When the Time Comes,
    Be Ready
    by Andre Sheldon


    WHEN THE TIME COMES, WILL WE BE READY?


    THIS IS A CHALLENGE FOR ALL TIME.  A CHALLENGE OF THE AGES!
    There’s a storm coming.  History has taught us that war will come again.  
    Wouldn’t it be wonderful to put out the storm with reason and compassion,
    and prove non-violence is a stronger force than war?  Women and children
    suffer most from war.  It would seem logical that women should find a way to
    protect themselves, create a plan to attempt to prevent war, if possible, before
    a war starts, and have a plan of action when war starts.

    It is time for a pro-active mandate to prevent war.  It is time for a pre-emptive
    strike against war, world wide!  An incredible opportunity exists.  Computers
    and satellite communications technology is phenomenal.  The ability to
    communicate around the world is at an unprecedented high level.  A
    comprehensive plan can bring millions and millions of people from around
    the world together.  The world needs all of the individual efforts for peace, but
    it also needs a unified plan.  

    Women, the world needs you, now!  If all the women in the world get together for peace, who is going to
    stop you?  All the women must come together because there is going to be violence.  Sister Joan
    Chittister said from a speech at the Omega/VDay Conference, September 11th, 2004, “The lives of our
    children, the protection of millions, the hopes of all humankind, wait again now for women, from
    opposite cultures, opposite tradition, to step over the line of political hatred to save them.”  

    Throughout history, women have nurtured and cared for family and society.  The world is becoming
    more and more polarized.  Is it time for women to intercede and care for the world?  Kofi Anon, Secretary
    General of the United Nations, said, “The future of the world depends on women”.  

    WHEN THE TIME COMES, BE READY!

    What will motivate women to participate?  Is fear the motivation?  Is
    desperation the motivation?  Do people have to die before women come to
    the forefront?  Does war have to breakout before any proactive measures get
    implemented?  What happens when war erupts?  Will all the peace
    movement has been doing be for naught?  Will the male-dominant methods
    take over?  Will the peace movement be dead, powerless?  Will there be any
    more conferences, any more talking?  

    The women of the world must be proactive!  Dr. Jean Shinoda Bolen wrote a
    book called Urgent Message from Mother, Gather the Women, Save the
    World.  Why did she use the word urgent?  Other people state the urgency as
    well.  The following quotes were in Dr. Bolen’s book.

    Riane Eisler wrote, “…Jean Shinoda Bolen shows that we can shift from the
    path of domination and violence that threatens us all to a world of peace and
    partnership – if women worldwide put our love into action at this critical time
    in history.”

    Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote, “We men have had our turn and made a
    proper mess of things.  We need women to save us.  I pray that many will
    read Bolen’s work and be inspired then to act appropriately. Time is running
    out.”

    Without using fear as the catalyst and anger as the response, is there a
    different method of solving conflict? Jonathan Schell’s, The Unconquerable
    World, proclaims the successes of non-violence in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.  Alas, non-
    violence.  Gandhi wrote, "Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier
    than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.

    Schell said, in the one paragraph about women in the whole book, but
    perhaps the most profound, “Experts can dispute whether the unmistakable
    male proclivity for war is innate or learned, the product of nature or nurture,
    but one thing we cannot doubt is that historically organized violence has been
    bound up with the male way of being human—with men’s needs, men’s
    desires, and men’s interests.  It is no less clear that historically the pursuits
    of women have been more peaceful.  Could it be that nature in her wisdom
    created two genders in order to have a “second sex” in reserve, so to speak,
    for just such an emergency as the one we now face?  There may be a less
    violent way of doing things that is rooted in female tradition and now will move
    to the fore, together with the gender that created it.”

    Is there a need for a proactive initiative before an emergency arises in the world and will women come to
    the fore?  Can women utilize non-violence to change the world?  If a women-led, world-wide, non-violent,
    peace movement, spread throughout the land, would women be ready to join?  Are women and non-
    violence a natural match?  Would the combination of women and nonviolence be a formidable force?   

