The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF) is traveling the world this year, educating and advocating for a peaceful world, free of nuclear weapons. NAPF is based in Santa Barbara.

Last week, Rick Wayman, NAPF deputy director, spoke at the University of San Diego’s Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice Theatre where he shared his thoughts on the dangers connected to nuclear weapons and the hopeful efforts to abolish them.

“When I was 23, I attended an event at which two survivors of the Hiroshima atomic bombing described their experiences,” he said. “I was deeply moved, and knew that I had to be involved in making change.

“The voices of survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, of people impacted by nuclear weapons testing in the Marshall Islands, Australia, Kazakhstan, and right next door in Nevada, tell an unmistakable story about what nuclear weapons do, and what they are designed to do.”
 
Wayman also spoke about the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons for its efforts to advance the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons:

“ … NAPF played a key role in negotiating this landmark treaty and has been working with cities and states across the nation to pass resolutions calling on our national government to embrace the treaty and make nuclear disarmament the centerpiece of national security policy,” he said.

It is this work that gives Wayman hope for a peaceful future.

While Wayman was advocating in California, Paul K. Chappell, the foundation’s peace literacy director, was in Vincennes, Ind., speaking to business leaders, students and faculty about the importance of conflict resolution and finding meaning and purpose in life.

Chappell, a graduate of West Point, and a U.S. Army veteran who served a tour of duty in Iraq, is the author of a series of books aimed at “waging peace” in a social media-driven world.

Chappell urged those who attended his 90-minute seminar to begin healing themselves by respecting those around them.

“The vast majority of conflicts stem from people feeling disrespected,” he said. “And listen — listen with empathy because nobody ever said, ‘I can’t stand it when people listen to me.’”

Chappell, travels the globe to build the peace literacy movement. Last week, he was at Oregon State University in Corvallis co-teaching a class on the principles of peace literacy.

In April, he’ll present workshops at the Youth Peace Institute in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. In May, he’ll be in Oakland giving the keynote speech to Alternatives to Violence National Gathering.

In Santa Barbara, Chappell will present his message of peace and conflict resolution on Saturday, June 8, at the Santa Barbara Mission. His talk is called A New Peace Paradigm: Trauma, Technology and Humanity’s Future.

NAPF will hold its 18th Annual Frank K. Kelly Lecture on Humanity’s Future, 7-8:30 p.m. Thursday, May 9, at Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum in Santa Barbara.

The event speaker is Elaine Scarry, Harvard professor, award-winning social theorist and international lecturer on nuclear war, law, literature, and medicine. Her lecture, which is free to attend. is called Thermonuclear Monarchy and a Sleeping Citizenry.

She will examine the alarming power of one leader to annihilate millions by launching a nuclear weapon, arguing that this power is at odds with the principles of democracy. For more information on this event, visit wagingpeace.org/2019-kelly-lecture.

— Sandy Jones for Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.