STANISLAUS CONNECTIONS
Working For Peace, Justice, and A Sustainable Environment
March, 2000
A Modesto Peace/Life Center Publication
Peace Community
Global
Exchange founder will speak at Peace/Life Center's 30 year celebration
By DAN ONORATO
Protesting military solutions from Vietnam to Central America to the Persian Gulf; promoting alternatives from energy conservation and solar power to a more people-centered economy; sowing seeds in young people's imaginations through an annual Peace Essay Contest; offering opportunities for friends and strangers to gather and enjoy one another through monthly songfests, study circles on racism, and an annual Peace Camp-the Modesto Peace/Life has been working tenaciously for nonviolent social change for 30 years. Thirty years! That's worth celebrating!
Welcome all to the Center's 30th birthday-anniversary party on Saturday, March 25, at the First United Methodist Church on 16th St. in Modesto. The gala event, opening at 6:00 p.m., includes a dinner catered by Chef Pat Roberts, community recognitions, international folk dancing led by Don and Judy Kropp, and keynote speaker Medea Benjamin.
Activist-writer Benjamin, co-founder of San Francisco-based Global Exchange, will speak on the long-haul struggle for human rights and economic justice. Global Exchange works to strengthen people-to people ties between First and Third World citizens. Benjamin's books, reports, and articles have examined hunger and development in the Third World and highlighted the determined efforts of the poor to take charge of their own destiny. She has been a driving force in the movement to pressure Nike, the GAP, and other corporations to change the low wages and sweatshop conditions these companies impose on their workers abroad.
Global Exchange is dauntless in its commitment to educate through direct involvement or exposure. It regularly organizes educational travel opportunities to places of controversy, from Cuba to Central America to Mexico. In Mexico last year, it captured international headlines. The Mexican government expelled several Global Exchange members from the country for trying to gather and disseminate information about the exploitation of indigenous peoples in Chiapas.
Benjamin has written widely on Central America and the Caribbean. She edited and translated Don't Be Afraid, Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks From the Heart, a moving story of Elvia Alvadaro, a campesina leader whose life embodies the sorrow and hope of her people. She served as a consultant on the PBS documentary featuring Elvia: The Fight for Land and Liberty. She co-authored the report Help or Hindrance: United States Economic Aid in Central America. Another of her popular books was The Peace Corps and More: 175 Ways to Work, Study, and Travel at Home and Abroad. She also wrote the highly acclaimed No Free Lunch: Food and Revolution in Cuba Today, and the special 1990 North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) issue on Cuba.
For ten years Benjamin worked as an economist and nutritionist in Latin America, Africa, and Europe, and served as a senior analyst with the Institute for Food and Development Policy (Food First). She has worked for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Health Organization, and the Swedish International Development Agency. She has also been a correspondent for Pacific News Service. Her articles have appeared in many newspapers and magazines in the United States and around the world.
Under her leadership, Global Exchange has recently joined with the garment workers union UNITE, Sweatshop Watch, and the Asian Law Caucus, in a $1 billion class action lawsuit on behalf of 20,000 former and current sweatshop workers on the Pacific island of Saipan, part of the US Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The lawsuit charges 17 US retailers, including GAP, Wal-Mart, and Sears, of "using indentured labor to make their garments and violating international human rights laws." Several original defendants, including Nordstrom, J. Crew, and Gymboree, have agreed to out-of-court settlement. But the GAP, which buys more from Saipan than any other company, still refuses to guarantee that sweatshop abuses are not taking place in the factories from which it buys clothes. The GAP's inaction has led to protests across the country at GAP, Inc. stores.
Benjamin's keynote address will stir thought, but Don and Judy Kropp will close out the evening by stirring feet. The Kropps have taught international folk dancing locally for years. Currently they lead classes each Friday evening at the Modesto Court Room (See calendar page). They are lively teachers who love what they do and delight in seeing people learn the spirited traditional dances of cultures all over the globe.
