Melanie Dietzel’s article, I believe in the old Arkansas Times – March 28, 2001
Wednesday, March28: Carol Conger-Tarvin welcomes about fifty folks who have gathered in the meeting room of the Fayetteville Public Library. It is a collection of familiar faces to anyone who has been involved in peace and justice activism. Behind Tarvin hangs a bright green banner declaring in bold white letters, “Green Party.”
Tonight is a special meeting. Dr. James R. (Dick) Bennett, Professor Emeritus of English, University of Arkansas has been invited to talk about the creation of a Peace and Justice Center in Fayetteville. As Tarvin states, the center would be a “hub,” where activists of varied peace and
justice movements can come together to share ideas, support each other’s efforts, and broaden horizons on issues that need to be addressed. At one time, a Peace and Justice Center was housed in a warehouse on the edge of the Schulertown Section of Dickson Street. However, it has been gone for several years.
Bennett, a veteran peacemaker, founded the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in the United states, and the Peace Writing awards for unpublished books. He has created a web site containing a list of organizations in Northwest Arkansas that are dedicated to peace and justice. He is the author of the Peace Movement Directory: North American Organizations, Programs, Museums and Memorials.
During the Vietnam era, Bennett was a member of a local peace organization protesting the war. The group, with more than 100 members, was active throughout the 60s and 70s. When the group dispersed during the early 80s, Bennett urged the members to “Get to work,” not to depend on monthly organizational meetings. One of the activities that Bennett maintained was an annual Hiroshima-Nagasaki Remembrance.
Tonight, Bennett speaks about a special section he saw in one of the local newspapers pointing out progress in Northwest Arkansas. However, he states, “There was not one word in it about peace or peace making as a part of progress.” He went on to say that USA Weekend, the magazine portion of the paper, “had a special feature on the ten treasures in the United States.
Two of them were military battlefields. As we have come to expect, zero on peace making, no treasures on peace making or peace makers.” Bennett goes on to say, “The people here at this meeting are peacemakers.” However, he acknowledges that they do not carry the dominant voice, yet.
“While we live in a world of war making,” he says, “of which our own country is a part, our media presents us with battlefields, re-enactments, pictures, celebrations of our cemetery, all of the elements of what I call ‘grassroots militarism.'”
Yet, across Northwest Arkansas, peacemakers and justice seekers abound. Members of the Green Party have just attended a meeting to make plans on how to prevent any government from sending arms into space. A group of parents and others are visiting with high school students presenting education and career opportunities in fields relating to social justice and peace making initiatives. A Safe School Coalition has formed in order to establish that every school in the Fayetteville School District becomes a “safe zone” where staff, faculty and students can teach and learn without being exposed to verbal or physical bullying or harassment. The Campus
Democracy Collective at UA protests and conduct petition drives against corporations that put profits ahead of the workers’ welfare and environmental concerns.
The list of organizations in Northwest Arkansas promoting peace and justice is long and diverse. Environmentalists can join Green Party, Sierra Club, We’ve Had Enough, Ozark Society. The ACLU, Arkansas Equality Network, PFLAG, NOW, Project for Victims of Family Violence, Rape Crisis all offer ways to work toward justice for all. Peace in the world is significant to
the faiths of Quakers, Buddhists, and Baha’is. Many Christian denominations, Jewish communities, and other religions also have strong commitments to peace.
So, if a group here and a group there are moving toward a better world, how much more could be accomplished if they had a means to regularly connect with one another? Dana Copp, retired physician, and civil rights advocate reports that discussions are underway with the United Campus Ministries about the possibility of using a portion of their facility, The Deep End, to house the Peace and Justice Center.
The idea of a new Peace and Justice Center sounds good to Morty and Hamsa Newmark. The Newmarks have been involved in local activism as well as international projects for 15 years. As Hamsa states, “You can’t have peace without justice. Peace is not the absence of war.” Like Bennett, for the Newmarks, “peace and justice” is not just an activist phrase to be spouted; it is the attitude of their lives.
Bennett has created a peace garden in his back yard. The focal point is what at first appears to be a large rock. On coming closer, an intricate sculpture emerges (a work by Hank Kaminski). Look straight down over the top of it; the word “PEACE” is spelled out. Rising from every exposed
surface are names of those who have contributed to bring peaceful change to the world.
Spend an hour at Nature’s Water, the business owned by Morty and Hamsa Newmark. The walls are covered in soothing shades of green. Water cascades gently in small fountains. The sounds of Reggae drift throughout the space. The hustle of the day falls away, and calm settles in.
In 1986, the Newmarks were involved in the political campaign of Su Sargent who was an unknown Independent running against John Hammerschmidt. Hamsa says, “When you become involved in a political campaign, you have to look at current issues; you have to create a platform for your candidate. That’s how we became educated about foreign politics.”
What they discovered during their research was that “the United States was directly involved in paying for, sponsoring, and promoting the Contra war in Nicaragua.”
Hamsa had grown up in post WWII East Germany. She understood the devastation that war causes to the civilian population. “We became involved in a humanitarian effort to bring clean water to the war-ravaged communities of Nicaragua. We helped build a water system, gravity fed, no electricity, for five thousand people.” The support and supplies that the Newmarks and others presented to the natives who did the actual construction came to be known as “projects of peace and friendship. We became friends with their communities.”
It can be said that all peace and justice endeavors are projects of peace and friendship. Anyone who has embraced a cause will tell you that a bond forms between participants. Forever after, whenever these folks run into each other, it seems that they are encountering old friends. As Dana Copp, one of this evening’s speakers at the Green Party meeting states, “I get the feeling that whether I go to a Human Dignity campaign, or a Green Party meeting, or to church, I see the same people over and over again.”
So it is that issues overlap, and those involved in one effort will probably be involved in others. Occasionally, there is a strong unification among all organizations. The most recent and powerful example is the exertions made toward protecting Fayetteville’s tree ordinance.
Whether working on a local or global scale, there are many people in many organizations in our community committed to bringing peace into the world and justice to the lives of its citizens. What a boost a physical location would be toward those efforts. The Peace and Justice Center can serve as a clearing house for resources, a phone number for those seeking to get involved, and a gathering place for those already engaged.
To find out more about opportunities to create peace, go to Dr. Bennett’s web site: http://comp.uark.edu/~jbennet(jbennet@uark.edu) and click on “organization.”
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