Nonviolence this Season

Dear Friends,

Many non-profits (or as we like to call them, social profits) take time in this Christmas season to reconnect with their friends and colleagues, share a few words about what the year has meant for them, and make an appeal for funds.  But which of them can make the proud claim that their staff, volunteers, and board members have dedicated their lives to promoting the very principle that has made this time of year special throughout the world – the principle of nonviolence and peace?

It gives me much warmth and happiness, then, to share with you that despite the many dark clouds of 2010 – or indeed partly because of them – the Metta Center for Nonviolence has grown inwardly and reached out to touch the lives of many more people around the world.   Over the past month we have received urgent questions from journalists in Ecuador, school teachers in Ohio, interfaith communities in Michigan, and activists in Israel and Afghanistan.  Promoting nonviolence in a world that seems obsessed with cruelty, holding aloft a noble and promising image of the human being in a world that unaccountably seems to put its own dignity last, could be lonely work.  We would do it even if it were, because that is our inspiration and the meaning of our lives; but fortunately we don’t have to because we feel so close to you.

The other day in one of our monthly conference calls that has brought people from India, Israel and elsewhere into the circle we said that a person in need can either demand help or request it (and that the former is something akin to violence while the latter is less so).  It occurred to me that there is still a third stage, for when one is in need it creates a situation of opportunity for others to do something we all need and crave (whether we’re aware of it or not): to connect with others through loving service.  So beyond demand and request there is the most nonviolent alternative of all, to invite others into “loving community.”  We want to extend to you the opportunity to join us in the planet’s most needed work by inviting you to invest a loving financial gift in the mission of Metta Center for Nonviolence this holiday season. We encourage you to do so in the name of a family member or friend, especially, in this season of generosity and caring.

We gratefully accept both checks at our main office at 1730 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Berkeley, California 94709 or credit cards on our website by clicking here.

Martin Luther King, Jr. once remarked, “No social advance rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of dedicated individuals.” Every monetary investment from you cheers us on in our persistent efforts as we experience, with deep appreciation, your loving support.

Onward toward a nonviolent future,

Michael N. Nagler,

President and Founder