Israeli-Palestinian Grassroots Peace Initiative Comes to Ashland

Roots Tour: Two Truths in One Heart, Two Peoples in One Land

Wednesday, November 5th | 7pm

John C. Meyers Convocation Center - Trustees Room

Join us to hear about the challenging and groundbreaking work of this Israeli-Palestinian grassroots initiative for understanding, nonviolence and transformation in the West Bank.

Check out https://www.friendsofroots.net/ for more information.

Co-Sponsored by the Ashland University Honors Program.

Judge Not

A group of us here in Ashland are getting excited about our upcoming training in Nonviolent Communication this weekend. In preparation, we’re reading a book by the same title by Marshall Rosenberg, who developed this methodology in the 1960s and 1970s. 

Nonviolent Communication teaches us to be observant, to see and withhold judgment. This is the first step in NVC, but it’s crucial, especially when it comes to communication that in some way hopes to bring resolution with another person: to mitigate a conflict, to deescalate a situation, to alter some destructive or distressing behavior. Rosenberg emphasized that many conflicts escalate because people confuse observation with evaluation (judgment). When we mix in judgments, interpretations, or labels, the other person often feels criticized and becomes defensive. 

Call for Papers - "The Spirit of Peace" Conference 2026

Multi-disciplinary Conference to be held March 21, 2026

Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio

Call for Papers: Due December 20, 2025

In order to foster interdisciplinary conversations around peace and nonviolence, the Ashland Center for Nonviolence invites proposals for the 2026 John D. Stratton Conference, centered on the theme: “The Spirit of Peace.”

This conference will explore how spiritual, religious, and contemplative traditions understand, articulate, and display peace commitments. While many contributions to peacemaking arise from political, legal, and scientific efforts, enduring global movements have often drawn their deepest strength from spiritual sources: practices of prayer and meditation, prophetic traditions, rituals of healing and forgiveness, and visions of interconnectedness and beloved community.

We welcome proposals from across disciplines—including religious studies, theology, ethics, history, literature, philosophy, psychology, education, the arts, and peace studies—as well as from practitioners working in interfaith dialogue, religious education, activism, and other peace-related fields. Together, we seek to better understand the spiritual dimensions of peace and how they can be nurtured in today’s world.

Question to explore might include:

• How do spiritual and religious traditions define and pursue peace?
• What roles do inner transformation, mysticism, and contemplative practice play in peacemaking?
• How have faith-based movements contributed to nonviolent resistance or reconciliation?
• What are ethical, theological, and other related roots of nonviolence across religious traditions?
• How do religious and spiritual art, music, and ritual help to cultivate a culture of peace?
• How can and have spiritualities been linked to resilience and hope amid violence and injustice?
• How can spiritual formation be integrated into peace education?

Both theoretical and practical approaches are encouraged.

Submission Guidelines:

Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted using the online submission form no later than December 20, 2025. Individual presentations should plan for 35 minutes with 10 additional minutes for discussion. Panel proposals are also encouraged.

Presenters are welcome to engage in academic or practical debates but should avoid unnecessary jargon and be mindful that our audience includes scholars, students, community members, and practitioners from a wide range of disciplines and backgrounds.

For more information on the Ashland Center for Nonviolence or for questions related to the conference, please contact acn@ashland.edu or (419) 289-5313.

Compassion and Humanity, Even in Battle

by Craig Hovey

This last Spring, I learned about a fascinating and surprising event that took place during a WWII battle 80 years earlier. In response to a suicide attack on the USS Missouri, the ship’s captain led a military burial for the pilot with full honors. It was the same kind of burial that any of the ship’s own crew would have received. None of the crew of the Missouri were killed in the attack.

See AP story here

The 80th anniversary of this event was marked by a ceremony aboard the Missouri, which is now a museum at Pearl Harbor. It was reported that the ceremony included grandsons of the captain, the mayor of Honolulu, and a Japanese city where kamikaze pilots often flew from. 

Stop it!

It may be that our historical moment is not unique, but it can feel like it is. There are enough tensions, outright violence, and injustices that must end to make one throw up one’s hands and shout “stop it!” 

Getting other people to stop what they’re doing, especially when it’s violent, degrading, or unjust, makes sense. In trying to accomplish this, we may get close to nonviolence, but we’re not there yet. 

Gaza Ceasefire is an Opportunity

Thank God for the recent ceasefire in Gaza. It's almost impossible to imagine a way forward toward lasting peace in the region, between Israelis and Palestinians. This is one of the world's most difficult and painful conflicts and obviously requires a lot of careful work. Deep and compassionate listening will be crucial, as it always is when seeking reconciliation and peace, no matter the scale—from interpersonal conflict to conflicts between nations and other groups. It is a simple and profound truth, here articulated by Thich Nhat Hanh and Oprah Winfrey several years ago:

Love: The Center of Nonviolence

Martin Luther King, Jr. was deeply influenced by Jesus and Gandhi, both of whom taught the importance of love. “At the center of nonviolence stands the principle of love,” King said to the War Resisters League in 1959. It is not enough to resist using physical violence; we must avoid the internal violence of our spirits. The following year, King confessed that he had been tempted to consider that loving one’s enemies really is something we should only apply at the individual, person-to-person level while a “more realistic approach” is the right path when addressing bigger things: social problems or conflicts between nations. But Gandhi’s teaching of satyagraha—truth-force—changed his mind. When we commit to always seeking the good of others, recognize the humanity of our adversaries, and trust love as a creative and redemptive force, we are holding on to and expressing deep truths. 

There are deep divisions in our nation and our world, some of which will likely be on display today if we look around. We should remember that the way of peace is a love that allows no room for physical violence, for sure, but also allows no room for the internal violence of our spirits, hearts at war with others. How can I recognize and value the humanity of my adversary? Are they speaking something I should listen to and learn from? How can I be open to hearing it? It can be hard to ask these questions and even harder to answer them with our lives. It is much more normal to shut out my adversaries, to hate them, to ridicule them in my heart or to my friends, to draw attention to their failures, and then, if possible, to try to get them to change their ways by some coercion. This is normal but very unfortunate because this means that I still have a heart at war and a violent spirit. It does not align with the truth of nonviolence founded on love. King taught a better way.