To cover costs, the organizing committee is asking a donation of $15 a person, $40 for a family of three or more. Additional donations are welcome, and those who need to can make a smaller contribution they can afford.
ACTION: Newcomers and old timers alike, mark your calendar for March 25 now.
Sharon Froba teaches the art
of being human
By INDIRA CLARK
"In these turbulent times in our world and in schools, the three Rs aren't enough, Modesto City Schools' Fourth R, Responsibility, is not enough," observed Sharon Froba, a Modesto High School (MHS) English/language arts teacher for over 25 years. "In fact, they are dangerous without a fifth R, respect. I hope that during Modesto High's Day of Respect the storytellers will be able to do what literature and teachers strive to do: replace ignorance with knowledge and intolerance with compassion."
Sharon has been selected as one of the Stanislaus County Outstanding Women of the Year, nominated by the Modesto Peace/Life Center.
"During her teaching career, Froba noticed that students were becoming increasingly cruel to others, especially those who are different," said Ken Williams, former head of the MHS English Department and current editor of the Modesto Teacher Association paper, MTA BEST, "In searching for a solution for such problems in her own school, she came up with the idea of a Day of Respect, a program that involved all of the more than 2500 diverse students at the campus."
Early in 1998 Sharon presented a proposal to the Modesto Peace/Life Center board requesting assistance in organizing a Day of Respect. A committee was formed to work with her.
In October of that year over sixty individuals from our community spoke to MHS students about their personnel experiences with prejudice and how it affected their lives. Sharon praised the volunteers for being courageous enough to tell their stories.
By 1999 the Day of Respect had evolved into a week-long program of diversity awareness activities with over 80 community volunteers participating. It went so well that Downey, Johansen, and Beyer High Schools will also conduct similar programs this year with Sharon's consultation.
"Modesto City Schools has made the Day of Respect part of its new respect and tolerance policy," stated John Lucas, Peace/Life Center President.
Sharon has taught a wide range of English and reading classes since 1973, starting as a basic skills instructor in the Title I Program to her current classes in the academically rigorous International Baccalaureate program.
The 1999 Peace Essay Contest honored peacemakers, and several entrants chose Sharon as the subject of their essays. Sharon Yosiph Froba richly deserves being honored as an Outstanding Woman.
ACTION: To read more about Days of Respect and/or Sharon Froba, see Stanislaus Connections back issues on-line.
Mary Alice
Onorato: Outstanding Woman of Stanislaus County
By MARY BAUCHER
It is with delight that we announce that Mary Alice Onorato, nominated by Habitat for Humanity, Stanislaus, has been named one of the Outstanding Women of Stanislaus County by the Stanislaus County Commission for Women. The recognition dinner will be Saturday, March 18 at the SOS Club.
Mary Alice, also known as Alice, when she completed her nursing degree in 1986, helped organize the nursing services at the newly formed West Modesto Adult Day Health Care (West-Care) and remained until it closed due to lack of funding. Her duties included setting up medical procedures, training and providing inservice for all the Certified Nursing Assistants, and patient care for the mostly frail elderly clients.
She has provided home nursing care eight to 24 hours per day for cancer patients from diagnosis to the patient's death. This care consists of more than friendly visits and emotional support for patient and family, but also nursing care, administering medications while working with Hospice and doctors. This is a special gift!
Mary Alice worked with the women in the West Modesto Clinic as R.N. for the Stanislaus County Homeless Program. Not only did she provide primary medical care, education, and counseling and referrals to appropriate facilities, she served as interpreter for Spanish and Portuguese speaking patients.
Another opportunity presented itself when she assisted fellow R.N.s in providing skilled nursing and translation for Spanish-speaking Home Health Care clients.
Mary Alice has served on the Board of Directors and as Chairperson of the Nurture Committee of Habitat for Humanity, Stanislaus, helping families who are new homeowners work through their questions and the new experience of home ownership. This position included assessing family needs from medical to schooling and being a bilingual support person. As a present "Family Partner" for several households, she continually goes beyond the "call of duty" relating to families.
