Connections-1999 Peace Essay Winners

History has been written by the victors. What young people learn in school is largely a chronicle of kings and dynasties, wars and empires. Even where nonviolent resistance was successfully used, it tends to be neglected. A people kept ignorant of the existence of the history of nonviolence will naturally believe that it is impractical and unrealistic. The Powers know all too well that their sovereignty depends to a large extent in deciding what stories will be told.

I have found it helpful to draw to people's attention the enormous volume and variety of nonviolent actions as a way of breaking the androcratic monopoly on history. As we become aware that nonviolent direct action is not unusual, and that it has been frequently and successfully used, we can begin to envision its further application in our time. Learning the history of nonviolence is another way of rehearsing it. Furthermore, our ability to act may depend every bit as much on a knowledge of nonviolent methods and spirituality as on our fortitude. Carl Scovil remarks that the ability of German pastors to oppose the [Nazi] state depended not so much on their courage as on their ability to perceive the issues at stake. "The sin that preceded what we call cowardice was confusion. The virtue which proceeded what we call courage was clarity."

— From Engaging the Powers Nonviolently by Dr.Walter Wink, last year' speaker in CSUS's Religion in America series

The 1999 PEACE ESSAY CONTEST focused on individuals and groups who have worked nonviolently to bring about social change in the past millennium. Some students chose local, contemporary subjects; others, historical people and movements. The Division IV (grades 5 and 6) first place essay focused on one man who thwarted Hitler's orders peacefully, saving perhaps 90,000 lives. (See essay on this page.)

The annual contest received 740 entries from schools across Stanislaus County. Students, grades five through twelve, were invited to participate.

The judging was done "blind": essays were assigned a number so the judges did not see the name of the school or the author. Local educators, peacemakers, and professional writers made up the panels of judges.

The opinions expressed and the accuracy of facts given are the sole responsibility of the authors and not necessarily those of the sponsors.

All entrants in the 1999 PEACE ESSAY CONTEST receive a Certificate of Participation and will be honored at the Awards Reception on Friday, March 19th, at 7 p.m. in Forum Building 110, Modesto Junior College/East.

First Place: Camellia W. Sanford, Turlock
Second Place: Matthew Hwang, Downey
Third Place: Julianne Sims, Hughson
Honorable Mentions: Downey: Whitney Brechwald and Leonore Heins

Finalists:
Downey: Man Le Do, Megan Drescher, Emily Gray, Patrick Huang, Patrick Perry, Jocelyn Robson, Bethany Wienholz
Modesto: Heather Lemos and Wan-Chi So

First Place: Chrissy Ijams, Johansen
Second Place: Carolyn Zweifel, Johansen
Third Place: Nick Edgmon, Johansen
Honorable Mention: Jerome Barroso, Johansen

Finalists:
Happy Home School: Jeshua Franklin
Hughson: Carolyn White
Johansen: Priya Bhan, Emily Ladd Duran, Courtney LaFaunce, Toby Schumacher
Modesto: Saundra Dobbs and Valerie Rozycki

Division II School Winners*: Carolyn White, Hughson and Chrissy Ijams, Johansen

First Place: Suzy Kleiner. La Loma
Second Place: Kayte Pacher, Roosevelt
Third Place: Bonnie Le, Alyssa Perry, & Mary-Ann Woolsey, Roosevelt

Finalists:
Knights Ferry: Jeff Brockman, Kelly Burgoin, Dustin Holcomb
La Loma: Jessy Alsofrome, Ehud Appel, Andrew Dean, Alfre Vaille
Roosevelt: Courtney Bigley, Alana Garcia &Anna Kong, Page Stoup
Somerset: Kelly Donahue, Caitlin Phillip, Sara Yamashita
Teel: Melissa Fernandez, Richard Ludlow, Giovanni Mendoza, Simon Shamass, Kendall Thorpe

Division III School Winners*: Kelly Burgoin, Knights Ferry; Suzy Kleiner, La Loma; Stacey Bilyeu, Mae Hensley; Kayte Pacher,Roosevelt; Sara Yamashita, Somerset Middle School; and Simon Shamass, Teel

First Place: Marcus Rein, Lakewood
Second Place: Alexandra Minjares, Lakewood
Third Place: Kelsey Ramos, Fremont Open Plan
Honorable Mentions: Kasia Alvine, Emilie J. Ross; Annie Carley, Fremont Open Plan; and Jillian Hanks, Magnolia

