Making Peace Happen: Working for an Equitable & Sustainable World
Making Peace Happen started with a slideshow of “Nonviolence Means…” posters while Angel Amwanak performed a song.
by Pritam Rohila
With guidance and help from the long-term peace activist, Peter Bergel, along with active involvement and cooperation of many people from the community, on September 21, 2021, Association for Communal Harmony organized a zoom event, to mark and celebrate the 21st International Day of Peace. Peter Bergel also served as technical director for this event.
Entitled “Making Peace Happen: Working for an Equitable & Sustainable World”, the program aimed to help explore what we common people can and should do to make peace happen. “Peace is Possible: Think it, Plan it, Do it,” was the motto for it.
The program opened with Angel Amwanak presenting her own creations of inspirational music. Angel is a singer, songwriter, spiritual director, peace advocate, and the music director, at Unity of Salem, OR.
An invocation followed. It was delivered by the Reverend Charles Mantey, who has served as pastor at Salem’s Saint Mark Lutheran Church, for the last 10.5 years. He also memorialized victims of COVID 19.
Then we had a symposium, the main part of the program. It was chaired by Rev. Maur Horton, Senior Minister at Woodland Chapel.
The symposium featured four distinguished speakers, each of them addressing one of the four dimensions of peace: Phil Carver Ph.D., Universal Peace; Peter Bergel, International Peace; Aneesah Furqan, Interpersonal Peace; and Kevin C. Patton, Personal Peace.
We had 34 participants. But probably two-hour zoom event was a little too much for some of them. Therefore by the end of the program, we only had 25 people left.
Two days later, on September 23, I wrote to 26 participants, for whom I could find correct email addresses. Of them, I received 16 responses, which amounts to a respectable 58% response rate. Below is a summary of their responses.
Participant Comments
Some of the respondents characterized the program as “successful,” “great . . . overall,” “wonderful,” “well-done,” and “well organized.” One of them remarked that the program “went very well even though on zoom;” while another one opined, “one of the best zoom program so far.” A couple of people appreciated being able to see friends, colleagues, or other familiar faces among the participants.
Symposium Presentations & Breakout Rooms
One participant said that presentations were “informative and inspiring”, another one was “totally happy” with the presentations. Others liked “wonderful speakers”, and their “expertise and life experiences.” Some participants thought the speakers provided “wide and compassionate perspectives on peace,” and “many ideas for putting peace into practice.” Some people liked “focus topics.” However, a couple of people did not like one presenter becoming “too clinical” for them.
Some people specifically liked “breakout rooms,” where they could ask questions and have one-one-interactions with each other.
Music
Some respondents referred to the music provided by Angel as “wonderful” and “lovely.” A few others specially mentioned Angel by name. One person offered “special applause” to her. But Angel herself was not happy about using zoom. According to her, zoom is not suitable for excellent music.
Zoom Format
One person specifically wrote about liking the event’s zoom format. Some people mentioned that because of zoom, it was easier for them to see and hear presenters. On the other hand, a couple of people complained that sometimes speakers did not look into the camera, while a few others said sometimes the sound wavered.
Number of Participants
One person talked about “respectable” number of participants, while another one remarked, “Too bad more did not tune in.” One person explained it thus: “(Zoom) maybe too intimidating or confusing for some people”, while another one remarked, ”some people abhor electronic interactions.”
Technical aspects
Some participants specially singled out Peter Bergel for his “technical competence.”
Suggestions
Suggestions included need to include history of “International Day of Peace,” and promotion of “universal ceasefire.” Some participants wanted action projects rather than talk events in observance of this day.
Two hour was too long for a zoom program. Limiting it to one hour would have been better. One person suggested that we should have changed the order of presentations starting with “personal peace” and ending with “universal peace.” Also it was suggested that we should have provided five minute Q&A time after each speaker.
We appreciate everyone who participate and provided a comment or suggestion. THANK YOU!
We will surely keep them in mind, if and when we organize a similar event again.
You can watch this session online at the link here:
Passcode: N0q%Br%U