USA: Video about the Ashland Culture of Peace Commission

. .DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION. .

A review by CPNN of the Youtube video The Ashland Culture of Peace Commission by Spencer Barrett

CPNN readers have been following the Ashland Culture of Peace Commission as it has developed over the past couple of years (see listing below). And now there is a video explaining it. The video has been produced by Spencer Barrett in Association with Peace Production through interviews with its commissioners, with an eye towards its significance as a model for the world’s transition to a culture of peace.


Photos of those interviewed, in order upper left to lower right. ACPC Executive Director David Wick, Environmental Spokesman Will Sears, Chief of Police Tighe O’Meara, Faith Unity Minister Norma Burton, Artist Wendy Seldon & Educator Nancy Grace
(click on image to enlarge)

The video starts appropriatedly from from 1999 UN Declaration and Program of Action for a Culture of Peace. David Wick, the Executive Director of the commission explains the origins of Commission since the idea was born in 2013 as a fulfillment of the UN proposal.

Will Sears, an ACPC Commissioner and Environmental Spokesman, stresses the importance of its being a grassroots initiative. “It’s got to come up from the bottom, but it’s being watched on a global scale.”

Tighe O’Meara, Ashland City Chief of Police and member of the Commission, explains that “We want to engage everybody on both sides of debates and problems. Let everyone be heard. Allow everyone their dignity.”

Commission member Norma Burton, a Faith Unity Minister in Ashland, says that “There are so many in the community that would really want to have a culture of peace. . . and yet we accept what society puts foward to us.”

Wendy Seldon of the Ashland Art Center, emphasizes that “One of the best things is getting the whole community thinking about the culture of peace and how they can bring that into their business, their home, the world.”

And Nancy Grace, ACPC Commissioner and Educator, adds that “We have actions in the community that open my heart and allow me to be bigger than I was coming in.”

In conclusion, Will Sears stresses that “We’re making a model that can be exported to other cities. And I can really see how this can spread around the world.”

And David Wick adds: “This is the right time, the right place, the right people.”

The video concludes with reference to two websites for further information:

Follow the Ashland Culture of Peace Commission at: www.AshlandCPC.org

Learn more about the culture of peace at: www.culture-of-peace.info

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