Presently she is the Director of Nursing Skills Lab (part time) at Modesto Junior College helping students learn practical hands-on techniques along with caring attitudes. She "loves working with the students." She is loved and appreciated by her students who recognize her encouraging support and clear instructions. Students give her much credit for their success in developing good nursing skills.
Mary Alice has obviously had a tremendous influence on a number of young nurses in our community. [In 1989, Solmon Lefler won first place in the Peace Essay Contest with "Alice Onorato: Nurse of the Heart."]
In addition to professional accomplishments, Mary Alice has a loving, gentle manner, deep care and interest in people, especially those in need of emotional or physical support. She drops in on friends with recent surgeries or illnesses just to check up and see if there is need for support, medical equipment, or encouragement.
Mary Alice spent her childhood in Brazil and British Guyana. When she was nine years old, her mother died. Later, when Mary Alice was a patient in a hospital recuperating from some injuries, Dr. Franklin Davis, a missionary doctor, took notice of her unusual qualities and encouraged her to become a helper in the hospital as she was able. In 1969, Dr. Davis and his wife brought Mary Alice to their home in Turlock and encouraged her to further her education in the nursing field.
Mary Alice; Dan, her husband; and her three children have taken many people into their home for extended stays or for meals. They have had students from Nigeria, El Salvador, Mexico and Czechoslovakia for lengths of six months to two years. The students have become part of the family. Mary Alice is especially effective with students and people from other cultures because she understands their problems of adjusting to another lifestyle and language.
Tending her flower garden and sharing the blossoms is her great joy; her home is always filled with fresh flowers. Bouquets go to friends or organizations needing decorations for an event. Her heart blossoms with love and joy which she also shares freely.
"If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution":
Remembering Marie Seaman, the graciously "militant pacifist"
By INDIRA CLARK
"Marie Seaman is one lively, feisty, committed woman," Sandy Sample wrote in 1989 of that year's Friend of Peace recipient.
Marie Seaman died last month at the age of 87 having worked for over 70 years to create a more peaceful world and just society.
She "brought her unique brand of faith, wit, grit, courage, and determination" to the many issues she worked on - nuclear weapons, nuclear power, apartheid, Central America, prison reform, women's rights, military spending, the UN, international understanding."
In the last decade of her life AIDS became a focus as she cared for her son Alan until his death in 1995, despite her own increasing fragility.
Marie lived most of her life in the Modesto-Riverbank area. Marie's pioneering work in special education brought her invitations to present papers in Europe and the Soviet Union. She lost a teaching job because her principal thought anyone with such ideas must be a communist.
John Seaman was once told by a fellow Methodist that his mother was a "militant pacifist." Marie embraced it as a compliment.
"Much of her commitment grew from her faith, her deeply rooted belief that we are here as stewards of an earth God created," recalled Sandy. "Much of her work has been centered in faith-based organizations: the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Methodist Federation for Social Action, United Methodist churches in Riverbank and Milpitas, and—during the Viet Nam War, when she couldn't bear Methodist inaction—the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).
"She has tirelessly reminded church folk that the Gospel calls them to involvement in social issues, even when they my prefer the security of 'safer' gospels."
Not just the Methodists were prodded by Marie. At her funeral Pat Paul remembered Marie as always wanting the American Association of University Women to be more active in issues. The County Supervisor said that she was first introduced to the streets of Riverbank while going door-to-door with Marie concerning nuclear power. And Paul remembered how graciously Marie talked with people.
I first met Marie during that same time when we were fighting the Waterford Nuclear Project. Marie, by then widowed and retired, spent many hours each week at senior dances. Her dance partners often disagreed with her on nuclear power, but if they wanted to dance with her, those men had to listen, she'd say with a giggle.
Sometime in the late 1970s I came across the T-shirt inscribed with the Emma Goldman quote: "If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution." Marie loved to wear it.
