DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Final Examination

I think that a PAX component added to the curriculum of your school would be extremely beneficial.  Allowing college students to gain knowledge on subjects of nonviolent resistance, social movements, and conflict resolution would help them throughout their college career and after graduation.  In this paper I have included insights on two articles, and my own personal experience, to try to convince you to add PAX to the curriculum of your school.  The first article is “The Power of Noncooperation,” by Shelley Douglass.  In this article, it is illustrated how one great example of nonviolent resistance is the way Gandhi led India against Britain with his method of noncooperation, where he came up with the idea that you have to find it within your soul to overcome the evil, so through working together as a group India was able to overcome Britain.  “Letter from Delano,” written by Cesar E Chavez, to E. L. Barr, Jr., is a letter written by an angry yet restrained leader of a labor union in response to false allegations that the labor union was using methods of violence to succeed.  This is another great example of how nonviolence is present in the world today.  Third, I have learned through my own experience that getting out of your comfort zone and seeing things from a different perspective is vital when trying to resolve conflict.  Traveling in an unfamiliar part of town, seeing things from the perspective of a volunteer instead of an acceptor of food, and meeting and befriending people that were studying to become ordained as religious were all things that helped me to get out of my comfort zone and gain new perspectives.

According to “The Power of Noncooperation,” by Shelley Douglass, the power of noncooperation can be illustrated where Gandhi taught his followers to overcome British rule through  noncooperation- to find the power within one’s self to take control of his or her own evil within himself, and to try to possess a change in that way.  He felt it essential that the way to overcome evil was to see how we are involved in it ourselves.  In this article, it is said that we are caught in the same system as others, when involved in good and evil.  The way Gandhi led India against Britain is a good example of noncooperation because eventually India succeeded and gained independence, not through means of violence, but through means of noncooperation.  Some examples of noncooperation quoted in the article are “marches, vigils, and tax refusals,” as can be recognized in other means of nonviolence, like protests or sit-ins, although “it includes also an inner dimension: the refusal to allow our minds to be manipulated, our hearts to be controlled.”  Gandhi led nonviolent means of noncooperation.  When violent methods were tried during the seeking of independence, they didn’t succeed. 

In the article it mentions that often those in power often don’t represent well or fight for those that are underprivileged, although they hold all the power.  This reminds me of how often times people that don’t have access to food, don’t have stable housing, are unemployed, aren’t able to sufficiently support their children, etc., don’t live well because those that are able to help them don’t.  That is why those that are educated in peace, justice, and conflict issues can learn of such methods such as noncooperation, and see how people hold power over people in unfair ways, and help these helpless people in other ways than which the power holders are being asked, such as through volunteering at soup kitchens, asking people to sign petitions for the well-being of officers, helping at local homeless shelters, etc., so that the power holders aren’t the only people who are able to help those that need help. 

Also in the article it mentions how as people involved in noncooperation, we need to find a way to not let evil control us, but at the same time not hate those that have evil in themselves.  After taking a PAX class, I find this to be the most useful advice, when trying to overcome problems in a world that need to be overcome.  After taking this class I have discovered new perspectives of my own and of others, so that I may learn what problems I have of my own that I want to overcome, and through seeing in others what things trouble them, I feel that me and my classmates have come together as a class, university, and community.

Also, through being taught noncooperation, with PAX in the new curriculum, students would be taught with the possibility of a viewpoint of religious content, while trying to learn how to overcome problems without violence or evil, as Gandhi taught his followers when overcoming the British.  Noncooperation teaches a new perspective, a new way of thinking towards the ways of the world and problem-solving. 

In reference to “Letter from Delano,” by Cesar E. Chavez; this is the letter written by Cesar Chavez United Farm Workers Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO, to E.L. Barr, President of the California Grape and Tree Fruit League.  Chavez admits that Barr was just being human, when Barr said that Chavez and his union had been using violent tactics in order to make the strike successful; Chavez said that Barr may have just reacted to pressure from public relation firms that were working against the labor movement.  Chavez writes the letter well, though he lets Barr know that in his actions he is working against hundreds of thousands of poor in the United States, men and women, who are the perfect emblem of America, the United States, what it represents, and nonviolence.  He says although their spirits were able to be broken, they continued fighting for their cause.  Looking back to the first article, “The Power of Noncooperation”; as with Gandhi and his movement, Chavez and the workers of his union demonstrated with methods of nonviolence, such as hard work, longer hours, prayer, and fasting, and the strike went on for years.  After asking Barr to sit down with Chavez to clear up the lies of violence involved with the strike, Chavez states that he and his workers would overcome the agribusiness.

