Many have argued that nonviolence works only in low conflict, low stress situations. S P Arun relates the unfolding of nonviolent solutions in a high crime neighborhood.

Origins
When we began volunteering for the Association for India's Development - an organization that supports sustainable development in India - we began to feel a gap between projects in India and ourselves which we knew could be addressed only through local volunteering. So when Dr. Arun Gandhi described the Season for Non-violence during his talk at Hopkins, in which groups across the US organize activities to promote non-violence -- we felt it was particularly appropriate.

We organized several events in our first season in 2003 : movies (Gandhi, Malcolm X, documentaries on civil rights), interfaith and other discussions on non-violence, we invited peace activists in the area, and promoted meditation as a means for internal change. In addition, we organized a 64-day campaign of daily messages of peace. A memorable event in 2003 was a talk by long-time peace activist Coleman McCarthy, who exhorted students to vote with their dollar for what they believed in. The 2003 Season for Non-violence received several university-wide awards: it was recognized as the most outstanding new program, and was awarded the OMSA vanguard award.

In 2004 , we continued our 64 day campaign, meditation and interfaith discussions, but also selected three themes: violence in the media, gender-based violence, and self-transformation. For our event on media and violence, we put together several media clips related to violence, to provoke discussion about how the media informs violence, and vice-versa. Our events on domestic violence and gender-based power struggles brought together local organizations that worked on these issues. "Turning away from violence" was our most powerful event in 2004, in which we brought together victims of violence as well as former aggressors to talk about their perspectives on violence. These were people from the House of Ruth , a group that helps to counsel victims of violence, and from the Rose street community center, an organization that helps ex-felons re-adjust to society. It was amazing to see the connections formed between victims and aggressors. Later that summer, an effort to document the ex-felon stories led to a webpage , which also describes how the center transformed one of the most violent blocks in Baltimore through a non-violent struggle into a tutorial center for kids, and a transitional home for ex-felons.

Homicide as an epidemic in Baltimore
For a city of 600,000, Baltimore has had a disproportionately high homicide rate of 300/year since the 1990s. A majority of victims and offenders in Baltimore are African-American; drugs, poverty, lack of proper resources, poor education and non-existent efforts towards ex-felon rehabilitation all contribute to a never-ending spiral of destruction and chaos. Locking up the key offenders and druglords has been the main thrust of the city's strategy, even though it is well known that many factors contribute to the problem. Meanwhile, our campus was affected by several tragic crimes. This prompted us to focus on violence in Baltimore for the 2005 Season for Non-violence.

We began talking to the Rose street folk - with their founder, Mr.Clayton Guyton and their youth coordinator, Mr.Walker Gladden. We wanted to find out how Hopkins could help with eradicating crime in a positive way. Our impression was that Hopkins needed to invest more in the community around it. But we heard a unanimous voice from Rose street: they did not want money. They found it ironic that the best hospital in the world could "afford" to exist barely a few blocks from the most violent neighborhoods in Baltimore. They wanted help at the policy level, so that resources could be invested whenever they were required instead of a one-time investment.

They understood homicide to have reached epidemic proportions in Baltimore. They wanted the School of Public Health and other experts to undertake a detailed analysis of the problem of homicide in Baltimore. They felt that while they had some answers, they needed experts to analyse the problem from a public health standpoint. Notice that when a few individuals need to be convicted for crimes, it's a law and order problem. But when there is large-scale violence, then it's a public health problem.

Currently we plan to bring together a panel of experts - from public health, law enforcement, city officials with community organizations to examine the problem of homicide. A popular radio show host, Marc Steiner - has agreed to moderate the discussion. Several faculty have expressed their willingness to be on the panel. We have the backing of several administrative divisions, who want this to be the annual Martin Luther King convocation. Our tentative date is March 3, 2005.

We have only just begun - questions abound: what is our standing, as a group of Indian students that will not be here forever? How can we ensure that the panel is a step in a process and not a flash in the pan? When there are so many factors that contribute to violence, which ones are most important? How does one identify them? Who should be on the panel?

In a recent meeting, we asked Mr.Guyton what he thought was the one thing that needed to be done to tackle crime. His answer was most unexpected: remove trash in the community. How can trash removal be the key to tackling crime? Because it is the most obvious thing. Because it will make people want to come out and talk with those who are cleaning. Because it will improve their self-esteem, make them feel that somoene cares about them. Because consistently performed actions of the tiniest magnitude, such as trash removal have a way of opening far more doors in people's minds than grandiose plans to solve all problems. And when the ex-felons from Rose street clean the neighborhood, they are able to make people think, "If ex-felons can turn over, so can we". And they make the ex-felon feel like a part of society -- and that makes the ex-felon willingly turn away from violence.

And above all, it worked -- for Rose street. They can tell anyone how to go about it.

If only we would listen.

Related Articles:
More information
Rose Street Community Center

Arun Sripati is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD and a volunteer with AID. He can be contacted at sparun@jhu.edu