Diane Thomas, Co-Founder of Resource Center for Nonviolence
Posted by: ScottK in Antiwar, Archives, General, tags: anti-war, Antiwar, iraq war, RCNV
A celebration of the life of Diane Thomas will be held on Saturday January 17 at 10:00 a.m. at the Pacific School of Religion, 1796 Scenic Avenue in Berkeley. Thomas, who died peacefully on December 1 of cancer, was a cofounder of the Resource Center for Nonviolence in 1976 and lived in Santa Cruz and served on the staff during the Resource Center’s formative years. Thomas also helped found the UC Nuclear Weapons Lab Conversion Project, served on the staff of the Ecumenical Peace Institute for more than a decade, and helped found the Iraq Initiatives Project. A highlight of Diane’s work for peace and justice was speaking before a massive rally of more than a million people in June of 1982, after having fasted for disarmament for 30 days, to bring pressure on the Second United Nations Special Session on Disarmament in New York City. One of her proudest achievements was establishing the Dismantling Racism Committee at the Pacific School of Religion where she joined the staff in 2000 and directed the annual fund and alumni relations, organized the annual Earl Lectures church conference, and co-chaired the seminary’s Dismantling Racism Committee until the time of her death.
For photos of Diane and information on her work for peace and justice, www.peacehost.net/EPI-Calc/Diane/ Tax deductible memorial donations to support the Iraq Initiatives Project may be made in Diane’s memory to: EPIC/CALC, PO Box 9344, Berkeley, CA 94709 (write Diane/IIP on memo line).
This is a truly exceptional opportunity to visit the region at a critical moment in history and to learn about the ongoing conflict from a variety of perspectives, while meeting with and learning from locals working for a sustainable, just solution. You will visit various points of interest in the West Bank, Jerusalem and Israel, stay with Israeli and Palestinian families and have the opportunity to participate in ongoing nonviolent campaigns as well as witness the daily reality of people in the region.
(From Left to Right: Scott Kennedy, Anita Heckman, Grace Paley, Phil McManus, Deena Hurwitz, Betsy Fairbanks, Doug Rand, Judy Bloomgardener) Please join us for a celebration of the life and work of Grace Paley. A notable list of local poets, feminists, activists, pacifists, writers and rascals will read from Paley’s work, including, Lee Swenson, Julie Olsen Edwards, Darrell Darling, Emily Reilly, Betsy Fairbanks, Cappy Israel, Bill Monning, Morton Marcus, Nanlouise Wolfe, Barbara Hayes, Richard Moss, Shannon Spencer, Merrie Shaller, Lynn Zachreson, Nick Zachreson, Marion Vittitow and Ellen Bass. At the Mill Gallery, 131-B Front Street in Santa Cruz (south of Laurel). Come join us to celebrate this extraordinary woman and a life well-lived! $5-$20 suggested sliding-scale donation (no one turned away for lack of funds).Grace Paley, who died August 22, 2007, was most famously a writer of short stories. But folks at the Resource Center for Nonviolence knew her as a political activist, friend, ally and supporter who spoke at the Center’s Annual Dinner and Program in 1987. Grace Paley was, according to the LA Times, “an acclaimed writer and activist who in only three collections of short stories gave earthy voice to the interior life of the Bronx Everywoman.” Grace’s three collections of short stories, again according to the LA Times, “won her critical acclaim and the prestigious Rea Award for short-story writing. But Paley, known as a passionate activist for causes ranging from the Vietnam War to feminism to the Iraq War, was perhaps less prolific for those efforts – a diversity of experience she embraced in a June interview, saying, ‘It’s not as if anybody is one thing.’” A descendant of the East European Jewish socialist tradition, who came to her own as a writer in the tumultuous 1960s, Grace embodied good humor, imagination, working with other people, radical politics, and a dogged persistence — all necessary ingredient for times such as those in which we live.