Searching for Peace

Conflict arises in many areas.

Competitive or opposing action of incompatibles is one. On April 29, 1992, a mostly white jury acquits four police officers accused of beating a black motorist in Los Angeles. In response, thousands of people in the city — mostly black or Latino — begin riots, including looting, arson and murder.

War is another. September 11, 2001: Two hijacked planes slam into the Twin Towers, another crashes into the Pentagon and a fourth goes down into a Pennsylvania field. Troops are sent to Iraq, beginning an endless hunt for terrorist ghosts an ocean away.

Conflict also arises to show antagonism. On March 9, 2006 the body of peace activist and former Eastern Mennonite University student Tom Fox is found on a road in Western Baghdad. He has been shot in the chest and head. Fox had gone to Iraq as a member of Christian Peacemaker Teams to document the abuse of Iraqi captives and promote peace.

Full Story

From the Author:
September 11, 1906, 95 years before hate and violence brought down the Twin Towers, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi stood in the Empire Theater in Johannesburg, South Africa, for his first peaceful campaign.

This day began Gandhi’s life-long search for peace. He searched not only for his Indian community, but for the rest of the world. He worked to set an example of peace to all religions and all communities. Gandhi’s nonviolent techniques have been carried on by people like Martin Luther King Jr., who used Gandhi’s peace principles during the Civil Rights Movement, and Oscar Arias, who used nonviolent methods in his efforts to end civil wars in Central America.

Gandhi’s message also has spread to the corners of the Shenandoah Valley, where an organization at James Madison University is continuing the search for peace. The Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence was established March 2005 by Sushil Mittal, JMU associate professor of religion. The Gandhi Center is a nonprofit organization that promotes a culture of nonviolence and peace.

According to Mittal, “Peace needs to be understood in its broadest sense. Peace is more than an absence of war. It means justice, equality, freedom, mutual respect among human beings, human respect for the environment.”

The JMU Gandhi Center has given fresh, young voices to Gandhi’s message. Read on to see how the organization is bringing peace to the Harrisonburg community and beyond.