    Arundhati Roy, said in her keynote speech at the World Social Forum in 2003, strategies are needed.  A
    strategy proposed is a world-wide call to action utilizing non-violence, led by women.  It does not exclude
    men.  Riane Eisler said in The Chalice and the Blade, “…the problem is not men as a sex, but men and
    women as they must be socialized in a dominator system.”  Yes, we could wait for socialization to bring
    about change, but the world will not wait.  There must be a mandate against war!  The women of the
    world must be proactive!  The world needs a world-wide call to action.  February 15, 2003 showed where
    there is agreement.  Protests around the world declared, “The world says no to war.”

    Kavita Ramdas, CEO of Global Fund for Women, wrote in Stop the Next War Now,
    “What if we had a huge convening of social movements to put pressure on our governments, just by
    pure force and presence?  I know we have the capability.  Recall February 15, 2003, when the world
    stood still in protest against the Iraq war.”   

    Imagine, women stopping war.  The odds are against stopping war but there has to be an effort.  If war
    breaks out, there must be an emergency fall back plan!  A proactive, progressive plan would act both as
    a pre-emptive strike against war and an emergency plan, as the police have, the fire department has,
    and the military has.  The peace movement can be ready to answer the question, what do we do if?   
    What was learned after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita?  What is FEMA’s function?  Isn’t it best to be as
    prepared as possible for emergencies?  

    An example of what will happen must exist for the world to react before war.  The world will mobilize to
    support non-violent conflict resolution.  All of the grassroot efforts must still continue, but also must be
    affiliated with a major initiative.  One major initiative by women will encompass all of women’s issues,
    human rights issues, civil rights and humanitarian needs.  

    People can feel good about a movement of peace.  People can smile and know that they are attempting
    to change the world without war!  Is it possible to protest without anger?  Wouldn’t it be powerful to
    protest with a smile on your face?  Mother Theresa said, “Peace begins with a smile.”  

    Martin Luther King said, “Nonviolence does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent, but to win his
    friendship and understanding… it avoids not only external physical violence but also internal violence of
    spirit.   The nonviolent resister not only refuses to shoot his opponent but he also refuses to hate him.  
    At the center of nonviolence stands the principle of love… if I respond to hate with a reciprocal hate, I do
    nothing but intensify the cleavage in a broken community.  I can only close the gap in a broken
    community by meeting hate with love. (King, 1994, pp.211-214)

    Sister Joan said, “War is not inevitable.  War is planned.  War is a choice.”  She states, “Women have
    everything to do with war.”  Women can “lead the world away from war.  Say no, no, no to war!  We need
    an antidote to extremism.  The world is waiting for women to step over the lines of political
    hatred.”                          

    Sister Joan said, not exactly in this order, “Women are never counted as victims.  Women are the booty
    of war.  Women are forgotten and un-mourned.  Women are abandoned in the ashes of war.  Women’s
    homes and families are ruined.  Women are unasked and unarmed before war.  Before war, women
    have a right to be a part of the decisions on the way to war.  After war, women’s issues are never
    negotiated or redressed in peace treaties.  War falls longest, hardest, and cruelest on the backs of
    women and children.  Women bear the sons, bury the dead, and are left alone.  Women are trafficked to
    satisfy the war mongers and forced into sexual slavery.  Women endure domestic violence by the war
    torn husbands.  Women raise and feed the children left behind.  


    Who can change the world? Who can save the world?  Is it women?  Can women say, when the time
    comes, we’ll be ready?
PEACE and LOVE

How beautiful the world is when we live and work together in peace.
Global Strategy of Nonviolence
Mother Theresa said, “Peace begins with a smile.”
Welcome! A Global Strategy of Nonviolence
FOR the CHILDREN A World-Wide Unity Campaign
A Strategy to Bring Peace For the Children and Stop  War
(GS of NV)
GUIDELINES

In 3 years, we the
people, can change the
world.

PLAN ALL 3 PHASES

PHASE ONE:

Mobilize, in every village,
town, and city,in every
country!

Select Demands
and Deadlines

One year awareness
campaign

Starting Event

September 11, 2021
+23 scheduled events


PEOPLE POWER

The People must be
HEARD, the Moderate
Voice

We want the children to
see an overt exhibit of
nonviolence.
PHASE TWO:

Conflict Resolution
and Disarmament

PHASE THREE:

Programs For the
Children
February 11, 2008