PRESS RELEASE: 100 YEAR ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATION OF GANDHI’S SATYAGRAHA or Nonviolent Peace Army…TO BE HELD IN RIVERSIDE ON 9-11-2006

WHO: All are invited; all are welcome to remember Gandhi’s Satyagraha and the Alternative of Nonviolent Action

SPONSORED BY: Inland Communities Fellowship of Reconciliation (IC-FOR) and the Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP)

WHAT: Peaceful Walking and Candlelight Commemoration of Gandhi’s Satyagraha (Nonviolent Peace Army) that began 100 years ago on September 11, 1906. Signs, banners, and candles will be provided by IC-FOR and NP

WHEN: September 11, 2006

5:30pm: Meet at MLK Statue on Downtown Mall & 9^th Street for Peaceful Walking to Gandhi Statue. Signs, banners, and candles will be provided by IC-FOR and NP.

Continue to Gandhi Statue, Mission Inn Avenue on Downtown Mall for Candle Lighting, Music, and Talks.

WHERE: Riverside’s Downtown Mall, walking at 5:30pm from 9^th Street (near City Hall) to Mission Inn Ave (3 blocks)…from Martin Luther King Statue to Mohandas Mahatma Gandhi Statue

WHY: to remind ourselves and our community that we have an inherent right to peace and that nonviolent action is a viable alternative to conflict…by commemorating the initial action--right on Sept 11, 1906--of Gandhi’s Satyagraha or Nonviolent Peace Army.

CONTACT: Linda Dunn, 951-682-5364; www.icfor.org www.forusa.org www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org www.mettacenter.org

MORE DETAIL** Nine-eleven 2001 came as a deep shock to those who have dedicated their lives to peace. Whether or not we lost a loved one in that explosion of hatred, violence challenges our faith and adds an extra dimension of grief for those who feel most poignantly the futility of violence.

By a strange coincidence it was exactly a century ago, on September 11^th, 1906, that Mahatma Gandhi launched a new way of addressing conflict that many believe can lead humanity from the mire of hatred in which we seem to be bogged down, out into the clear land of peace. These two 9/11s are like signposts for two paths that can be taken by the human race.

(**From the book by Michael N. Nagler— Hope or Terror: Gandhi and the other 9/11)

www.mettacenter.org