Amanda Gorman, Youth Poet Laureate read an original poem
at Inauguration for President Joseph Biden in January, 2020

For the New York Times interview on January 20, 2022 she explains
her fear of reading her poem at the Inauguration.

I’m a firm believer that often terror is trying to tell us of a force far
greater than despair. In this way I look at fear not as cowardice
but as a call forward, a summons to fight for what we hold dear.

And now more than ever we have every right to be affected,
afflicted and affronted. If you are alive you’re afraid. If you
are not afraid, then you are not paying attention.

The only thing we have to fear is having no fear itself—having
no feeling on behalf of whom and what we’ve lost, whom
and what we love.

See parts of Amanda Gorman’s Inauguration Poem blog
posted February, 2021.

⭐️💥✨💫🌟⭐️💥✨💫🌟⭐️💥✨💫🌟⭐️💥✨💫🌟⭐️💥✨

I don’t want to give the impression that non-violence will work miracles overnight. Men are not easily moved from their mental
​ruts or purged of their prejudice or irrational feelings. When the
underprivileged demand freedom, the privileged first react with
​bitterness and resistance. So the nonviolent approach does not
immediately change the hearts of the oppressor.
​It first does something to thee hearts and souls of those committed
​to it. It gives them a new self respect; it calls up sources of strength
​and courage that they did not know they had.
​Finally it reaches the opponent and so stirs his conscience that
reconciliation becomes reality

Listen to MLK JR give the complete speech at the end of Session
​One before Review and Reflect.

☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️
​

​The following can be found on our past bog post for January, 2019
Ugly speech continues; some examples are name calling,
bullying, false news etc.

Adele Looney, wife of our founder of this ATV Course, keeps this
list on her refrigerator of possible reactions to bad behaviors.
​❤️Adele will turn 100 years just before Valentines Day, 2023.❤️

REFRIGERATOR LIST

❤️ Be Helpful .........................Be Loving
❤️Be Kind................................Be Patient
❤️Be Tolerant...............,...........Be Just
❤️Be Gentle..............................Be Joyful
❤️Be Foregiving........................Be Slow to Anger

❤️Have Self Control
​

These behaviors are great additions to ATVCourse Session One
which emphasizes how to deescalate conflict and potential
violence. See Session One with other sessions under sub heading
​PERSONAL ALTERNATIVES TO VIOLENCE

Over the last year ATVC BLOG has touched on these topics;
perhaps reviewing a few could prepare us for 2023❣️

• Encouragement to Keep Working for Peace
•. When Peacemaking Seems Overwhelming
• Juliet Saltman, Early Civil Rights Leader & Akron University
Professor Dies at 99
​• Checking On “Dear Vaccine” National Poetry Project

• White Flags on the National Mall ( Counting USA covid deaths )
• Former John Looney Intern, Ellen Zielinski Visits Poland ( as
that country helps Ukrainians )
• Pictures From Poland
• More Pictures From Poland
• Transforming Weapons Into Art

• Keeping Hope Alive




Dr Martin Luther King Jr once said:
”EVERYTHING that is done in the world is done by ( with )
​ HOPE.”

✨⭐️💫🌟✨⭐️💫🌟✨⭐️💫🌟✨⭐️💫🌟✨⭐️💫🌟✨⭐️💫

“Two Bullets per Person” By Welling Hall

Please read an excellent article under Friends Journal.Org
September, 2022. Several art pieces are pictured with format
and materials described. We are not quoting here with respect
to copyright.

However several of artworks were influenced by these words:
...they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore.

​ MICAH 4:3

See article from July 2022 about JOHN LOONEY INTERN’S
travel to Poland & what she learned about support for Ukraine.

During September UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY President Biden
urges Nations to continue support for Ukrainians.


​⭐️💫🌟✨⭐️💫🌟✨⭐️💫🌟✨⭐️💫🌟✨⭐️💫🌟✨⭐️💫🌟

This spring our first ever John Looney intern made a trip to
Poland to visit Polish relatives that she met through her
genealogy research to find her family heritage. On her month
long visit Ellen spent time with her family while also witnessing
first hand the refugee crisis stemming from the war on Ukraine.

Over 3.6 million Ukrainian refugees have crossed into Poland,
where they are receiving housing, medical care, education
and benefits or are departing to other destinations. Ellen
could see the long lines of Ukrainians waiting for services
around the city at government offices. Many Polish people
are hosting Ukrainians in their homes. A family of 13 people
were living at a neighbor’s home in the rural village of
Lubowidz, the ancestral home of Ellen’s family. Ellen’s
genealogy researcher was also hosting a Ukrainian mother
and her daughter.

Many donation drives were underway and logistics points were
arranged by the city of Warsaw to transport goods and emergency
supplies to the front lines. Near the Central Train Station in
Warsaw a memorial had been set up to honor victims killed in
the war. The beautiful spring weather and Easter celebrations
were tempered by the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine, with
everyone concerned and shocked.

”Glory to Ukraine” was written on signs and banners around
the cities and Ukrainian flags were displayed along with Polish
flags on government buildings, homes and Warsaw’s tram
lines. Ellen plans to return regularly as long as the situation
in Poland remains stable.

Look for Pictures of Ellen’s travels in Poland on next month’s
​blog post.

A temporary art exhibit on the National Mall in Washington, DC
by artist Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg. She started exhibiting
in smaller outside places, first 500,000 then 660,000.

Firstenberg says,”So many of these deaths happened in isolation
without acknowledment. When I had the opportunity to bring
the flags to the National Mall...there was no hesitation. I know
I needed to do it.
I just felt as though someone had to do something to make a
statement that with all these people dying, we had to value
​these lives.”

See various stages of these white flags on google under
”white flags on the National Mall” most of the pictures have
been copyrighted.

I hope we can all bear witness to all who have left this planet
for another horizon.

​Now over one million Americans have died.

​☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️☮️

THE GLOBAL VACCINE POEM PROJECT is a collaboration
between the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University and
the University of Arizona Poetry Center.

Two years ago the model poem was written by Naomi Shihab
Nye and then she asked people everywhere to add a few lines.
She said, “ Don’t worry about rhyming, don’t worry about grammar,
don’t worry about spelling. Simply share your thoughts.”

This April 2022 Kent State University Press is releasing a
moving new collection of poetry penned by people around the
world sharing their experiences and responses to the pandemic.
DEAR VACCINE:GLOBAL VOICES SPEAK TO THE PANDEMIC
is a full color volume of over 150 submissions which come
from all states and 118 different countries.

A few new lines:
Creating meaning from hardship
Hope abundantly
Heal with humanity

​💫✨⭐️🌟💥💫✨⭐️🌟💥💫✨⭐️🌟💥💫✨⭐️🌟💥💫✨⭐️