"Maybe more important than the breadth and steadiness of Marie Seaman's involvement in worthy causes is the unique spirit she has brought to her activism: A spirit of hope, humor, positive energy, and eagerness to keep learning and growing, "And the willingness to be, when needed, the one lone voice, one solitary woman protesting the vast military complex [at Livermore Lab] on Christmas Day, proudly bearing her grandchildren's pictures on a sandwich board; the one person passing out leaflets or seeking signatures on petitions; the one member prodding an organization to study or act on a controversial issue, standing up for her convictions even when it is unpopular to do so."
Signs of life
By INDIRA CLARK
The news that both Sharon Froba and Alice Onorato had been named Outstanding Women of the Year by the Stanislaus Commission on Women started off the Modesto Peace/Life Center annual meeting in a jubilant mood. Held on February 12th, the need to act both globally and locally was reaffirmed.
The Center continues to organize such ongoing projects as Stanislaus Connections, Peace Essay Contest, Peace Camp, Song Circle, and Hiroshima Day Commemoration. It also works with other community groups to present the Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration, Days of Respect, and speakers. It has offered exhibits at 4th of July in the Park, the Alternative Holiday Faire and schools. Vigils and forums were held on Kosovo and Iraq this year. Board members met with high school human relations clubs regarding diversity and violence. The Center also helped fund the local United Against Hate campaign. A New Years Eve peace vigil focusing on forgiving debt for third world countries brought lots of supportive peace signs from by-passers.
John Frailing, Monique Kamille, and Michael Napp were elected to the Board and John Lucas was reelected. Continuing Board members include Jim Costello, Jean Enero, Tom Hampson, Dan Onorato, Deborah Roberts, David Rockwell, and Sandy Sample. Jim Higgs, Sam Tyson, and Louise Weaver retired from the Board with over 85 years of volunteering with Center activities between them.
The Center's 30th anniversary celebration on March 26th, Proposition 21, and a possible TV show were also discussed.
ACTION: Please see the rest of this section for more background about Center projects. To volunteer, phone 529-5750.
Merced-Somoto Sister City
Nicaragua delegation
By SHELLY SCRIBNER
The Merced-Somoto Sister City is sending a delegation to Nicaragua in August. We will visit Somoto and would love to have others join us.
We are also selling coffee from Nicaragua to sponsor college and high school students. We send 6 college students $50.00 per month and high school students $5.00 a month. Our coffee is $5.00 for 1/2 pound and $10.00 for one pound.
I have been to Nicaragua twice in the last three years, meeting wonderful people, and have sensed what wonderful friendships can be made.
ACTION: For further information call Betty Stewart, 722-040l, or Shelly Scribner, 521-6304.
On November 10, 1998, the United Nations General Assembly responded to an appeal from every living Nobel Laureate by proclaiming the year 2000 to be "The Year for the Culture of Peace" and the years 2001-2010 to be the "International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World."
A Culture of Nonviolence. . .
. . . teaches conflict resolution and respect for human rights, both in homes and
school;
. . . promotes racial and economic justice, including the equitable distribution of global
resources;
. . . works for the abolition of nuclear weapons and war;
. . . nurtures the spiritual roots of nonviolence and compassion in all religions;
. . . supports diversity and encourages multi-culturalism in all structures of society;
. . . embraces the sanctity of all living things and values the earth itself.
PEACE ESSAY CONTEST 2000
encouraged students to explore their ideas and dreams for a more peaceful future.The 14th annual contest received 734 qualifying 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
PEACE ESSAY CONTEST 2000 receive a Certificate of Participation and will be honored at the Awards Reception on Friday, March 10th, at 7 p.m. in Forum Building 110, Modesto Junior College/East.Winners
Division I - grades 11 and 12
First Place: Valerie Rozycki, Modesto High SchoolDivision II - grades 9 and 10
First Place:
Cara Chittim, JohansenDivision III - grades 7 and 8
First Place:
Jessica N. Frey, TeelDivision IV - grades 5 and 6
First Place:
Rob Johnson, Fremont Open Plan*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, Peggy Castenada, Jeshua Franklin, and Gowans Printing for designs.
