she is a lesbian, radical feminist, cat lover, bibliophile, non-smoker, unitarian universalist (though she doesn't go to fellowship on a regular basis) and in the process of becoming athletic again. she dreams of being jeanne d' arc and swooping in and saving those that need saved (though she'd rather not be burned at the stake). she is a loyal friend who will do anything she can for those she loves, but she can flakey sometimes when her depression flares up. she is a loner. a southerner self-transplanted to the pacific northwest in 1998 and now believes that it doesn't rain enough here. she's known for her honesty, she can't help it, its the only way to be. she is 4'8" tall, and round. she has natural blonde hair and she also has blue eyes. she is very intense. she hates small and large crowds, she prefers the one on one or the one on a few. she has no idea what she wants to do with her life, though she would like to see more of the world than what she has seen so far (a good part of the continental united states) and she very much wants to be a mother. finally, she has huge crushes on alix olson and carolyn gage (these are from a far).

March 9, 2003

Monitors reach for peaceful rallies

By Diane Dietz 
The Register-Guard

The depth and sophistication of Eugene's peace activists have emerged in the past several weeks as they have during times of international conflict during past decades.

Professionals skilled in managing human behavior - psychologists, social workers, mediators - are training a new cadre of volunteers to keep the peace during the expected mass demonstrations in the downtown streets.

Their presence is a comfort to Eugene police and to community leaders alike. "You have to give a lot of credit to the peace group organizers," said Jeannine Parisi, coordinator of the Eugene Police Commission.

Rabbi Yitzhak Husbands-Hankin of Temple Beth Israel watched the activists develop and mature over the past three decades, and he sees an orderliness and focus in what they do. "There's a depth of commitment and a seriousness of thought that goes into the action," he said.

The city is home to thousands who've been formally trained in soothing an anxious crowd. With each new conflict - from Vietnam to El Salvador to the gulf war - a new crop was inducted into the local peace corps. For instance, the annual Oregon Country Fair provides periodic training in nonviolent crowd control.

"There are people who have taken this for 20 years, literally," said Jude Bannister, who has helped teach the fair's course for the past three years. "There are all these little seeds that are planted every year, and they're growing."

In a separate effort, Vip Short and Mark Siemens geared up their "peace monitor" training and taught a dozen volunteers in January and a dozen more Saturday.

Siemens, a PeaceHealth therapist and coordinator of social work for the Johnson Unit, said he knows he'll be asked to teach whenever the weekly protests at the Federal Building swell.

"It's like being in the National Guard," he joked. "You'll never know when you'll have an active duty weekend."

Siemens and Short, a chiropractic physician, have provided the peace monitor training periodically since the early 1980s, when they spent a year with a group engaged in an "intellectually rigorous" study of the principles of nonviolence.

They read the works of Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and - importantly, they said - "Conquest of Violence" by Joan Bondurant.

They became hard-core adherents, but they're willing to teach short course strategies for specific purposes, such as peace monitoring at demonstrations. Their free, two- to four-hour training sessions draw a range of volunteers.

On Saturday that included a 35-year-old massage therapist in a tie-dyed T-shirt, a 53-year-old computer system administrator in a fleece jacket and cropped silver hair and a 15-year-old Marcola High School sophomore wearing steel-toed boots and a sweatshirt emblazoned with a death metal skull.

Engineer Bill Ganser said he came to get ready for war. "We have two more years of craziness ahead of us," he said, "and it's time to prepare personally."

Siemens said he'd like to train enough volunteers to maintain a 1-20 ratio of volunteers to protesters. Short said he'd like volunteers to infuse every crowd.

"We want a community of peace monitors," he said. "We want The Hague to say, `Get Eugene on the phone.' "

Eugene peace activists say the essential piece of staging a peaceful demonstration is to be utterly clear about what the intent is, beginning with the advertising and continuing throughout the event. Then, the goal is to keep the action true to its intent, Siemens said.

But before the demonstration begins, peace monitors have to look inside themselves and recognize their own potential for violence, thinking of a time they were violent and coursing with adrenaline. "Adrenaline," he said, "is not the thinking person's chemical. ... What happens in you happens in others."

Siemens counseled the trainees to see the truth that each person brings to the event, be they pro-war demonstrators, hecklers or anarchists.

The key is to be curious about their point of view and empathetic about how they are feeling - for instance, a mother who is angry because her son died in the Persian Gulf and who thinks the demonstrations are a betrayal of her family legacy.

"That person deserves to be heard. We need to hear them out and relate to the stress they're feeling," he told the volunteers.

Techniques include striking a friendly and welcoming pose - arms down, palms open - when talking to an agitated attendee. It involves demonstrating that the peacekeeper heard what the other person said by repeating parts of it back.

Peacekeeping may mean getting in between the bodies of angry demonstrators and counterdemonstrators. A group of peacekeepers can surround an angry demonstrator in a loose circle or "bubble" and gently walk him or her away from the crowd.

Or the peace monitor can ask the crowd to move back a step or two.

"If you insist on going to where the hottest person is, you may be missing the best intervention," Siemens said.

Anarchists, some of whom regard the peace monitors in the pejorative as junior police, are a challenge. Siemens stresses respecting them for "the piece of the truth they bring," and gently asking them to wait until the planned demonstration is over.

Siemens said he tries to remind them that the consequences of their actions do not fall on them alone. He suggested the peace monitors link their arms and turn their back on anarchists who are disruptive or violent.

His strategy: "Don't yell at them. Don't engage them. Don't give them extra energy or attention."

The peace monitors are also uneasy with regard to police. They said they want to act as liaisons without fear police will pressure them to provide information on anarchists or other protest groups.

Some peace monitors trust police; others don't. "I live in Whiteaker and police aren't necessarily on our side," activist Brooke Robertshaw said.

"They're not necessarily not either," massage therapist Joseph Schulz said.

photo by kevin clark and c 2003

----

this morning i then went to a non-violence panel and learned even more. i'm actually going to start a non-violence weblog so a dialogue can continue, and so that i can post specific things about non-violence there. i am very very very inspired, and look forward to more learning, to being a part of the peace movement and the non-violence movement here in eugene.