Dear Friends,

Warm greetings, from Kabul.I’ll return to the U.S. in time to begin teaching an online course, July 1 – August 31.  The school was organized by ZMagazine, but is now called “The World Institute for Social Change.” I’m eager to give it a try but am anxious I’ll feel like a fraud. I’ve never taught an online course and until recently had never heard of Moodle.  Fortunately, while I was in prison and, after release, during extended travels, Ken Hannaford-Ricardi, Sean Reynolds, Carly Tsuda and other friends helped me work on the course.Entitled “The Cost of War, the Price of Peace,” the course will focus, each week, on a different war zone. An outline on the World Institute for Social Change website already shows maps, photos, graphs, articles, videos and suggested activities.   I’ll draw from experiences Voices companions and I have had while living alongside people who were trapped by military and economic wars.I promised World Institute for Social Change organizers to help publicize the school and the upcoming sessions.  Please visit WISC if you think you’d be interested.   And, if you think it’s worthwhile, could you share word of the WISC school with people in your circles.

Organizers felt it wouldn’t be possible to offer the courses free of charge. To help keep my income below the taxable level (my means for war tax refusal) and to help out with the APV’s street kid’s school,  I’ll send any money paid to me, as a teacher, to the “Street Kids School”.  I’m sitting amid sixteen children now, all of whom are absorbed in various Lego constructions, as they wait for their 8:00 a.m. class to start.

I hope we can construct, together, ways to learn from one another, gaining deeper understanding of war’s consequences and more confident readiness to build a better world.

Sincerely,
Kathy

In case you missed them, here are some articles published to our site this week, on from Martha Hennessy on her time in Kabul and another from Carly on the recent US drone violence in Khost, Afghanistan. You’ll also find some information on an online course that Kathy is teaching this summer on “The Cost of War, the Price of Peace” through the World Institute for Social Change.

Alit teaches nonviolence to the street kids. Credit: Hakim

On the second day of our arrival, we spent time observing the classrooms at the APV School. The children could not stop smiling. Young teachers, who warmly welcomed their students (and us), enjoyed orderly classrooms filled with students who were eager to learn. They sat on the floor, facing a whiteboard, and listened carefully to their teacher.  She gently encouraged individual students while calmly managing the lesson plan.”
Read more from Martha Hennessy at VCNV.org

“The US military has grown alarmingly cavalier about the frequency and consistency of civilian deaths from drone strikes. When the US plays fast and loose with the lives of innocent civilians, it has a devastating effect on the people they claim to be protecting. Those of us who are residents of the US must demand greater transparency from our government regarding actions carried out on our behalf.”
Read more from Carly at VCNV.org.

Street Kids School class of ’15-’16.Credit: Hakim

Copyright © 2015 Voices for Creative Nonviolence.  All rights reserved.