The Harvest Supper is a delicious way to raise money for this project; thanks all who made it work.
Screeners and judges: Barbara Manrique, Brad Barker VaNee VanVleck, Myrtle Osner, Fred Herman, Terry Day (Manzoni), Martin Zonligt, Deborah Grochau, Harriet Hills, Susan Novak, Kaye Osborne, Mark Thompson, Don McMillan, Ken Kline Smeltzer, Sandy Sample, Tim Smart, Andrea McGhee, Margaret Barker, Jim Barker, Barbara Barker, Suzanne Meyer, Paul Illick, Tina Driskill, Bob Baucher, Simeon Franklin, Peggy Castenada, Meg Scherfee, Ken Schroeder, Jim Costello, John Lucas, Jim Beggs, Anita Young, Louise Weaver, Jayne Setaro, Nancy Griggs, Mike Monson, Pam Franklin, Elaine Gorman, and Indira Clark .
Peace Essay Contest Committee 2000: Margaret Barker, Indira Clark, Pam Franklin, Elaine Gorman, Judith Cochran Pirkle, 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
*****************
You are invited to attend the 15th annual Peace Essay Contest Awards Reception Friday, the tenth of March at seven o'clock in Forum Building 110 on the Modesto Junior College/East Campus.
All participants, teachers, and judges ate invited as guests of honor. The public is welcome. Light refreshments will be served.
Peace center is Modesto miracle
By INDIRA CLARK
"A miracle took place," Louise Weaver recorded in her diary on February 12, 1970. That night 33 people pledged $5680 to set up and fund a peace center for one year, "a center not tied to a church and with draft counseling available at regular hours," Phyllis Harvey remembers.
"The general revulsion over the escalation of the Vietnam War provided a chief impetus for banding together," recalls Joe Dell of the meeting to establish a Peace Center, held in Jean and Don Calkins home.
Mary Baucher’s minutes from February 23, 1970, report that the Calkins had rented a building on the corner of l5th and G streets for $65 per month to be staffed by local volunteers trained by the Central Committee for Conscientious Objection. Also, "Sandy Sample’s group of youth at the Congregational Church would like to paint and clean-up."
The old storefront "wasn’t the Hilton," say Wilfred and Louise Weaver. "It was cold in winter, hot in summer. There was some question as to whether the waterbed in the upstairs apartment would stay there or come down."
Sample remembers it as the perfect location. "Downtown, on the street, visible, accessible, inexpensive. What more could we want?"
PEACE!
JUSTICE!
1970 was the spring of the invasion of Cambodia, of students shot down at Kent State and Jackson State. The Riverbank ammunition plant was cranking out shell casings. The Strategic Air Command at Castle Air Force Base, Atwater, was training B-52 pilots to bomb Vietnam; draft counselors were within legal limits so long as they provided only information and did not advise men to refuse to report for induction. Hired as counselors, Jared Zeff and later Jim "Moose" Parsons talked to hundreds of high school students and anyone else who would listen, providing draft information and discussing options.
In the first year of the center, counselors handled 600 cases. On one historic day in 1972, when a new draft law was coming into effect, more than 100 young men stopped in at the center to find out how the changes might affect their lives.
Young men boarding the early morning buses bound for the Fresno induction center were leafleted concerning their rights. Peace marches, plays, candidate forums, a student strike, and other activities were sponsored by local chapters of Another Mother for Peace, Parents Plea for Peace, Brethren Action Movement, and Students for a Democratic Society.
In 1971 and 1972 the center, along with the Modesto Junior College's United Students Against the War, chartered buses to the peace marches and rallies in San Francisco. Cost of trip: $2.50 per person.
After months of planning the center and its Merced County friends held a three-day vigil-blockade in December, 1972. Quakers from around Northern California held a meeting for worship in the rain in Castle Park, but base security refused to arrest Sam Tyson and Fred Moore when they entered the base.
It soon became obvious why the Air Force shunned negative publicity. That same day the Christmas bombings of Hanoi had begun, raids so unpopular that even some elite B-52 pilots refused to fly them.
