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Step 1: Introduction of Theme Explain to students that these lessons will reject the tactics of violence and terror as means of making change and provide an opportunity to study peaceful alternatives. Explain that you will focus as a class on what citizens around the world have done and are doing to build a better future and affirm rights and liberties using nonviolent means. Share with students the following quotations and play the video montage so students can see the faces and hear the voices of these change-makers. If possible, have a world map on display throughout this lesson so students can plot the countries from which they are hearing and recognize that Voices for Peace are coming from all regions of the world. |
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Myo Thant - Burma “Violence cannot stop violence. So violence promotes a cycle of violence. You kill me, I kill you. So that goes on, you know, like a cycle, keeps going.” |
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Salman Ahmad - Pakistan “And I always felt that peaceful solutions, dialogue, cultural understanding was the way forward.” |
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Mary Beth Tinker - United States “We want peace, not only in the world, but peace in our communities, peace in our families, and peace in our schools.” |
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Malgorzata Tarasiewicz - Poland “Our organization admitted anyone who supported basic human rights and the right to fight for them. Fighting for one's rights without using violence was our way and our goal." |
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William Leslie - South Africa “Apartheid was crushed because the people of South Africa, from all angles, came together to make it not work." |
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Tamar Dzabakhidze- Georgia “I fought because I wanted a peaceful Georgia, I wanted my son to grow in a developed Georgia. I wanted your generation to have an open path.” |
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Moise Ruzindana- Rwanda “I still believe that whether you live, you live here, you live in one culture. If you go to another culture, we all have something in common. We all desire to have a peace and live together.” |
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Gwen Saunders Gamble - United States “When mom went to the first mass meeting, she came back and she was telling us about the unity, it was like meeting a whole new family. And the main teaching was nonviolence.” |
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Alejandra Barrios- Colombia "Only through peace and through dialogue can we generate better ways of living." |
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Mairead Maguire - Northern Ireland “We started a movement called the Peace People because we came out and we said, our message was just one of nonviolence, we said we can’t go on, violence is wrong, there’s always an alternative to violence, lets use another way to begin to solve our problems.” |
After watching the video, explain that the class is now going to begin an in-depth exploration of alternatives to violence for promoting political change. Ask students if they can think of any examples of nonviolent strategies and list their responses on the board.