Lane County Newsletter June 09

[Martin Jones]

Greetings and Welcome to the Lane County Beyond War Newsletter!


Successful Events Recently

· Jim and Pat Anderson had a very positive tabling experience at the International High School Community Service Fair on April 23. Seven students expressed interest in volunteering with BW.

· Beyond War had a presence at the recent "Peace and Justice Festival" at the Wellsprings Friends School, Saturday 16 May. Eileen Hanna showed the BW DVD and fielded questions in the small auditorium, and both Phil and Eileen tabled the event.
We had been invited to give the presentation by the school's director who had attended a previous BW presentation.
Approximately 20 people attended the Intro Presentation, and all together about 50 people came and went throughout the day, stopping at our table to ask questions and get information.
It was sure great to have the big plastic "ready-for-anything" box that was put together that included the BW banner, lots of handouts, DVDs and the study guide. Setting up was easy. It was a nice low-key event. We look forward to doing more tabling and presentations this summer and fall.
-- Eileen and Phil Hanna

· Beyond War Hosts UNESCO Chairs -- On Saturday, May 9, ten local Beyond War team members hosted a luncheon for 14 worldwide UNESCO Chairs for Intercultural Communication, Interreligious Dialogue and Peace. They were here as part of a UO conference: Ethics, Religion and the Environment. The purpose of the lunch was to learn from them what content would be appropriate as we explore the development of an international DVD/documentary project, similar to our "America-centric" introductory DVD on the website. In other words, how can BW's principles, practices and strategies be phrased to be most effective in other cultures and countries - and what else should be included?
It was most productive. We met Chairs from Russia, Georgia, Lebanon, Israel, France, Austria, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, UK, and the Americas (Prof. Steve Shankman here in Eugene). Their suggestions enlightened and surprised us, and a solid basis for further dialogue and collaboration was established. There's nothing like interpersonal connection!
Portland-based BW Education Director Leonora Perron was present. We are grateful to Doug White for photographing the event, and Ben Dieter who videographed it. Hats off to Ann Cole, Anne O'Brien and Kathy White whose hard work helped make the event such a success. If you would like to participate in this global DVD project in any way, please contact Martin @ [e-mail]
To view pictures of the UNESCO event, go to
http://beyondwar.ning.com/photo/albums/beyond-war-hosts-unesco-chairs to see 30 photos taken by Doug White. Double click on each picture to enlarge and read the caption.


· On May 7, Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea and humanitarian extraordinaire, gave an inspiring talk to a crowd of 5-6,000 people at Mac Court on the UO campus. His message was one of hope. The title of the book points out that one must get to know the people one is attempting to assist and develop a relationship as opposed to just going to an area and tackling a project. He has spent the last 14+ years helping to get schools built in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan. There is an African proverb which states "If you educate a boy you educate an individual, if you educate a girl you educate a community." Greg has taken this to heart as he requires a certain percentage of the students to be female in all the schools that he assists in building. His success has reached the highest levels of our government and it was extremely encouraging to learn that General Petraus, U.S. Commander in the region, requires all of his higher ranking officers to read Greg's book. He emphasized that America's greatness is predicated not on commonality, but rather its diversity. He gave encouraging statistics showing that America's youth are interested in making the world a better place and he gave examples of people doing wonderful things and he also encouraged everyone to do so.

Ongoing and Upcoming Local Team Activites

Anne Millhollen orchestrates a multi-faceted fantastic Library Display Project which includes library displays, a core reading list, a book review team as well as other activities. Many opportunities exist to assist with this long-term project. Contact Anne at [e-mail] and check out the Library Display Project Team on the Team pages.

The BW Book Club meets monthly. Call Sally Marie for the most current information at 344-3057.

BW folks are planting seeds to work with Veterans for Peace as well as opening dialogue with returned veterans. This is a potential area for future volunteer assistance.

Anne Millhollen is working in collaboration with United Way volunteers. If interested please contact Anne at [e-mail].

Work is being conducted on creating an updated and more internationally focused Beyond War DVD. The chairs of UNESCO attended a wonderful, elegant and highly productive luncheon sponsored by Beyond War (see a summary of the event above). Martin Jones is coordinating this. To help, contact him at: [e-mail].

July 3, 4, 5 Art in the Vineyard. BW again will be tabling this fun event which has shown a lot of activity in the past. If you have any pastel sheets or material that you would be willing to part with these can be used to make peace flags which have been a great project in the past. The contact person is Anne Millhollen at [e-mail] or phone number 343-0890. Volunteers are needed for the following times:

Friday, July 3: 11:00 am - 7:00 pm
Saturday, July 4: 11:00 am - 7 pm
Sunday July 5: 11:00 am - 6:00 pm

August 6 or thereabouts, will be Hiroshima Day. This is a 3-hour deeply moving event in which BW has participated in the past with a table. If interested contact Martin Jones at [e-mail].

September 9, 10, 11 Eugene Celebration. BW always has a table at this event and walks in the parade as a group. If you are interested mark this on your calendar. We will need people to meet, greet, talk and listen at the BW booth on Saturday and Sunday. More soon.
_______________________________________________________________________
If you have any information that would be useful for this newsletter or if you would like assistance with any projects please email me (Gary Griffin) at [e-mail] so that I can include the information in our next newsletter.
...and if any of these activities spark your interest please contact the appropriate person. A helping hand is always graciously welcomed! Working together, we can build a world beyond war.

Visit the Central Lane County, Oregon team page at:
http://beyondwar.ning.com/groups/group/show?id=950018%3AGroup%3A829 and join by clicking the green "+" sign at the top right. There's no obligation, and it's a good way to keep informed of what's happening locally.

Beyond War Website

Our website is undergoing changes now to improve communication between local teams and teams across the country. As you know there are local teams - like our Lane County team - and issue teams - like Ann Millhollen's Library Display Project Team. Please explore the website. Become a member if you are not one already. Sign in on the Home Page, www.beyondwar.org

After exploring the Home Page menus, click "Community Center" on the "Resources" drop down menu, and you'll be taken to the jump off page for the following:
· Join the Central Lane County team if you haven't yet. This way, you can be informed of what's happening locally. Download your picture on your Profile Page.
· Join other issue teams that you're interested in - the Nuclear Weapons Abolition team, the Speaker's Bureau, etc.
· Click on "Blogs" and "Forum" to join conversations - or start one.
· Explore the videos. If you know of one that should be there, post it
Your feedback is appreciated as we continue to make the website as useful as possible. Contact Martin @ [e-mail] with questions or suggestions.

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