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BY KEVIN CARR

In print | April 28, 2005

This week, Swarthmore was host to a series of events designed to discuss, celebrate and foster future peace.

The festivities kicked off this past Friday with an open mike and mural painting. These events stressed an important part of the mission of Peace Week, namely action. As Brandon Wolff ’08, organizer of the week and founder of Save R US said, “It is not just about these events, but it is about being proactive.”

Other Peace Week events have included a potluck dinner at the Friend’s Meetinghouse, a discussion led by David Hartsough, co-founder of the Nonviolent Peace Force, on “Peacemaking in the World,” and a Peace and Freedom Seder sponsored by Ruach. “All of these different events are to make sure that there is an event that appeals to everyone’s taste … and it is nice to have balance between learning and action,” Wolff said.

Wolff pointed to Sunday’s Walk for Peace as a prime example of this balance. “There were nine different stations along the path each with a different action component such as writing a letter or Swat Sudan’s hand stamps,” he said. One station had students make hand prints out front of Parrish, symbolizing their commitment to stop to genocide. The path led participants around campus and through the Ville. Wolff focused this week around interaction with the borough community because “it literally linked the two communities together, as students walked from campus into the Ville.”

Monday night’s event, which focused on the history of activism at Swarthmore, also intermingled education and activism. It began with a lecture by Chris Densmore of Friends Historical Library focusing on “Nonviolent Resistance: Swarthmore’ Founders and the Underground Railroad.” After the talk, a panel of student and community activists fielded questions and led a discussion about activism at Swarthmore. The panel consisted of Sam Bell of the Genocide Intervention Fund, Brandon Wolff of Save R Us, David Gibson of Coalition for Peace Action, Barbara Montgomery of the Million Mom March, David Keller of Leap-Kids and Project Peace and Clark Palmer of Nonviolent Peaceforce.

Tuesday night Richard Hoover, a survivor of the Columbine High School violence and Billy Hallowell, founder of the Peace Project, spoke to a small group in the Scheuer Room. The talk discussed subjects ranging from Bowling for Columbine to teaching abstinence in school and violence on television, videogames and the media.

Hoover recounted his experience during the Columbine shooting. “It’s definitely a day I will never forget and hopefully a day that something can be learned from,” he said. “I realized that my mom was glad that I survived high school…this is not the way things should be.” Hallowell implored those present to “stand for something. It doesn’t matter what you stand for as long as it’s something good.”

Wolff said the Columbine incident inspired him to work on peace issues. “I was really affected by Columbine…It was an eye opener that made me realize the absurdity of kids my age killing each other,” he said. “I would turn on the 30 minute newscast and the first 20 minutes were about violence…and a lot of it was about school shootings. That is what prompted me into action.”

As a result, Wolff entered an antiviolence essay contest in the summer of 2001. “I wrote about having a peace festival and I was one of four students chosen to make the idea come to life,” he said. Wolff had the first Peace Day at his high school in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Wolff went on to organize a countywide peace fair and founded Save R US at Swarthmore College. “I want people to be proactive. I hope people … choose something that was important to them from the week and act upon it,” he said.

Wolff said Peace Week 05 has been challenging to put together. “We had to put this together in four months as opposed to a full year like in the past,” he said.

Peace Week 05 runs through Friday and will end with an event called “The Upside of War” with political cartoonist Singe Wilkinson. A handful of other events remain including Visions for Peace in Upper Tarble today. Starting at 4:30 p.m., students from the Peace and Conflict studies department will present their research.

Rhythm and Motion will also perform a special dance choreographed by Sheena Johnson ‘05 titled, “In Remembrance of the Forgotten.” "This piece was inspired by the life of Civil Rights Activist Fannie Lou Hamer, someone who I had forgotten about, and the over 29 million people living with AIDS below the Sahara in Africa. In essence, we are dancing in remembrance of those who have died fighting for our freedom and for those who continue to die around the world due to man’s inhumanity to man," she said.

Wolff is already looking ahead to the future. “We are meeting a week from Thursday to begin planning for Peace Week 2006,” he said.

He also mentioned the possibility of expanding Peace Week into a Tri-co event.

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