The Wall Street Journal reports that over 100,000 young men applied for CO status in 1972, the last year of the lottery. Draft resistance undermined Selective Service's ability to induct large numbers. In his memoirs, President Richard Nixon admitted the peace movement had caused him to drop plans to intensify the conflict. As many peace centers around the state closed, the Modesto Peace Center broadened its program.
Louise and Mark Zwick arranged for Dan Berrigan to visit in 1973. The Jesuit priest pioneered war resistance through destroying draft files. Widespread raids on draft boards destroyed an estimated one million files between 1968 and 1971. Berrigan spoke to overflow crowds at Modesto and Merced junior colleges and St. Mary's Catholic Church in Stockton.
Thus began the annual "Berrigan visits" with Dan, Phil, and Liz McAllister Berrigan. The peace community renamed Kewin Park on La Loma Avenue "Berrigan Park," for the delightful fellowship there.
The Peace Center discussed the farm labor organizing during the United Farm Workers' boycott of Gallo. Board members split on the issue. Nuclear weapons' twin, the "peaceful" atom of energy, was beginning to emerge in the valley when Rancho Seco went online near Sacramento. "Life" was added to the center's name for those who define "peace" more narrowly.
From the first, the center worked with other community groups. The December 1971 newsletter called for letters on behalf of California Rural Legal Assistance, whose existence then-Governor Ronald Reagan was threatening. Draft counselors depended on CRLA guidance.
The first local women's center was set up by the National Organization for Women in the Peace Center in 1972. Next to the NOW display of Ms magazine and copies of the original Our Bodies, Ourselves, was a Friends Outside display of articles handmade by women prisoners to help support their families. For many years the only public place in Stanislaus County to fly the UN flag during UN week was the Peace Center.
In 1975, Stanislaus Safe Energy Committee, begun a year earlier by Ecology Action and the Peace/Life Center to work on energy issues, was invited to share space in the center and its newsletter. Through the late 1970s the center worked with Safe Energy to check nuclear proliferation in our community and state. The Waterford nuclear project, proposed jointly by PG&E, MID, and TID, was stopped, (or officially, "shelved"). So has been every other nuclear reactor proposed across the U.S. since 1974 by economics and citizens in voting booths, courts, and the streets. Dan Berrigan's benediction, "May all pancakes rise, and all tyrants fall" has echoed through 25 annual Pancake Breakfasts. In 1977 the Harvest Supper was also started as a Safe Energy fundraiser. The center has inherited both events.
The center continued sponsoring current event programs—Philippines, Korea, Mid-East—always seeking non-violent change. Safe Energy's annual display at the county fair educated the fair-goers and the hundreds of people who helped staff it over its 18-year run. From 1979 to 1996 the center annually recognized local people with lifetime peacemaking service as Friends of Peace.
The old storefront was demolished in 1979.
Again the local peace community pooled its resources for the down payment on a Sixth Street house. The new Peace/Life Center opened just as draft registration was reimposed. (Remember President Carter wanting to scare the Soviets out of Afghanistan with our draft? The Soviets stayed for their own "Vietnam lesson.")
The mortgage was burned at the center's 15th anniversary party.
In 1981 the center, along with several other groups and individuals, was sued for $1 million over work delays at Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant caused by anti-nuclear demonstrations; the nuisance case was eventually dismissed.
With Reagan's 1980 presidential election, many reawakened to the sorry state of foreign policies, the nuclear arms race and the environment, though few had recognized the links among these issues.
Dan Onorato and Charles Milligan started the Stanislaus County Interfaith Committee on Latin America in 1981. Led by Nancy Smith, the group provided programs on current events on Latin America, collected funds and materials for humanitarian projects in Latin America, and organized lobbying and demonstrations. It, along with the center and the Emergency Response Network, sponsored sit-ins at then-Representative Tony Coehlo's office in 1985 and 1987.
