Over 2650 Actions/Marches/Events To Culminate On International Peace Day
March in DC, Sept. 22, from the King Statue to the White House
Corvallis, OR –Over 2650 marches, actions, events and rallies are poised to take place in all 50 states nationwide as part of Campaign Nonviolence Week of Actions September 15-23. This unprecedented campaign of grassroots activism calls for nonviolent action against racism, war, poverty, and environmental destruction. In its inaugural year of 2014, 230 events took place. In response to the hate speech, racism, wars, environmental destruction, and government corruption presently dividing our nation, this year over 100,000 people will join together in more than 2650 rallies, marches and events to spread the word of unity, justice, peace and nonviolence in the tradition of nonviolence.
“People across the United States are taking Campaign Nonviolence to the streets to end violence and injustices, and begin peacemaking,” said Dr. Ken Butigan, co-founder of Campaign Nonviolence and professor at DePaul University. “This unified voice calls for concrete policy shifts to build peace, economic justice, and environmental healing—and insists on being heard.”
Campaign Nonviolence is sponsored by Pace e Bene, a non-profit organization committed to building a culture of peace through active nonviolence and shared understanding and partnerships to protect human rights, abolish war as well as nuclear weapons, end poverty, challenge injustice, heal the planet—and meet today’s profound spiritual task: to build a just, peaceful and nonviolent world. To be true to the vision of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and resolve conflicts nonviolently at home and abroad.
“Americans want a positive vision of hope and peace for our country and the world,” said the Rev. John Dear, co-founder of Campaign Nonviolence, nationally known peace activist, author of 35 books, and Nobel Peace Prize nominee. “During this unprecedented week of national action, we are mobilizing in local grassroots initiatives to speak out against the culture of violence, greed, and war. We hope to deepen the power of nonviolence, with the vision and tools for nonviolent change that Mohandas Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and many others have activated for personal and global transformation.”
Highlights from a sampling of planned events include:
- Delaware Peace Week will hold over 100 events during the national week of action, from vigils and teach-ins to meetings statewide to two marches in Wilmington. See: www.peaceweekdelaware.org
- Raleigh and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, have declared “Campaign Nonviolence North Carolina Week,” and scheduled events to oppose racism and discrimination, poverty, war, and environmental destruction—and to advance peace. On Sept. 13, the NC Governor Roy Cooper signed a proclamationdeclaring “Nonviolence NC Week” and urging North Carolinians to join nonviolence week.
- St. Paul/Minneapolis will hold ten city-wide events, including a peace event with over 3000 people joining hands in a pledge of nonviolence around the city lake. See: twincitiesnonviolent.org
- Arkansas Peace Week will feature over 20 citywide events. See: wwwarkansaspeaceweek.com/events
- Marches, prayer services, public vigils, workshops, teach-ins, and rallies will be held nationwide, with major events in Memphis, Tennessee; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Clinton, Iowa; Chicago, IL; Portland, Maine; Dubuque, Iowa; Morro Bay, CA; and Erie, Pennsylvania.
For a list of peacemaking rallies, with states and cities, descriptions, organizations and contact information, please visit: Actions.CampaignNonviolence.org.
On Saturday, Sept. 22 at 9 a.m., hundreds will rally and march in Washington, D.C. from the Dr. King Statue (on the Southside of the Lincoln Memorial), to the White House for the Campaign Nonviolence national vigil and nonviolent direct action. Speakers will call for an end to U.S. wars and nuclear weapons, racist policies, rampant greed and growing poverty, and ongoing environmental destruction, and for a new direction toward justice, disarmament and environmental protection. Some will engage in nonviolent direct action.
Speakers will include Rev. Lennox Yearwood of the HipHop Caucus; Rev. Lisa Sharon Harper of Freedom House; Shane Claiborne of Red Letter Christians; Father John Dear, co-founder of Campaign Nonviolence; Dr. Ken Butigan, co-founder of Campaign Nonviolence; Dr. Kit Evans Ford; George Martin of United for Peace and Justice; Monsignor Ray East, Pastor of St. Teresa of Avila Church in Southeast D.C.; and others. All events will be livestreamed on the internet.
At 10 a.m., everyone will walk in silence with signs from the Dr. King statue in procession past the Lincoln Memorial to Lafayette Park across from the White House, where they will gather for a legal vigil, to continue their call for an end to racism, greed, war and environmental destruction, and for new leadership and a new culture of nonviolence, with respect, dignity, rights for everyone and for the earth. Some people will then engage in nonviolent direct action at the White House. This will be the first ever march from the Dr. King Statue to the White House.
Campaign Nonviolence is sponsored by Pace e Bene, a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization founded in 1989 by the Franciscan Friars of California. The campaign’s coordinators Ken Butigan and Father John Dear teach that nonviolence most effectively characterizes Jesus’ way and is “the hope of the future, that we all reject violence, and pursue nonviolent means toward a new culture of nonviolence for justice, peace, and the integrity of creation.”
For more information please visit: http://www.paceebene.org/about/.