The story’s been told before in Omni circles about how Dick Bennett and his friend Dana Copp retired in 1999 and wondered what they should do next with their passion for peace. Around somebody’s kitchen table they pondered the idea of a peace center like the old Peace Center on Dickson Street that organized protests about the Vietnam War and subsequent social issues. Dick started an email newsletter and scheduled public talks and Dana went to visit the United Campus Ministries chaplain on Maple street and convinced him to allow them office space in their big basement. He also scrounged office furniture and an already-ancient computer.
In April of 2001, local reporter Melanie Dietzel (she later became Omni’s co-president) published a story about one of Dick’s public talks to the Green Party. At that time – only a month before Omni went public – there was no name given for the group. But clearly thought was going toward justice.
In Melanie’s article she quotes Hamsa Newmark, who grew up in war-ravaged East Germany, about this.
“Hamsa states, “You can’t have peace without justice. Peace is not the absence of war.” Like Bennett, for the Newmark’s, ‘peace and justice’ is not just an activist phrase to be spouted; it is the attitude of their lives.”
Dick’s story of the choice of name (not really a direct quote) goes something like this: “We knew the name needed to include peace and justice. That was a given. When I got ready talk to the Sierra Club about joining our coalition it occurred to me to include ecology to appeal more to the environmental movement that was so new and getting strong in those days. So Dana and I just decided on Omni Center for Peace, Justice and Ecology because it was meant to include all of those issues.” That was prescient of them. At that time few people were aware of the deep connection between social and environmental issues that are crystal clear in the 21st century.
But the driving factor was peace with justice. That in itself was important, because there’s a lack of clarity about what kind of peace is at stake. The military regards itself as “peacekeeping” while they make war. The police regard themselves as peacekeeping even when violence is perpetrated against Black, Brown, Queer and other minority peoples. That kind of peace is peace with strength. It’s role is to hold the current system in place, and that’s not what Dick or most Omni people were interested in. We were talking about peace with justice. And that’s still what we’re talking.
There’s also some confusion about the difference between peace as “let’s all just be nice to each other,” and ending inequity that legitimately ignites strife or even war. On that front, progressives today need to do our own inner work and grow justice muscles that can help us build real peace from a justice framework that we are fortunate to see emerging in visible ways right now. And it will in the long arc of history, be the framework that peace can really build from. It may be the final and best chance for the United States to clarify the values, and rectify the tainted history that has us bound to the authoritarian system we’re part of.
I hope you’ll remember Omni history this month even if we don’t get the big party yet. Fayetteville’s history of peace and justice activism is a significant part of our progressive history. Something to be proud of at this moment when our state is attempting to chain us all to the 19th century instead of embracing a future that works for all. We have a long way to go to see that vision, with hard work from all of us. But the vision is emerging in the work of so many incredible people and groups that it’s potential starts to feel very real.
Next week I think we should run a little fundraiser in honor of this Omni history. Hope you’ll contribute if you can. Thank you to all Omni folks for your dedication to peace and justice. Or peace with justice, just to be clear. We’re all in this together.
Isn’t that photo from 2004 or so?
My computer stamped it 2014, but it may have been a late copy. Looks like it was in the old Deep End. Even greater antiquity!
My mother Marion Orton had a stroke in 2009 and was in a wheelchair after that until her death in 2011. So my guess is that this photo was taken in early 2000s.
Well that settles it then. Bill’s thought on 2004 was probably right. Thanks Lisa.
I remember how grateful I was to you, Dick, because I would send you information about the brand new Tree Ordinance that Fran Alexander and others had worked so hard to put into place. Kohl’s was trying to get the planning commission to allow them to over ride the tree ordinance without good reasons. I decided that I would let everyone know after the first planning commission meeting took place, and the decision was not made, when the meetings would take place where the decisions were going to be made about Kohl’s.
I did that because Fran Alexander told me that the government would just keep having meetings until no one paid attention–and let Kohl’s do what they wanted to do.
Dick sent out my notices to your mailing list, which I remember was about 300 people. That made such a huge difference to get the ball rolling so that more people could get involved.
I remember that Dick told me I was the first, or one of the first, donors to Omni–and I did that because of how helpful Dick was in spreading the word. This all happened months before the tree sit, which I instigated when the city council voted to violate the tree ordinance. Mary Lightheart volunteered to sit in the tree, and when I put out the word, within hours there were a dozen or more volunteers who we don’t hear about. People self-organized so that they could support Mary.
I don’t think this all could have happened without the groundwork laid by Dick and his partner, and I am grateful for that.
Thank you Patricia.