By Mary Hanna
Portland, OR –Seventeen people from across the United States and Canada, committed to nonviolence and teaching the tools of third-party nonviolent intervention, gathered this weekend at the Whitefeather Peace House in Portland, Oregon to discuss unifying their efforts to create a nonviolent response to violence in their local areas. The three-day gathering resulted in the creation of the Shanti Sena Network (SSN). ‘Shanti Sena’ was a term coined by Mahatma Gandhi, and it means “peace army.”
Gandhi scholar Michael Nagler said “The purpose of this work should ultimately hinge on the uplifting of the human image as powerful creators of nonviolent change.”
Gandhi saw the Shanti Sena as composed primarily of volunteers whose mission is to provide constructive, creative avenues for violence prevention and control, and felt it would be crucial to the development of world peace; he thought that any truly free society must be able to manage its own conflicts without resorting to violence or fear lest it become obligated to a military class and thus forfeit significant parts of its democracy.
Currently, the SSN plans to meet quarterly as they begin building the national network.
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Mary Hanna is an organizer for Michigan Peace Teams based in Lansing, Michigan.
*If you would like to participate, please write: info@mettacenter.org*
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By: Stephanie Van Hook
Stephanie Van Hook is Executive Director of the Metta Center for Nonviolence.
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I am so glad to have connected with the activities of the METTA CENTER. I live and work in Gujarat. My parents were Gandhians and I was raised as a Christian with the philosophy of being fully Indian, secular, non-violent, developmental, to work for the people and by and through the people among whom I lived. To bring common good as an overall rider rather than individual good. To harness communities to live in acceptance and appreciation of differences of language, culture, faith and economy. To work with and to support nature. To use it as a resource and reconstruct rather than merely deplete. To understand myself as an Indian in all manner. But my turn to Gujarat today surprised me even as an Indian. Gandhi today is many things to many people… philosophy, ideology, semantics and to very very few acceptance and the dynamics of the challenge of an individual life.
I have faced violence at all levels. Fear and aggression due to this by those who failed to manipulate. I have learned to stand up for my personal beliefs. Ostracism by those fundamental groups whose essence is in discriminating between and suppressing freedom of expression. How easy for us to accept and expect freedom for ourselves and not to be the same to others.
I appreciate the concept wherein Metta encourages and individual commitment to life changing values. I am encouraged to see this come out of the US which represents the Christian belief and ‘Christ’ approach which does not differ from Gandhi and his style and approach to life and the world. I believe the first war is within us. To win within will enable other realities and relationships to flow outward and inclusive of those who are different from us.
Really nice to meet you Susan. Would love to find ways for us to connect more directly in this great work!
hi , please get in touch @ kritisidana@gmail.com, i need to talk to you. kriti