In February 1982 Louise and Wilfred Weaver arranged to show "The Last Epidemic: The Medical Consequences of Nuclear War." The Physicians for Social Responsibility film was so popular a copy was purchased the next day.
Dr. Sandy Lawrence, Sam Tyson, and others from the center usually accompanied the powerful film as discussion leaders. Sharon Fowler Froba arranged to show it to all Modesto High students, with dozens of peace people engaging students in follow-up discussions. The film was so widely shown that the first copy literally wore out in three months. So, almost, did Lawrence and Tyson.
That spring MID customers voted down the public utility's bid to buy into an Arizona nuclear plant. Jim Knox, on leave from Ecology Action, led the campaign.
Initiative campaigns for both the Nuclear Freeze (passed) and Bottle Bill (defeated) were coordinated at the center during fall, 1982.
The center initiated Choose Life, a spiritual witness, at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, adding a dimension opposing the lab's weapons research and development work. Over 50 northern California groups took part the first year, and it continues.
Since 1983, Peace Camp, an annual weekend in the Sierra, has hosted such speakers as Sojourners editor Jim Wallis, environmentalist David Brower, and journalists Larry Bensky and Normon Solomon.
To a Modesto Church of the Brethren-sponsored Peace Retreat Committee former Modesto Junior College President Dr. Henry Tyler proposed a sister-city relationship with a Soviet city. Modesto was linked with Khmelnitsky, Ukraine; and a wonderful example of citizen diplomacy germinated.
In the late 1980s Kay Barnes, Jim Higgs, and Sam Tyson represented the center coalitions, which prevented United Technologies from building a rocket fuel plant in Merced County and the federal government from building the Superconducting Supercollider in San Joaquin County.
Launched in 1987, the Peace Essay Contest now involves hundreds of 5th-12th grade students each year. Argentinean Nobel Laureate Adolfo Perez Esquivel was guest speaker at the awards reception in 1988. Harvest Supper, revived in 1994, helps fund the Peace Essay Contest.
As the center's second decade neared an end Stanislaus Connections replaced the trusty, old monthly newsletter. The expanded format allows more space for peace, social justice, and environmental issues and reaches farther into the community. Fred Herman served as editor for almost three years; a volunteer committee now produces it.
In fall 1990 Ruth Enero organized a demonstration calling for negotiations in the Persian Gulf. The center was swamped as the US went to war. The center urged the US government to initiate multilateral negotiations to restrict international arms sales and transfers, outlaw chemical weapons, conclude a comprehensive test ban treaty, and resolve outstanding disputes in the Middle East, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Ecology Action moved into the center in 1992. Green Party volunteers helped staff the office in 1993, and Amnesty International and Feminists for Life met there monthly.
After years of increasing vandalism, safety, and maintenance problems, the center sold the Sixth Street house in 1994 and moved to its present location at 720 13th Street, Suite D with Ecology Action continuing to share office space until its demise in 1998. This location also housed a special Sierra Club project.
Tommie Lee Ware Muhammad, social service coordinator for the city of Modesto, sought the center's help in highlighting Martin Luther King's bold vision of social, political, and economic justice. Kay Barnes, Jim Costello, Dan Onorato, and Gene Palsgrove helped develop the January 1994 workshop "A Matter of Justice," the first step in exploring and implementing King's vision. This became the first in now six annual MLK Commemorations featuring as guest speakers MLK's co-workers Rev. Al Smith and Rev. Joseph Lowry and actor/activists GregAlan Williams and Edward Olmos.
In 1998 Modesto High School teacher Sharon Froba organized a "Day of Respect," aided by Kay Barnes, Jim Higgs, John Lucas, and Renaldo Raeheim. It is now a part of Modesto City School's new tolerance and respect policy, a model for the city's other high schools.
In the words of lifelong local activist Marie Seaman (1912-2000), "Work for peace and justice not because you expect to see change in your lifetime, but because it must be done. Keep making changes because, if you don't, we'll all be lost. You may feel alone [but] remember there are many others, kindred spirits, who are with you. The risks are worth it and keep on dancing."
