Photo: Maddie Kauffman
Dr. John Reuwer, professor of peace and justice at St. Michael’s College in Vermont, gave a lecture Wednesday, Oct. 17 in the Susquehanna Room in Myer Hall.
The lecture was entitled “Lecture on Nonviolence: Power for Peace and Justice with Dr. John Reuwer,” and the event was sponsored by the Center for Global Understanding and Peacemaking (CGUP).
Before Reuwer began his lecture, the recipients of the Eugene P. Clemens Award were announced. Clemens taught at Elizabethtown College for over 30 years as a professor of philosophy and religion, and he “taught by example” by living a “life that shows peace and social justice and tolerance,” according to Charles Wilson ’69, President of the Elizabethtown College Peace Fellowship.
The first recipient of the award was junior Ilaynna Brown, announced by assistant chaplain Amy Shorner-Johnson. Brown is an education major who has a “focus on educating the whole person,” Johnson said, and “according to her friends she is a person of grounded wisdom.”
The second recipient was junior Rachel Craft, an international business major. She has “passions for international business and peacemaking,” her close friend, sophomore Matthew Smith, said.
Craft also works with Coffee for Peace, including an initiative in which coffee imported from the Philippines was sold at the Blue Bean.
Reuwer will be the 2018 Alumni Peace Fellow. He is a member of the Physicians for Social Responsibility.
“His areas of expertise include non-violent action and communication, mental and physical wellness and the medical effects of nuclear weapons,” according to his description from the CGUP.
As Reuwer began his lecture, he asked the crowd, “How many people believe violence is best way to feel safe?” A couple of people stood to affirm the question.
He then asked, “Who thinks that nonviolence has more power to create the world you want?” Many more people stood in response.
Reuwer said that he has been asking these questions for 30 years, and he has noticed a gradual shift in answers.
He had three assertions for the evening: when managing any conflict, one has the choice of using violent or nonviolent methods; creativity matters more than the amount of resources; and nonviolence is better than violence to achieve solutions to conflict.
He began by discussing conflict and how conflict is resolved. “Conflict is disagreement,” he said. “How do we resolve conflict? Power.” Violence and nonviolence are two methods of power used to resolve conflict.
“Violence is power used to intentionally diminish life,” Reuwer said. “Nonviolence recognizes the humanity of everybody.”
Nonviolence has several components: mindfulness or awareness, nonviolent communication and nonviolent action.
Nonviolent communication is the “language designed to connect in a way that makes everyone walk away with something they need,” Reuwer said.
According to Reuwer, nonviolent action is a “third way of resolving conflict” that “encompasses action that has to be taken when faced with injustice.”
For the rest of the lecture, Reuwer discussed nonviolent action and what makes it powerful.
“Violence is powerful because people believe in it,” he said. It is why the message of the only way to stop bad guys with guns is good guys with guns is “believed at an international level.”
Sixty-one percent of the U.S. budget, or $737 billion, goes towards the military, according to Reuwer’s Powerpoint, but Reuwer asked, “Why can’t we afford to put kids through college?”
Reuwer then discussed the main myths about nonviolent action. The first myth is that nonviolent action is passive and those who practice it pretend conflict does not exist.
Reuwer declared, “There is nothing passive about Rosa Parks or Soaud Nofal.”
Other myths are that nonviolent action means appeasement, that nonviolent action is only for saints and that it is rarely successful.
“What most interested me is the evidence and research presented by Reuwer on nonviolent action and how it has proven historically to be an effective alternative to violence,” first-year Jillian Nichols said. “Peacemaking is not merely a philosophy but has proven to be very effective in many situations around the world.”
“Human violent behavior actually acts like a contagious disease,” Reuwer explained. “Violence begets violence.”
According to Reuwer, it is why prisons have such a high turnover rate; when a group of people with a disease are in the same place, the disease does not cure itself. Nonviolent action is more consistent with human nature, easily adopted by more people and can be made more powerful by people believing in it.
According the Reuwer, he decided to dedicate his life to the promotion of nonviolence because “when you’re an emergency physician for 30 years treating people for injuries they’ve inflicted on themselves and others, you want to figure out why, and stop it.”
For anyone interested in learning more about nonviolence, Reuwer recommended visiting worldbeyondwar.org, codepink.org, and nonviolentpeaceforce.org.
