Beyond War Book Club

[Bill Scheurer]

I have started an experimental Beyond War Book Club in the Booksprouts site.

If anyone wants to check it out, feel free to join the club and nominate and vote for books.

[Sally Suzanne Marie]

I joined and suggested When Religion Becomes Evil, which I have 5 available copies besides my own. I think that Anne M and Dorothy Sampson have spoken for 2 of them. $10 was my cost at Amazon for what looks like new perfect books to me though they were labeled as having a cosmetic blemish. These are for any Eugene member of this team who wants to participate in a live discussion. Contact me if you like.

[Anne Millhollen]

Eugene Beyond War is starting a book club that will focus on the books we would recommend to people to help build a world Beyond War. The tentative list is attached on the Library Display Project page as our "Core List Bibliography." There would be several purposes to the book club. We would have the fun of reading and getting together to discuss good books. In addition, we would create discussion guides for each of the Core List books that we would make available on the website and to book clubs and library groups everywhere--including this Booksprouts site. Lastly we would also evaluate other books as alternatives for inclusion in the Core List.

We are going to begin on Thursday, January 22, with a discussion of "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson. We picked that book because many of us have already read it. In addition, a discussion guide has already been written and is attached. It is an example of what we will create, but our discussion guides will have a Beyond War focus. Anne Millhollen will write a draft guide after each discussion. Then we will share it.

We encourage other book groups to form, to share their comments on the Core List books, and to tell us the discussion questions that evoked the most interesting insights and dialogue.

Anne

[Anne Millhollen]

We just had our first Book Club gathering here in Eugene. In addition to enjoying discussing the Core List books, we are creating a discussion guide that we will offer to libraries with our library display when the guide is completed. As other groups form Book Clubs, we'd appreciate your feedback on whether our questions generated interesting discussions reflecting Beyond War principles and practices. We'd also like to hear other questions suggested. We started with the book Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. On March 3 we will discuss the book When Religion Becomes Evil.

[Winslow Myers]

At last a book which perfectly equally embodies all three of our three core principles--not surprisingly, because Dr. Bernard Lown, author of "Prescription for Survival," received the Beyond War Award in 1984 in recognition of his work with the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.

In 1985 I had the privilege of watching a downlink of the live ceremony in
which Dr. Lown of the U.S. and Dr. Evgeny Chazov of the Soviet
Union received the Beyond War Award given to the International Physicians
for the Prevention of Nuclear War. Large auditoriums in Moscow and San
Francisco were each filled to capacity. The San Francisco Boys' Choir and
the Moscow Boys' Choir sang together across the airwaves. As television
cameras focused on the two participating audiences, separated not only by
geographical distance but by all the alienation engendered by fifty years
of Cold War, people in Moscow and San Francisco began to wave to one
another. Many in both locations were moved to joyful tears at this deeply
human moment that bridged the gulf of ideological difference. I never
forgot that remarkable hour of music and connection.

Now Dr. Lown has taken us behind the scenes to help us recall the
incredibly adversarial mind-set between the Soviet and the American
governments back in the early 1980s. Every attempt at, or proposal for,
confidence-building measures was reviled in the mainstream American press
as a Soviet propaganda ploy. Lown demonstrates what incredible
determination, cautious savvy, courageous honesty, grit, and plain dumb
luck it took for these two doctors not to be sucked into the maw of
cold-war adversary politics, as they tenaciously stuck to their simple
agenda of reporting truthfully, as physicians, on the medical consequences
of nuclear war--thus helping the politicians on the two sides find common
ground--if nothing else in wanting their grandchildren to survive.

One tragic reason this book reads like a suspense thriller is not only
Lown's gift for putting a human spin on a complex tale of political
maneuvering, but also the reality that the challenge it addresses is still
very much with us. The weapons may have diminished in numbers as a result
of important arms-limitation treaties, but they are still there, by the
thousands. One of Lown's chapters begins with an all too relevant
quotation from General Omar Bradley that speaks to our contemporary
condition as a planet of adversarial nations, religions,and ethnic
groupings, a number of whom are still convinced that the possession of
nuclear weapons would help their cause: "If I am sometimes discouraged, it
is not by the magnitude of the problem, but by our colossal indifference
to it."

This indifference remains our challenge. Meanwhile, it is tremendously
energizing to read a memoir that embodies from start to finish all three
core principles of Beyond War.