Chavez said that Barr claimed that their union movement and table grape boycott had been successful because they used methods of violence. In my own perception, it seems through the letter that Chavez claims that it is Barr’s, and therefore society’s, responsibility to be fair, and this stimulates the idea of social justice and conflict resolution.  Also although Barr seems to be the enemy toward Chavez in the scenario, he addresses him in a kind way, and admits that he believes that Barr said that Chavez and his union were involved in methods of violence because of pressure from public relations.  With Chavez’s words, a nonviolent form of anger is manifested.  Integrating the article “The Power of Noncooperation,” it could be said that Chavez is trying to see the good in Barr as well as the evil, through these words and those in the rest of the letter, as is a component of Gandhi’s method of noncooperation and overcoming evil.  Chavez states in his letter that he makes it a priority that his union be able to “have without bloodshed their own union and the dignity of bargaining with their agribusiness employers.”  This clearly states that Chavez wants his social movement to be nonviolent, and noncooperative in the way that they would not work and be on strike until the workers get the conditions that they want.  These workers seem to be the lower class of the country, and, once again referring to the previous article, the power holders do not help the poor or unfortunate here; in fact, they work against them.  A social injustice that could be seen before the end of the strike would be the unfair working conditions of workers, and this strike is especially momentous in the history of the United States because many of these workers were immigrants, who moved to this country in search of a better life, and better jobs. The obvious message throughout the letter is that violence is not the answer, and that Chavez and his union were respectable people that deserved better, and they were trying to gain better wages through nonviolent protesting. 

Pertaining to my own experience, of my PAX class, I volunteered at a soup kitchen at a Catholic Worker’s Community called Su Casa.  I found a great way to resolve conflict is to see things from a different perspective, and a great way to see from a different perspective is to get outside of your comfort zone.   I travelled by bus and train for an hour to the south side of Chicago to get there every Friday, and on the #51 bus from the 47th redline ‘L’ station, ninety-nine percent of the people on the bus were black.  I felt completely out of place but I still felt interested because I was able to travel through a completely new neighborhood, and see a different neighborhood of people, stores, houses, apartments, etc.  The first time I went to Su Casa, I didn’t know what to expect, but the building was big and comfortable, and the people that lived there and travelled there to volunteer were very amiable.

The reason I wanted to volunteer at a soup kitchen was that I was familiar with soup kitchens; not because I used to volunteer at them, but because I used to go to them, once or twice a week, when I used to live at a nursing home in Evanston.  I figured I would be familiar with them, and know my way around them, and know how things worked, so it would be an easy way to get the twenty-five hours of volunteering necessary to pass the class.  I never considered the fact that things would be different because I had always been on the receiving side of the table, instead of the giving-out-food side of one.  After only one Friday of giving out plates of food at the soup kitchen, my perspective changed.  Not only was I thankful that now I have things going better for me financially, I was able to see how the needy were on the receiving side of things.  My comfort level shifted a bit, as it was necessary for me to give out plates of food to strangers, some kinder and more polite than others.  I was able to see all of the hard work that the volunteers put into the breakfast of one morning, and how much effort goes into scrambling dozens of eggs, cooking a huge pot of oatmeal, sizzling pan after pan of sausage. 

Not only had I never volunteered at a soup kitchen before, I had never worked with people that were training to be pastors or sisters, as were some of the volunteers.  Two women from Africa were sisters, and one young man was studying to be a pastor.  After first meeting them I didn’t know what their personalities would be like, as they were people who were supposed to be very religious, but after talking with them and getting to know them, I found them to be normal people with normal lives.  I think getting to know people who are very devoted to religion was something new to me, definitely something out of my comfort zone, but they were very devoted to the cause of getting breakfast made, to making sure everyone got enough to eat, and to making sure everything was cleaned up afterwards.  

As for the next steps and creative actions to take, first I would give out a survey to the students interested, asking them what they would like to study; what social movements, nonviolent forms of resistance, and conflict issues would interest them to learn about; what they have already had experience with, and what would be new to them.  Then I would come up with some good volunteering sights that would challenge the students, and put them a bit out of their comfort zone, but at the same time give them something to enjoy- soup kitchens, homeless shelters, petitioning for signatures, etc.  Then another good plan for the class would be to come up for some group exercises, some ice breakers- some that would help the students to get to know one another, as minorities and as a whole, pertaining to their backgrounds and past experiences.

In conclusion, I think that PAX is a vital part of the college experience because it opens up the college student’s eyes to the world around them. It gives the student new perspectives, through the experiences gained in class, through ideas learned from their fellow classmates, and through the experiences gained through the volunteering component.  Including articles, movies, and other sources pertaining to nonviolent resistance, social movements, and conflict resolution is beneficial as a source to the foundation of the class, and also allowing the student to learn from the experience of volunteering is very rewarding.  To graduate with some knowledge on ways to improve the world is vital for the college student, and I think that this is what a PAX curriculum is able to do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.