For the 12th consecutive year, Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson brings her strong efforts to build a viable world peace community from Washington, D.C. to Dallas, hosting six “powerful” women in a comprehensive dialogue for peace.
Johnson’s “A World of Women for World Peace Dialogue” forum takes place Saturday, April 28, 12:00 to 2:00 p.m., at the Trammell & Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art, 2010 Flora Street. This year’s theme is “Women, Technology and Peacebuilding.”
“People have come from around the world to participate in the program,” Congresswoman Johnson said of her past summits. “My general program (in D.C.) is focused around the world. We host a lot of groups on the Hill. We find that women are much more open to sitting at the table and working something out than holding on the old notion that you’ve got to beat them.
Johnson was inspired to hold the event annually near Mother’s Day because of the foundation of the observance.
“Mother’s Day came about because of mothers wanting peace in the United States. It was a movement right after the Civil War where the mothers said they never wanted to experience their sons being killed because of conflict and war,” said Johnson. “They started a movement to get people to think about peace so that they could save the lives of their children.”
Early in her congressional career, Johnson also befriended Liberian activist Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and her witnessing African kids used as soldiers. Sirleaf is now Liberia’s president. Johnson meets with and invites high ranking women from countries around the world, weary of war and watching their males killed in their respective conflicts.
“We share with the audience people who feel strongly about building avenues for peace. In many of these war torn countries, many males get killed so the women are in a position where they almost have to step up and be in some leadership position,” Johnson stated.
Ana Cristina Reymundo, Editorial Director of American Airlines Nexos Magazine, will moderate this year’s discussion. Her panelists consist of:
Vivienne O’Connor, Senior Rule of Law Advisor, United State Institute of Peace;
Linda Higdon, Founder, Global Room for Women;
Mitra Razavi, Former Iranian Prisoner of War;
Dahlia Scheindlin, Political Consultant, Huffington Post;
Libby Lenkinski, Director of International Relations, Association for Civil Rights in Israel.
Lenkinski is part of a special effort by Johnson in discussing Israeli-Palestinian relations.
“This year, I wanted to show more of the peaceful attitudes in the Middle East. I wanted the people here to know that there are numerous women in Israel and Palestine that are crying out and working together every day for peace. I’ve met with women who have transfused their blood back and forth to show that they are connected in blood as human beings,” said Johnson. “It had gotten to the point where I was beginning to feel that the more I mentioned peace as it related to Israel, the more some suspicions came.
Johnson’s work for peace has included developing a peace-agenda curriculum in The Hague (The Netherlands) that has been supervised by the United Nations and used within programs such as the Girls Clubs.
“What it amounts to is integrating the attitudes of acceptance and conflict resolution in every day life. It amounts to respecting differences, conflict resolution, anger management and trying to get them to let go of the stereotypical things,” Johnson said. “Acceptance of that diversity of thought is a major core. Once you accept that the people have the right to feel the way they feel about something, your fighting power is diminished.
“I’m trying to add to the culture of peace in the world. It’s not anything I can put on a chart and draft. We try to get attitudes of acceptance to implement.
“We’ve gotten to the point where we’ve got to use peaceful negotiations. It’s getting to where it’s no longer a passing fad, it’s a necessity. We know we’ve got to come up with alternatives to war.”