Finalists:
Fremont Open Plan: Nick Altman, Alessandra Barbosa, Rob Johnson, Elisa Rockwell, Emily Tankersley, Scott Yoder
Lakewood: Kathryn Jean Lewis
Magnolia: Andrew Waltermire
Somerset: Brittany Brown, Amanda Fielding, Kelsey Sereno,
Westport: Melinda Verissimo

Division III School Winners*: Kelsey Ramos, Fremont Open Plan; Adam Lavezzo, Keyes; Marcus Rein, Lakewood; Jillian Hanks, Magnolia; Liza Lopez,Rising Sun; Amanda Fielding, Somerset; Kelly Rash, Stroud; Angel Marie Botley,Sylvan; Nicole Knott, Teel; and Melinda Verissimo, Westport.

*A school prize is awarded to the writer of the best essay from each school which has submitted 10 or more essays in a division.

Many thanks to Jim Costello, Anita Young, and Peggy Castenada for designs, all who worked at the Harvest Supper, and the.screeners and judges: Barbara Manrique, Val Hillsdon-Hutton, Brad Barker VaNee VanVleck, Myrtle Osner, Fred Herman, Terry Manzoni, Martin Zonligt, Deborah Grochau, Harriet Hills, Mary Moore, Diane Nelson, Meg Scherfee, Sandy Sample, Judy Sly, Tim Smart, Andrea McGhee, Margaret Barker, Jim Barker, Barbara Barker, Suzanne Meyer, Paul Illick, Tina Driskill, Bob Baucher, Judy Cochran, Simeon Franklin, Ken Schroeder, Julie TenBrink, Jim Costello, John Lucas, Jim Beggs, Tommie Lou Carousella, Diane Wilson, Marge Fletcher, Melinda Murrette, Betty Jean Reynolds, Anita Young, and Don McMillan.

1999 Peace Essay Contest Committee: Margaret Barker, Indira Clark, Pam Franklin, Elaine Gorman, Deborah Roberts, and Sandy Sample.

A project of the Modesto Peace/Life Center
P.O. Box 134 * 720-13th Street * Modesto, California 95353-0134 * 529-5750
email: peaceessay@juno.com

Co-sponsored by the Modesto Junior College Literature and Language Arts Department

Participants in the high school divisions of the 1999 Peace Essay Contest were instructed to write an essay of 500 to 1000 words profiling an organization, movement, or action of people who have worked towards a nonviolent solution to one of the world's persistent problems.

We live in a violent world, full of unimaginable atrocities. People search for a ray of hope, shining as bright and pure as the light of a candle, something that will prove that there is some humanity left in the world. It is a desperate search for the freedom to speak, the freedom to think, and the freedom to live. When these basic rights are taken away, the world is left as desolate and empty as it was before there was life on this planet. Countries and their governments force views upon the people, encouraging conformity and shunning individuality. The problem is that people's human rights are being violated all over the world. One group that has attempted to provide a solution is Amnesty International.

Amnesty International was founded by British lawyer Peter Benenson in 1961. In the beginning, Amnesty was composed of only one thousand members. Today, Amnesty has over 1 million members who are dedicated to the international protection of human rights. Amnesty International opposes deliberate killings, torture, and any inhumane or degrading treatment of a person by a government. One of Amnesty International's goals is to free prisoners of conscience. A prisoner of conscience is a person who is detained for their beliefs, opinions, ethnic origins, gender or social status, who has not used or advocated violence in any way to achieve the goal of securing basic human rights. Amnesty protects people who are arrested for participating in peaceful protests. Freedom of speech and freedom of expression are among the principles that Amnesty International advocates.

Amnesty International champions human rights in a number of ways. Many members write letters to oppressive governments urging them to release prisoners of conscience, or they write to a government official in their country who has influence over foreign affairs and inform them of human rights violations in various countries. Some Amnesty members also travel to the country where a human rights abuse is taking place, and work within the community to try and bring about change. By publicizing human rights abuses and educating themselves on human rights violations within a country, Amnesty International continues to work towards a peaceful solution.

The freeing of Koigi wa Wamwere is an excellent example of Amnesty International members at work. Wamwere was a leader of the National Democratic Human Rights Organization in Kenya. The Nigerian government arrested Wamwere on false charges and sentenced him to four years in prison. Amnesty adopted Wamwere as a prisoner of conscience saying that his only crime was investigating human rights violations in Nigeria. Amnesty workers worked through the year, writing letters, lobbying the Nigerian government and visiting the Nigerian people in the community. Finally Wamwere was released. When speaking to Amnesty members about his imprisonment and release, Wamwere said,

The freedom just to move about, even within prison walls, had been denied me. The freedom to look up at the stars, I had been denied. So when I thank you for returning my freedom, you probably won't be able to gauge the depth of my gratitude, precisely because you have never been denied these things. But when you have been denied and have been given these things back, then you know how precious they are. When one gives you freedom and life, one cannot give you a greater gift, and that is what you have given me," (Amnesty Action, 5).

