The Richmond Peace Education Center (RPEC) was founded in 1980. Our mission is to promote peace and social justice in our community and around the world. RPEC works with schools, religious institutions, local governments and individuals throughout the Richmond area. We offer a range of programs, including training in conflict resolution techniques. We also provide support for other local organizations working towards a more peaceful world.

• 'Question War' Advertising Campaign
• A guide to local and State progressive organizations (Updated 5/04)
• Connections to national peace and justice organizations
• Issue Areas - links to sources of recent articles, web sites, and background information organized by topic (now includes over 60 countries and topic areas)
• Executions Scheduled
• Discussion groups, Mailing Lists, and Comments
• Join the RPEC e-mail List
• About RPEC and how to join
• 2004 Auction Items (NEW! updated 10/15)
• Buttons, Bumper Stickers, etc from:

• Stories, Jokes and Bits of Wisdom - An occasional feature (updated 9/10/03)

• Photos from RPEC Events
• Ways to help RPEC financially:

• Noon, every Friday - Demonstration outside the Federal Courthouse, 10th and Main Streets, to protest the Iraq occupation, with monthly vigil days on the fourth Friday of each month.
• Second Saturdays - 9:00 am - Walk for peace, in silence, wear dark clothing, starting at the Boulevard entrance to the Virginia Museum.

• THE SHORT PATH TO OIL INDEPENDENCE - Gas-Electric Hybrids and Wind Power Offer Winning Combination - By Lester R. Brown (Earth Policy Institute, 10/13/04) - With the price of oil above $50 a barrel, with political instability in the Middle East on the rise, and with little slack in the world oil economy, we need a new energy strategy. Fortunately, the outline of a new strategy is emerging with two new technologies. These technologies — gas-electric hybrid engines and advanced-design wind turbines — offer a way to wean ourselves from imported oil.
• Civil-Military Change in China: Elites, Institutes, and Ideas After the 16th Party Congress - Edited By: Dr. Andrew Scobell and Dr. Larry M. Wortzel  (SSI, September 2004) - With Jiang gone, and Hu firmly entrenched in power, a new group of power brokers is rising to prominence. The Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, has just made a 371 page study available on line
• Indonesia Backgrounder: Why Salafism and Terrorism Mostly Don't Mix - The International Crisis Group Asia Report N°83, 13 September 2004 - Salafism--the search for a purer form of Islam--is gaining ground in Indonesia, and bringing in influences from the Middle East, but the movement's intense focus on spiritual experience tends to make it incompatible with terrorist political movements. The International Crisis Group provides a detailed analysis on the movement's growth and impact on Indonesia.
• The Taliban File Part IV -  (National Security Archives, September 11, 2004) - The National Security Archives project has just released the internal State Department documents detailing the events that led to the U.S. decision to eliminate the Taliban. Fascinating reading.
• Venezuela: Divisions harden after Chávez victory - By Bart Jones (NCR, 9/3/04) - Venezuela is the most polarized nation in Latin America today, split between those who view Chávez as a dangerous demagogue who wants to impose a Fidel Castro-style communist regime and those who see him as a hero to the poor masses who is carrying out the most radical social transformation in Latin America since at least the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua in the early 1980s. Chávez won the Aug. 15 recall referendum in a landslide and amid a record turnout.  But the referendum has not resolved the country’s tensions and in ways left it worse off and more polarized, according to observers.
• Hopeful realist Hans Küng points pathway to global ethic - By Patricia Lefevere NCR, 9/3/04) -  All of the world’s main creeds sanction the humane treatment of each person and the observance of the Golden Rule. From these two principles stem core standards and values, which, if followed, will deliver the peace and justice the world dreams of and avoid the clash of civilizations that thinkers less optimistic than Küng have predicted.
• Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project, September 2004 - This report assesses the readiness of Iraqis to take charge of their country, both in terms of actual progress on the ground in reconstruction efforts and the way Iraqis perceive current events. The bottom line so far: all sectors of development in Iraq are still beneath the tipping point needed for a lasting, positive outcome.
• Terrorism is a tool of a greater danger - by William Pfaff (International Herald Tribune, 9/4/04) - President Vladimir Putin of Russia is in grave difficulty because he has refused to acknowledge the real nature of the challenge to his government in Chechnya. The terrible hostage crisis in North Ossetia and the bombings of recent days are the result of his unwillingness to recognize the implications of defying nationalism - not mere "terrorism" - in the Caucasus.
• A Secure America in a Secure World - John Gershman with FPIF Task Force on Terrorism (FPIF Special Report, September 2004) - This 56-page report posits that the open-ended global war on terror is counterproductive, making U.S. citizens more vulnerable to terrorist attacks at home and abroad.  It offers an alternative approach that would focus on preventing successful terrorist attacks by improving homeland security, bringing terrorists to justice and addressing terrorism’s root causes.

Executions Scheduled:

• James Reid - September 9 -   Executed
• James Hudson - August 18 -   Executed
• Mark Bailey- July 18, 2004 -  Executed
• Dennis Orbe - March 31, 2004 -  Executed
• Brian Lee Cherrix - March 18, 2004 - Executed

For more information about RPEC, or to become a member, call (804) 232-1002

Or leave us an Electronic Message

This page printed with recycled electrons
 

      Visitors Since 8/1/99:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Stories, Jokes and Bits of Wisdom
 

Late Night Humor - Courtesy of Phil Bailey (and others):

Finally, a candidate who can explain the Bush administration's positions on civil liberties in the original German." -- Bill Maher, on Schwarzenegger running for Governor.

