collaboration with The Body Shop.  The Body Shop stores nationally will promote the Racism Makes Me Sick campaign from 21 April 2008 - 12 May 2008 as part of their commitment to defending human rights and promoting Reconciliation in Australia.  Racism, as a direct and negative influence on health, helps explain in part the Australian Indigenous health crisis. Appallingly, three out of four Indigenous Australians experience racism in their everyday lives.  ANTaR is asking individual Australians to combat racism by: Getting the facts about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians / Challenging and speaking up to racist stereotypes and misinformed comments / Taking positive action in support of Indigenous people.  All Australians are encouraged to sign a Personal Pledge to show their commitment, challenge their own assumptions, and speak up to racist or misinformed comments using hints and fact sheets available from:
www.ANTaR.org.au

Peace Tree Community
Tom Sine reports on his visit to this Perth community.
http://msainfo.org/articles/peace-tree-community

The Gospel of Consumption
Rather than realizing the enriched social life that Kellogg’s vision offered us, we have impoverished our human communities with a form of materialism that leaves us in relative isolation from family, friends, and neighbours. We simply don’t have time for them. Unlike our great-grandparents who passed the time, we spend it. An outside observer might conclude that we are in the grip of some strange curse, like a modern-day King Midas whose touch turns everything into a product built around a microchip.
http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/2962/

Blocking the Transmission of Violence
THE STUBBORN CORE of violence in American cities is troubling and perplexing. Even as homicide rates have declined across the country — in some places, like New York, by a remarkable amount — gunplay continues to plague economically struggling minority communities. For 25 years, murder has been the leading cause of death among African-American men between the ages of 15 and 34, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, which has analysed data up to 2005. And the past few years have seen an up-tick in homicides in many cities…But each shooting, each murder, leaves a devastating legacy, and a growing school of thought suggests that there’s little we can do about the entrenched urban poverty if the relentless pattern of street violence isn’t somehow broken…“Punishment doesn’t drive behaviour,” he told me. “Copying and modelling and the social expectations of your peers is what drives your behaviour.”…
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/magazine/04health-t.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

CeaseFire
CeaseFire is a strategic public health effort to reverse the violence epidemic using highly trained street outreach staff, public education campaigns and community mobilization. CeaseFire is an initiative of the Chicago Project for Violence Prevention.
http://www.ceasefirechicago.org/

Simulation on the Cambodia Peace Settlement
This simulation seeks to deepen understanding of how societies in conflict must confront issues of war crimes and human rights violations. Participants role-play negotiators at a peace settlement conference, where, due to international pressure, the Cambodian government has agreed to negotiate with opposition leaders over implementation of a peace settlement and past accountability for genocide and war crimes. Other participants will role-play a task force established to work out recommendations for the negotiators on how to how to proceed with the war crimes and human rights issues.
http://www.usip.org/etc/tools_resources/simulations/cambodia.html

New book: Pacifism and English Literature
RS. (Bob) WHITE is Professor of English at the University of Western Australia.  Wars have been waged so continuously through human history that they are regarded as unavoidable, but the increasing destructiveness to civilians and the environment makes pacifism an urgent and viable alternative.  Professor White's latest book, Pacifism and English Literature: Minstrels of Peace, argues that imaginative writers have, since the fourteenth century, written powerful works and passages condemning war and presenting visions of peace that are imaginable and achievable.  The book is recommended for Peace and Conflict Studies courses around the world, while for literary students it provides a unique, thematic history of English literature based on the pacifist theme.  It is should inspire readers who believe that war does not solve problems in the modern world, and that a fresh approach to conflict is necessary. See more details and read a sample chapter on the publishers' website:
Palgrave McMillan

Video Review: The Power of Forgiveness
For 20 years, forgiveness has been studied scientifically. This video considers the psychological and physical effects of forgiveness and documents its power in situations as diverse as Ground Zero, Amish country and individual murders…There are no simple answers offered, but the clear message of the film is that forgiveness benefits the forgiver and can bring dramatic resolution for all the parties touched by the wrong…
http://www.restorativejustice.org/editions/2008/may08/video-review-the-power-of-forgiveness

Being Sent Into the World
Each of us has a mission in life. Jesus prays to his Father for his followers, saying: "As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world" (John 17:18).
We seldom realise fully that we are sent to fulfil God-given tasks. We act as if we have to choose how, where, and with whom to live. We act as if we were simply plopped down in creation and have to decide how to entertain ourselves until we die. But we were sent into the world by God, just as Jesus was. Once we start living our lives with that conviction, we will soon know what we were sent to do.
http://www.henrinouwen.org/

Anabaptist Story: Carbon offset program to reduce impact of air travel
Mennonite World Conference is working toward the “greening” of its 2009 global assembly in Paraguay by compensating for the exhaust emissions of air travel. It will utilize a new carbon offset program launched by Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA), an agency that specializes in business solutions to poverty. The program, called the MEDA Green Investment Fund, promotes renewable energy sources by investing in environmentally beneficial businesses in developing countries.
http://www.mwc-cmm.org/en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=188&Itemid=108

Mary and Mark Hurst Blog
We’ve entered the blogging world.  If you are interested in what we are doing and where we’ve been, check it out.
http://greetingsfromozontheroad.blogspot.com/

Psalm 104: 24-34, 35b
O LORD, what a wildly fabulous world!  Working hand in hand with wisdom you have made an earthful of wonderful creatures.
Just look at the deep wide sea, swarming with life beyond our imagining, from coral to crayfish, from mussels to marlin.
Ships plough the waves, while mythical monsters cavort in the depths.
Like seagulls at a picnic, every creature looks to you for food.  They gather around in eager expectation, and gorge themselves when you open your hand.
If you turned your back, they’d be panic stricken; if you withdrew your Spirit they would have nothing to breathe, their bodies would quickly crumble.
But when you breathe your spirit into them, life sprouts up fresh and fragrant again and the earth itself is revived.
Glorious is all you do, LORD, may you be honoured forever. May everything created be a joy to the LORD.  One look from the LORD makes even the earth quiver; one touch and even the mountains erupt.  With every breath I will sing to the LORD; as long as there is life in me, I will give honour to my God in song.  Even my unspoken thoughts I offer to the LORD, for the LORD is a delight to me. May wickedness be wiped from the earth, may enemies of life no longer be found.
O bless the LORD, everything within me. Praise the LORD!
©2000 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net