Announcement 2008 June 21
IN ONE YEAR, by June 21, 2009, the beginning of a new era could begin! Women, you are one step away from changing the world, if you decide to take it.
Letter to Kim Gandy, President of NOW
Dear Ms. Gandy: Your letter* regarding confronting the media is wonderful. I would like to respectfully submit an addition to the strategy you have outlined. To change the male dominated world, create a scenario where the press has no choice but to cover it. Would you please implement a ―Global Strategy of Nonviolence,‖ with women leading the way? After 9/11, I went to peace conferences to search for ways to resolve conflict other than war and gravitated to the women’s groups. My research found ―nonviolence‖ to be a source women embody (there are always exceptions) and I theorized that if women were to utilize nonviolence as their strength, they could change the world. It wasn’t just me saying it. Sister Joan Chittister, September 11th, 2004, at the Omega / V Day conference, ―Women and Power‖ said, “The lives of our children, the protection of millions, the hopes of all humankind, wait again now for women, from opposite cultures, opposite tradition, to step over the line of political hatred to save them.” Kofi Annan stated, ―The future of the world depends on women.” An extract from the writings of Baha’u’llah, the founder of the Baha’i Faith, in a book entitled “Women”, states about women, “…when they form a conscious and overwhelming mass of public opinion against war there can be no war.”
My request to you is to go further than a media campaign and start a ―global,‖ not just national, campaign against war. You have the podium. The women of the world are ready. So are the men. This effort will not exclude men. Women promoting no war will capture the world’s attention, thus affecting all women issues! The initiative would be predicated on empowering women. Isn’t it time for women to create change and not wait for it? It is not for me to ―Call to Women.‖ Women leaders must promote the initiative. It has been my good fortune to network and personally meet nongovernmental, women leaders from around the world. They are all busy. When I met and spoke with Ela Gandhi, the granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi (who totally embodies nonviolence), I knew my path was set. At 65, she told me she was straight out, but all I needed was one woman leader, or a group of leaders, to promote this to the others, and it will gather steam. Howard Zinn, author and activist told me the same thing.
The groundwork has begun. The networking has begun. Dr. Helen Caldicott told me she originally founded WAND for women to change the world. She expressed preliminary interest in the new concept and one week later, Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, chair of Global Peace Initiative of Women, said if Helen Caldicott was involved, she was interested. This proved to me that it was imperative to have women leaders as the promoters to bring in the others. At the end of February, I attended the CSW conference, Commission on the Status of Women, at the UN and the overwhelming attitude was that women were not being listened to. The purpose of the conference was to work on funding and methods of attaining political clout. The long term answer lies in socialization, but there are obstacles that must be addressed. Women have an opportunity at their fingertips. This is not about preaching to the choir. It is about empowering the masses. In the Chalice and the Blade (C&B), Riane Eisler wrote, ―Often unconsciously, the process of unraveling and reweaving the fabric of our mythical tapestry into more gylanic patterns—in which ―masculine’ virtues such as ―the conquest of nature‖ are no longer idealized—is in fact already well under way. What is still lacking is the ―critical mass‖ of new images and myths that is required for their actualization by a sufficient number of people.‖ After 21 years, C&B is never more relevant and needed. It is time to make history. The world needs a “mandate”, a mandate for peace! The sages of history were all men. The new sages are the women. The new myth is women change the world. Posted May 19, 2008 on AlterNet, Kathambi Kinoti, from AWID, the Association of Women’s Rights in Development, summarized the challenges discussed in a Srilatha Batliwala paper. ―The challenge is in creating an overarching and shared political agenda so that on at least some set of issues feminist movements are speaking with a unified voice.‖ In WILPF’S Peace and Freedom, The Spring 2008 issue, C.J. Minster wrote about focusing on a ―political voice to create the paradigm shift needed to dismantle the patriarchal, racist and belligerent power structure we currently live in.‖ Jean Hudon, editor of the Earth Rainbow Network, a spiritual group, wrote on 5/27/08, ―Our real focus from now on should be, in my humble opinion, to foster such a heightened sense of urgency in everyone's mind that the deep POSITIVE changes advocated by Obama will actually be implemented and that people won't relapse into a shallow sense of security in the belief that merely electing Obama and Democrats will be enough to resolved their and the world's problem. There needs to be a wartime mobilization of everyone's effort and creative genius…‖
Not just Obama, or Clinton -- the world needs women now to show the way. The problems will not be solved by the United States. There must be a global effort. Women have already begun -- Standing Women www.standingwomen.org , Grandmothers www.grandmothers.org , etc. There are coalitions and networks – World March of Women www.marchemondiale.org , Global Women Strike www.globalwomenstrike.net , etc. I have prepared a plan, a guideline for a Global Strategy of Nonviolence, For the Children (GS of NV). It is a people movement, led by women, but not exclusive to women. The implementation is through an initiative called a Call to Women, a WorldWide Unity Campaign. It is a comprehensive plan including administration, marketing, funding, implementation, and follow-up segments. With all the areas prepared, I have chosen this time to contact you to request your participation. Ms. Gandy, the plan is designed for women leaders to review, alter, implement, and promote, not me. I am a facilitator. I have a great deal of research to support the theories and plans. Please see my website www.GlobalStrategyofNonviolence.org . The main question is where is the action? A Call to Women is designed to be the catalyst. A GS of NV is designed to be the overall message. Conferences are needed to determine the pragmatic political steps, but the motivation must come from idealism. Please consider taking this as your own. This morning, I received the text of a speech by Frederick Douglas, July 4, 1852. The speech, (http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/douglassjuly4.html) though made over 150 years ago, is relevant today. There is a fundamental wrong existing in society that is not addressed. Slavery then, misogyny then and now. The US had to go to war to confront the fundamental wrong of the period. Does war have to be the answer now? Douglas expresses optimism in the face of dark despair. Women can take the reigns into their own hands. There will be strife and despair, but would it be worse than war? Douglas is a glorious and eloquent writer. I wish I could do the same. I am a male member of NOW and also WILPF. I have done my best and am committed to Riane Eisler’s quest for a partnership society. I believe she wrote C&B to mobilize the women of the world. A ‖Call to Women‖ could be that instrument. If I may be so bold, women are one step away from changing the world! Peace and Love, Andre Sheldon Newton, MA calltowomen@rcn.com P.S. The website is still in construction. Starhawk wrote about women standing for peace as the representation of a “vision of strength.” “Real security can come only when we weave a global web of mutual aid and
support. As we make larger connections and take action together, we must assert what we as women know to be true: compassion is not weakness, and brutality is not strength.” * Kim Gandy Letter (http://globalstrategyofnonviolence.org/KimGandyLetter.html)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------My prediction is when women mobilize, new women leaders will emerge to promote a partnership society, as Riane Eisler, of the Chalice and the Blade fame, and Louise Diamond, author of The Peace Book, have envisioned. Andre Sheldon