GSofNV – 107 Withington Road, Newton, MA 02460 Phone: 617-413-9064
RE: A Call to Action – A Movement to Unite all the Movements
In Response to: The Convergence Meeting
Date: December 2, 2013
To all the people that were at the convergence meeting:
Namaste, Salam, Shalom, Pace
I commend all of the efforts for “convergence.” However, something was missed.
Many of you know me. My name is Andre Sheldon. I’ve been proposing a “people” movement of nonviolence for a long time as a means for uniting. As an advocate of nonviolence, I’m not a very forceful person, but for the purpose of promoting this important message, I am going to change my way and be as persuasive as possible – using tough love. You are missing an opportunity.
I would like to ask you to take a step back and look at the big picture. We must unite now because the Iranian crisis is going to erupt. Soon the “alerts” will be coming out to try and stop the conflict.
The world was just on the brink of war in the Middle East with the Syrian Chemical crisis. The peace movement’s efforts were important and the leaders of peace organizations have been promoting it was their efforts that stopped Obama bombing Syria. Let’s be clear. The calls to congress helped, but it was the Russians!
The peace movement was not listening to the analysts on TV. The reports were that the government believed the “threat” of military action won. This is not good. The next time the military minded will think that their threat is needed again! The Iranian conflict is coming to a boil – The Russians will not be able to stop it. The war drums are about to start beating and will be very difficult to stop!
The purpose of the convergence was to find a way to unite and was profound. All the movements must unite now!
The Syrian Crisis and the recent violence in the world have opened a door for an unprecedented opportunity for the people of the world to unite. The people of the world want to stop violence and war. The people will unite to stop violence!!! Therefore, if you don’t want violence, then promote nonviolence!
There is a way to unite – right now! I have a plan called a Global Movement of Nonviolence, For the Children (GMofNV) designed to be proactive and begin immediately. It may not stop the next war but Leslie Cagan said we need any and all ideas.
All the grassroots orgs are ready to unite using a people movement, as evidenced by the convergence meeting and reports by journalists like Bill Moyers. All that is needed is the leadership! It needs both bottom up and top down. There is a group that is promoting nonviolence that can lead the movement. The group is the women Nobel Peace Laureates. The Nobel Women are promoting the highest ideals of nonviolence and economic change. A GMofNV will accentuate the environmental movement as its “shared value” and include all the other movements as well.
I am preparing a presentation to the Nobel Women that will show how a GMofNV can capture and “keep” the attention of the media, “Reach into Every Household” and enlist people not ordinarily involved, and transform the consciousness of people. There is much to tell you. This is a request for your full investigation and to continue the good work you are doing, but ALSO, state every day, proudly and boldly, you are promoting a GLOBAL MOVEMENT of NONVIOLENCE. Try it and watch the people’s reactions.
The obstacles to change are so enormous that something different is needed. What makes a GMofNV different is that it will be led by women to empower women. A GMofNV is not just for women, it is for everyone. Men are included. The Civil Right movement was led by African Americans, but was for everyone.
This is where I lose people. However, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon Quote said on July 29, 2012, “Women are a powerful and yet untapped force for peace.” Women are a sleeping force that is ready to be awakened. Women want peace for their children. So do men! Here-in lies the psychology to unite all the people. The people will unite for the sake of their children! Nonviolence, the children, and women go hand in hand.
A special stimulus is planned to implement a GMofNV. A full marketing plan is prepared. Special plans are prepared for Global Peace Negotiations.
Gandhi and King would not have been successful without a movement of nonviolence. Watch what happens when a GMofNV hits FACEBOOK, TWITTER, AND YOUTUBE. Watch what happens when the people in every village, town, and city unite!
This is the moment everyone is waiting for. It will not be easy, but once a GMofNV begins, it will lead to all kinds of new ideas and actions.
You must be brave. It will take more courage than on the battlefield to promote and adopt nonviolence as the creed. The Civil Rights movement did it. Now is a test for all time. Can the people promote nonviolence as the Doctrine of all Countries and Societies?
Please contact me for more information and to join a GMofNV.
Peace and Love,
Andre
Andre Sheldon
Director, GSofNV; Facilitator, CALL to WOMEN, a World-Wide Unity Campaign
Cell number: +1-617-413-9064, Home number: +1-617- 964-5267
Email: Andre@GlobalStrategyofNonviolence.org
Website: www.GlobalStrategyofNonviolence.org
Facebook: Global Movement of Nonviolence
SUPPORT STATEMENTS
Howard Zinn – Author, Activist
“Your “Call to Women” is excellent. Well written, clear, strong. No doubt women represent non-violence best”.
Louise Diamond – Author, Activist
“Andre, Thanks for sending the information on your wonderful project. The children are indeed a unifying force, and women are indeed the active agents of a most great peace. Your GSofNV/Call to Women can enliven the spirit of peace that we so desperately need on the planet in these days.”
Margarita Papandreou – Former 1st lady of Greece, Co-founder of WINPEACE
“This sounds like a positive initiative.”
Gila Svirsky – Co-founder of Coalition for Women for Peace
“I completely agree with your vision and overall approach – to mobilize women to lead the way to peace. This has been core to our peace activism in Israel for almost 20 years.”
Helen Caldicott – Author, World Peace Activist
“I think this is a very good idea.”
QUOTES
Sana Shtasel, Executive Director of Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP) wrote, “We must mount a strategic, sustained, global campaign that will support the grassroots peacebuilders in supporting the peace process.”
Sister Joan Chittister, September 11th, 2004, at the Omega / V Day conference: “Women and Power” said, “The lives of our children, the protection of millions, the hopes of all humankind, wait again now for women, from opposite cultures, opposite tradition, to step over the line of political hatred to save them.”
Martin Luther King wrote in Strength to Love, about nonviolence: “It gives them new self respect. It calls up resources of strength and courage that they did not know they had. Finally, it so stirs the conscience of the opponent that reconciliation becomes a reality.”
Thomas Merton – in Ghandi and the One-Eyed Giant , Chapter One, stated,
“Non-violence heals and restores man’s nature, while giving him a means to restore social order and justice.”
Adil Najam, Boston University, International Relations said: “If a person with black hair sees a person with red hair, he or she sees someone different, but, if a person with black hair sees a child with red hair, he or she sees a child.”
Maired Maguire: “In Northern Ireland, when we had our war, women didn’t normally go out to work for peace, onto the streets and work and build a peace movement. But we knew for the sake of our children and their future, we had to act as well.”
A Future Without War (AFWW) mission statement: “Ending the practice of war will require: leaders who embrace the goal of ending war and are motivated to facilitate and guide the process of change, and a critical mass of citizens around the globe who staunchly support such leaders.” www.AFWW.org By Dr. Judith Hand
Martin Luther King’s Acceptance Speech, on the occasion of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, December 10, 1964:
Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, Mr. President, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:
I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when 22 million Negroes of the United States of America are engaged in a creative battle to end the long night of racial injustice.
After contemplation, I conclude that this award which I receive on behalf of that movement is a profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time – the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression.
