A friend of mine had a baby last week. The Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore once wrote that every child represents "a renewed message that God has not lost faith in humankind." A good thought to hold as one's faith in humankind may be waning. Some recent statistics could also offer hope for the future: a Knight Ridder poll showed that 83 percent of American respondents oppose a unilateral war against Iraq, and 79 percent want to pursue diplomacy rather than military action in dealing with North Korea.

Another statistic, that 95 percent of the inhabitants of planet Earth are totally in tune with the bigger universal picture, came from a less scientific source, or a higher power, depending upon your perspective. It was passed on by a friend, who had heard it on a tape of a channeled being -- you know, helpful spirits from other dimensions who channel their wisdom through a mortal in this dimension. The hook, of course, is that the non-human inhabitants are most plugged into the higher universal law. I'll take hope and peace wherever I can find it these days, and since I've found both in nature -- plants, animal species other than humans, and human babies and toddlers, throughout my entire life, there's no need to stop now. There are even some adult human life forms that I'm counting on.

This week, in case you haven't heard, is the Week of Resistance for Peace and Justice. Many national and international organizations are dedicating the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday week to commemorate Dr. King's legacy of organizing against war and militarism, racism, poverty and injustice -- issues that many equate with the seeds of terrorism. With the Bush administration setting the deadline for war in Iraq near the end of the month, it's pretty good timing. Twelve years ago, the previous Bush administration infuriated many by starting its war with Iraq on King's birthday. It seemed the height of arrogance to disrespect one of the 20th-century's leading proponents of nonviolence that way. This time around, the voices for peace and justice may have a chance to be heard before the roar of war begins.

Last week, I attended a two-day training on nonviolence facilitated by Dr. Bernard LaFayette, a colleague of Dr. King's, co-founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1960, who now directs the Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies at the University of Rhode Island. Nonviolence is not a passive concept. It's the active, nonviolent resistance to evil and unjust conditions or actions. Nonviolence is considered the way of life for truly courageous people. It seeks to win friendship and understanding, rather than to defeat an enemy. It seeks to defeat injustices, not people. It chooses love instead of hate. It holds that the universe is on the side of justice, right will prevail, and that suffering for a cause can educate and transform.

There will be lots of people in Washington, DC, and San Francisco this weekend who are ready and willing to suffer for the cause of finding an alternative to war. They might get aches and pains from sleeping in a car, bus, or train on the way to or from one of the January 18 rallies. They face the possibility of bad weather while standing or marching once there, and even the risk of being arrested for an act of civil disobedience. The hope is that these actions might educate and transform the attitudes and actions of even more Americans. The fine print of the Knight Ridder poll shows there's plenty of work to do in this regard.

Take education, for instance. Despite no public evidence, one in four respondents said the Bush administration has released evidence that links Iraq to the September 11 attacks. One in three said they did not know or refused to answer. When it comes to a gap between perception and reality on the justification for going to war, this represents a scary discrepancy. Two-thirds of Americans polled thought they had knowledge of the issues, but closer questioning revealed large gaps in knowledge. The poll also indicated that the more informed the respondent, the less hawkish they are, which certainly makes a strong case for education. The challenge is educating a public that gets most of its information from sound bites. Still, it's a challenge worth meeting.

This week, the second of a series of education guides on nonviolence has been circulated to Rhode Island educators involved in the Newspapers in Education program. Starting this training with children is a vital step. But we also need to think about the "Do as I say, not as I do" message we give them every time our nation strikes out at another and exalts the values of toughness, rugged individualism, and aggression while denigrating compassion, kindness, shared resources, and forgiveness.

Before his death, Dr. King developed a six-step process for social change, which starts with information gathering. That seems like something almost anyone can do. We are living in the Internet Age, so that part should be easy. So gather some new information about the proposed war on Iraq this week. The next step is education, and this can be as simple as sharing the information you've gathered with someone else -- your elected representatives, for example -- or with many others via a letter to the editor. If you're ready to go further, the next steps are:

3. Personal commitments,

4. Negotiation,

5. Direct action, and,

6. Reconciliation and beginning the healing process.

Many of the younger participants at the training were skeptical about the relevance or viability of nonviolence in today's world. One even used the "human as animal" rationale for violence until it was pointed out that, among all the animals on the planet, we are the only ones which kill for sport, and that the most primitive among us are often the least violent. Despite the skepticism, however, every participant, when asked to employ the six principles of nonviolence, rose to the occasion of providing thoughtful answers. There is something to be said for simple exposure to an alternative way of being and acting. Perhaps we can start by lobbying for one tenth of the estimated $200 billion cost of war to be put to just such an alternative use.

Plugging in to the annual Season of Nonviolence, which begins January 30, is one way to do this before funds for a war with Iraq are allocated. You can get involved at www.agnt.org. Look for their "64 ways in 64 days" for daily suggestions for practicing nonviolence. Also look for some in-depth coverage of the events in DC this weekend if you're not making the trip yourself. You can find details about the events at www.unitedforpeace.org/.

While proponents of peace and justice are preparing for the worst, they are also hoping for the best -- stopping a war before it begins. Imagine it. Hannah Arendt once wrote, "Power and violence are opposites. Violence appears where power is in jeopardy, but left to its own course it ends in power's disappearance . . . The chief reason warfare is still with us is neither a secret death wish of the human species, nor an irrepressible instinct of aggression . . . but the simple fact that no substitute for this final arbiter in international affairs has yet appeared on the political scene."

Some people think that nonviolence is, or holds the greatest hope for finding, the substitute that most humans desire. It is, as Dr. King said, "A powerful and just weapon, which cuts without wounding, and ennobles those who wield it. It's a sword that heals."

Pam Steager can be reached at pjsteager@earthlink.net.

Issue Date: January 17 - 23, 2003