Amnesty members help people who are unjustly imprisoned in order to secure the gift of freedom for every individual on this planet. This year, Amnesty International has decided to focus on human rights violations within the United States, a country that was founded on the principles of democracy and equality for all. The United States has always been known as a country that protects people's civil liberties, yet American citizens are violently discriminated against every day. Amnesty International hopes to shine a light into the dark corners of United State's policy, so that the United States can become a true example of freedom and equality for all mankind. Amnesty members are currently campaigning for improvements in the treatment of prisoners, the death penalty policy and United States arms sales among other issues. To educate the public about the United States, Amnesty members have written letters to Congress supporting certain civil rights laws, distributed Amnesty publications outlining specific human rights violation within the United States, and informed local organizations about the campaign. The United States campaign is still a work in progress, but as the number of Amnesty members contributing grow, so will the public's awareness of the problems in today's society.

There is a saying in Amnesty International that "human rights belong to everyone, or they are guaranteed to no one." In order to symbolize this philosophy of universal human rights, I would place a candle wrapped in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into a time capsule for future generations to see. The candle, a well-known Amnesty symbol, could also be seen as a symbol of the hope for a changing world. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is wrapped around the candle, is Amnesty's doctrine outlining the basic rights that all people should have and deserve. With this information in the time capsule, I believe that people would realize what a lasting contribution Amnesty has made to make this world a better place in which to live.

"Universal rights begin in small places, close to home - they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere." (Eleanor Roosevelt, 1958)

Participants in the younger divisions of the 1999 Peace Essay Contest were instructed to write an essay of 250 to 500 word about a person who has worked for peace, justice, and/or the environment.

"The Jewish people have a legend. It says there must be 36 truly good people alive at all times if the world is to go on. These are people of quiet courage. They come forward at times of great danger and use their powers to defeat evil."(1) One of those 36 truly good people was Raoul Wallenberg.

Raoul Wallenberg was born in Sweden in 1912. When he was growing up, he traveled throughout the world and learned different languages. These languages helped him to become a hero to the Jewish people.

World War II was starting in the late 1930's. Before the war Jews could be like normal people, going to movies, playing, and walking through town. That ended quickly when Adolf Hitler came up with a crazy idea to exterminate the Jews. He made a plan to find all the Jews and eliminate them. He called it the "Final Solution." People started to believe Hitler's propaganda. If they didn't, they were captured and sent to the concentration camps with the Jews.

Raoul heard about the ways Jews were being mistreated. One night when Raoul was about 30 years old he went to see a movie about a man saving the Jews from Hitler. After the movie he announced to his sister that he was going to help save the Jews. Already millions of Jews had been annihilated. The one remaining large group of Jews was in Hungary. Raoul mobilized money and support and traveled to Hungary.

In order for Hungarian Jews to leave the country they needed a schutz-passe (passport). Most Jews wanted to go to Sweden, which was a neutral country. When Raoul arrived in Budapest, he found that only 4,500 schutz-passes would be given out. Raoul wanted more because there were over 100,000 Jews who wanted to leave!

Raoul had a plan to make a different kind of schutz-passe. Raoul knew the Germans. They like fancy looking things. He planned to print the passports in Swedish colors, and put the Swedish king's royal crowns in gold. It would have the person's picture on it. Raoul put his plan to work. Raoul passed out 20,000 of the new passports to Jews, giving them protection of the Swedish government. Raoul also sheltered homeless Jews during the war. During the final days before liberation of Budapest, Raoul convinced the Nazis to abandon a plan to kill 70,000 Jews who were living in a Jewish ghetto in Hungary.(2)

After the war, Soviets took Raoul into custody believing he was an American spy. He was never seen again.

Raoul Wallenberg stood up against evil. It's up to us to hear his story and follow in his footsteps. I'd put a schutz-passe in the time capsule to represent the justice Raoul Wallenberg brought to Hungarian Jews and the memories of those he couldn't save.

1. Linnea, Sharon. Raoul Wallenberg, The Man Who Stopped Death. Philadelphia, PA, The Jewish Publication Society, 1993.

A Modesto Peace/Life Center Publication

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