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Youth Nonviolence Conference
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Making a point in the closing plenary session [Hiro
Sakurai] |
To commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the fifth Annual
Youth Nonviolence Conference was held on January 21 at the
SGI-USA Culture Center in New York, on the theme "Human
Security Is (Not) Da Bomb! A
New Global Vision."
The event was co-organized by The Temple of Understanding,
SGI-USA and Groundwork, Inc., and attracted 160 participants
from all over New York City. The day consisted of a plenary
session, performances and
workshops.
The plenary session featured two speakers, Kathleen
Sullivan, disarmament education consultant to the UN, and
Gyude Moore, a former refugee from Liberia who is now a
graduate student at Georgetown University. Dr. Sullivan
spoke of the need for a true revolution in value, from being
things-oriented to person-oriented. She also stressed the
need to redirect government spending from the military
budget to education, health, etc. Mr. Moore pointed out that
the more is spent on military expenses, the less secure the
world becomes. He also reminded the youth participants that
sometimes it is necessary to be unrealistic in order to
bring about change. Youth should not accept the unjust
principles of society.
A number of group workshops were held throughout the day.
These included ones on the nonviolent principles of Martin
Luther King Jr., the SGI-USA "Victory Over Violence" (VOV)
program and youth and
nuclear disarmament.
The VOV workshop focused on the fact that active violence
such as war or violence starts from individual passive
violence such as hatred and negative emotion, and that if we
keep silent and overlook violence around ourselves, this is
also a type of passive violence. In the disarmament
workshop, aimed at enabling participants to take joy in
finding their power to constructively respond to nuclear
proliferation, there was discussion on the important role
creativity plays in achieving peace.
Participants commented that they were happy to know that
others shared the same belief in peace and that Martin
Luther King Jr. Day is not a day-off to take a rest, but a
day-on to work for peace and nonviolence.
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