The Summer of Our Discontent By Siegrid Raible New York celebrated America’s 240th birthday on July 4, 2016 in spectacular fashion. New Yorkers of all stripes gathered together at the end of the day and were awed by Macy’s free fireworks display over the East River. The very next day and almost every day thereafter in the month of July the breaking news banners crawling across our screens were not celebratory but alarming – rising violence and political unrest in Europe and increased gun violence in America. A new pandemic of...
read moreFor Immediate Release : Contact: Judith Carville, Visit Belfast Phone: +44 (0) 28 9023 9026 Email: conference@museumsforpeace.org, judithcarville@visitbelfast.com Website: museumsforpeace.org, visitbelfast.com Belfast to Host 9th International Conference of Museums for Peace, 10-13 April 2017 BELFAST (Northern Ireland) – The International Network of Museums for Peace (INMP; www.museumsforpeace.org) will hold its 9th International Conference in Belfast, April 10-13, 2017. The INMP is a global network of peace museums, peace gardens and...
read moreIn Memory XVI By Siegrid Raible Nice, France, Bastille Day, July 14, 2016 On a warm summer’s evening on the beach In this resort town on the French Riviera After a glorious display of fireworks A young man in a white delivery truck reigns death upon the onlookers Eighty four dead on the Promenade des Anglais Among the dead, ten children, our future – gone Two Hundred Two injured – with some barely clinging to life What can be done to end the madness? Three days of mourning A national state of emergency extended for three months We mourn...
read moreIn Memory XV Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Tuesday, July 5, 2016 Falcon Heights, Missouri, Wednesday, July 6, 2016 Dallas, Texas, Thursday, July 7, 2016 Following America’s 240th Birthday Celebration on July 4th Seven dead and nine wounded in three days of gun violence Two deaths at the hands of two police officers Five deaths at the hands of one disturbed killer wielding a semi-automatic rifle Alton B. Sterling, Baton Rouge, age 37 Philando Castile, Falcon Heights, age 32 P.O. Lorne Ahrens, age 48 P.O. Michael Krol, age 40 P.O. Michael J....
read moreIn Memory XIV In the Holy Month of Ramadan In the Week before the Celebration of Eid al-Fitr In the Year Two Thousand Sixteen In an airport in Istanbul, Turkey In a bakery in Dhaka, Bangladesh In Baghdad, Iraq, at public gatherings to break the Daily Fast In the Holy City of Medina, Saudi Arabia In the Holy Month of Ramadan Muslim on Muslim Violence Too many deaths Too many tears Too much pain In the Holy Month of Ramadan Sadness beyond words The innocent lives of young and old stolen by human IEDs Bodies blown apart Families devastated by...
read morePeace – At What Price? By Siegrid Raible Recently I attended a Requiem Mass for the victims of the Orlando, Florida massacre. As part of the litany, the call by the church’s leader, “into your hands, O Lord, we commend our brothers and sisters” was met with the response from the congregants “may angels surround them, and saints welcome them in peace.” I was struck by the response and began to wonder what price are we willing to pay for eternal peace? In Orlando like Charleston and Newton before it, the eternal...
read moreIn Memory XIII In the Face of Evil June 10 and June 12, 2016 Orlando, Florida Over the course of three days In two separate and unrelated incidents Two men shoot and kill fifty men and women And seriously injure fifty-three On Friday, June 10th, twenty-two year old singer Christina Grimmie is Shot dead by a twenty-seven year old man unknown to her In the face of evil What can be done? At a gay nightclub two days later and in the small hours of Sunday morning A man randomly shoots and kills forty-nine and injures fifty-three In the...
read moreHiroshima and Nagasaki : 71 Years Later By Siegrid Raible It is almost 71 years since the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and three days later, August 9th on Nagasaki. In an instant two cities were flattened and hundreds of thousands of men, women and children lost their lives as the result of explosions caused by chain reactions of infinitesimally small unseen particles splitting apart. A crippled Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945 ending the Second World War after seven years of unrelenting warfare (1939...
read moreIn Memory X and XI Kalamazoo, Michigan, on February 21, 2016 A headline reads “Random Shots on a Deadly Night for Kalamazoo” Six dead at different sites Five families in shock and mourning A father and his son at a car dealership Richard Smith, age 53 Tyler Smith, age 17 Sister-in-laws and their two friends in a parking lot in their cars Mary Lou Nye, age 62 Mary Jo Nye, age 60 Barbara Hawthorne, age 68 Dorothy Brown, age 74 Four days later … more carnage Hesston, Kansas, on February 25, 2016 A co-worker in a shooting spree on the...
read moreSAVE THE DATE Pasos Peace Museum and the International Institute on Peace Education invite you to a symposium on the themes of CSW 2016 Sustainability through Overcoming Violence: Restoring Earth; Respecting Women Fordham Law School 140 West 62nd Street at Lincoln Center 10AM – 4PM Saturday, March 19, 2016 This symposium, illuminating the intersections between environmental and gender violence, will explore modes of learning and action toward the achievement of ecological sustainability and gender justice with a comprehensive framework of...
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