"President Bush is supporting Arnold but a lot of Republicans are not, because he is actually quite liberal. Karl Rove said if his father wasn't a Nazi, he wouldn't have any credibility with conservatives at all." Bill Maher

"They're saying Arnold will get 95% of the vote. At least according to his brother, Jeb Schwarzenegger." Craig Kilborn

"President Bush has been silent on Schwarzenegger. Of course, he can't
pronounce Schwarzenegger." David Letterman

"Here's how bad California looks to the rest of the country. People in
Florida are laughing at us." Jay Leno

"Well, we're all excited because President Bush has started his 35-day
vacation. He's down there in Crawford, Texas and on the first day of his vacation he went fishing. He didn't find any fish but he believes they're there and that his intelligence is accurate." David Letterman

The United States is putting together a Constitution now for Iraq. Why don't we just give them ours? It's served us well for 200 years, and we don't appear to be using it anymore,so what the hell?" Jay Leno

"President Bush held his first full press conference in over five months this week. He announced that the war on terrorism is continuing, much, much more work needs to be done on the economy, and Saddam Hussein has not yet been captured. And then he said,

'I'm going on vacation for a month.'" Jay Leno

"President Bush is leaving to go to Crawford, Texas, for a 35-day working vacation. This should go over big with all the people taking a can't-get-work vacation." David Letterman

"The White House says that the vacation in Texas will give President Bush the chance to unwind. My question is, when does the guy wind?" David Letterman

"President Bush's economic team is now on their jobs and growth bus tour all across America. I think the only job they created so far is for the guy driving the bus." Jay Leno

"President Bush has refused to declassify portions of the congressional 9/11 reports about the Saudis, because he says it will help the enemy. Not Al Qaeda, the Democrats." Jay Leno

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You'd Better Forward This! (and you need sound)
 

Wage Peace - by Judyth Hill, written 9-11-2001 (courtesy of my daughter, Mary)

Wage peace with your breath.
Breathe in firemen and rubble, breathe out whole buildings
       and flocks of red wing blackbirds.
Breathe in terrorists
       and breathe out sleeping children and freshly mown fields.
Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.
Breathe in the fallen and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.
Wage peace with your listening: hearing sirens, pray loud.
Remember your tools: flower seeds, clothespins, clean rivers.
Make soup.
Play music, learn the word for thank you in three languages.
Learn to knit, and make a hat.
Think of chaos as dancing raspberries.
Imagine grief as the out breath of beauty or the gesture of fish.
Swim for the other side.
Wage peace.
Never has the world seemed so fresh and so precious.
Have a cup of tea and rejoice.
Act as if armistice has already arrived.
Don't wait another minute.

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RPEC Offers two CRC Training Events

     Introductory Workshop    (a basic course  in conflict  resolution theory
     and techniques) October 1-3
     Designed to give participants a basic understanding of conflict + the skills
     to resolve conflicts peacefully.

     Facilitators Workshop    (Training for Trainers)  October 15-17
     Participants will build on shared insight from  the  basic  workshop  with the
     aim  of  becoming  competent group facilitators. Prerequisite: completion
     of Introductory Workshop.

     Hours: 6-9 pm Fri., 9 am-5 pm Sat., 1:30-5:30 pm Sun.
     Location: Richmond Mennonite Fellowship, 7612 Wanymala Rd,
        Richmond
     Facilitator: Sherry Finneran
     Tuition: $135 ea.  workshop (scholarship  assistance available, if needed).
     To register: call 804.358.1958.
 
 
 
 

Family Peace Festival 2004
Bon Air United Methodist Church
1645 Buford Road
Saturday September 11th, 2004
8:42 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

        The Family Peace Festival 2004 is Saturday September 11th from 8:42 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at Bon Air United Methodist Church, 1645 Buford Road.  Several faith communities in the area are organizing this event.  Representatives from Bon Air United Methodist Church, the Islamic Center of Virginia, Midlothian Friends Meeting, the Baha’is of Richmond, the Interfaith Council of Greater Richmond, Richmond Peace Education Center, Richmond Mennonite Fellowship, and other groups are involved.
        We will start with an interfaith worship service of remembrance and hope. We will have children of different faiths involved in the service.  Our slogan and theme for the day is “Peace Begins at Home” and our main focus is children and their caregivers.
        The event will include seminars, arts and crafts, and activities for children.  The seminars are for parents and children and address issues such as Peace and Islam, How to Be a Good Father, Peace and the Legislative Process, and others.  Each seminar will last approximately 20 minutes and will be presented several times during the day.  An arts and crafts area will be available to make several art projects, such as peace cranes and murals.  Games and activities will be set up for children of all ages to learn and play.  Food will be available for a cash lunch.  Also, there will be informational booths set up by groups from the various faith organizations and other child centered groups.
        The stage, our Platform for Peace, will have several performances that will rotate during the day.  Finally a peace concert for the entire family will
end this unique multi-faith event.  Please join us for what is sure to be a special day.
        For More Information Call RPEC at  804-358-1958
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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