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Renown peace activist Tom Hayden instructs audience members on how to be activists as symposium coordinator, Stan Taylor, looks on.

Mark Harris, Ethnic Studies instructor and counselor: "You're not going to change Afghanistan - they resisted Islam for 300 years. They have a national identity … nobody's ever conquered [Afghanistan]. We can't. [We're] little upstart America - 200 years [old]? They're like; we've got sewers older than you."

Stan Taylor, political science instructor: "The peace community often seems very fragmented. Sometimes it feels like you're alone in the face of an overwhelming force. So when you can get this kind of group together in one place, you can see how broad it really is - [you can] feel the energy in it. It's very encouraging and renewing."

David Leung, psychology instructor: "I think the conference is not necessarily a platform for investigating and investing in peace. But actually, it's also a platform as well as a process of investing in life in general, and in the spiritual growth of humanity."

David Demleur, psychology instructor: "I think this is a great opportunity to hear Tom Hayden speak. He's someone I've admired for a long time. I think it's wonderful that people are putting in the work to make these events happen."

Let's talk about peace

Peace Center event draws a crowd of 300 to Main campus

By: David Branham

Posted: 3/11/10

Social activist Tom Hayden and two others spoke during the third annual Lane Peace Conference last Friday. The speakers suggested new ways for activists to pursue their agendas.

The Lane Peace Center hosted the event in the Center for Meeting and Learning where speakers covered topics on militarism concerning gender, Pakistan and imperialism. Stan Taylor, a political science professor on campus, coordinated the evening and more than 300 people were in attendance at the three and a half hour symposium.

Hayden, the keynote speaker, shared his own life experiences and philosophies of how to affect change. He said he looks for important patterns through history and finds ways that they connect. Hayden explained that society has to focus to be aware of them, that patterns go to the background. The best thing to do is zero in on one to three huge things, matters that are life and death.

"There are many tools in the toolbox of social change," Hayden said. The largest pillar is the public opinion, he said. He believes this is the first place to start - is to argue or work on the undecided.

"They are the ones you can sway," he said. "Later after you have gained momentum here you start your work on the people on the other side."

Hayden suggested that people take a look at the budget and go after those that will be affected.

A third pillar to go after is the military itself.

"Form counter recruitment campaigns at high schools," he said. "Recruiters are there to convince students that the military is the only way to get ahead."

He explained that more American soldiers committed suicide last year than were actually killed in the war.

"The trick is to slowly undermine the war efforts," he said. "We have to focus on a plan."

He outlined it beginning with withdrawing all troops from Iraq by 2012. He said there must be an exit strategy in Afghanistan.

He admitted that to do this the United States may need to negotiate with the Taliban. Knowing that people may be appalled by the thought of this he pointed out, "We talked pipelines. Why not talk timelines?"

Hayden spent 12 years working on ending the war in Vietnam. He said his main focus, since 2003, has been on Iraq. "Each generation has to wrestle with whether or not they want to settle," Hayden said. He suggested that Americans could turn the war in Iraq around faster than the U.S. was able to in Vietnam.

One thing that we really have going, he said, is that Barack Obama was elected as the first black president and the first to win under an anti-war cause. This shows that the American people are more inclined against the war than they have been in the past.

Janet Essley was the featured artist for the evening. She had 10 paintings on display depicting women activists who have made a difference in a variety of ways. The women she chose to paint had advocated for clean water and food as a natural human right. Singer Jim Page sang songs about the injustice of the war in Iraq throughout the evening.

Gwyn Kirk, a professor at University of Oregon and an advocate for women's rights, spoke about the effects of war on women.

"Women become sexually objectified because of war, exposing them to all sorts of horrific situations," Kirk said.

Kirk also discussed the United State government's $2 billion per day budget for war. She claimed that $1.2 trillion was spent on militaries worldwide in 2008 alone and the U.S. contributed 41.5 percent of this amount.

"If they would only give that money to purchase food for our starving people, world hunger could be eradicated in only eight days," she said.

Anita Weiss has been doing women's research in Pakistan for 32 years. She described an area in Pakistan which was a tourist attraction before the rise of the Taliban.

"[The] Taliban put coverings on the women's faces," Weiss said. "They paid young men to carry guns and become suicide bombers. They shut down the schools. They destroyed the police and created a climate of fear."

She showed a map, which illustrated how the Taliban had taken control of the majority of Pakistan until 2008 when the Pakistani army intervened.

Weiss explained that Pakistan has an important geographical position being bordered by India, Afghanistan, China and Russia because of its huge deposits of natural gas.

She described some of the potential causes for prolonged military activity, stating that war toys, movies, video games and high school military recruiters could be partially responsible.