In Violent Times, Legislators Advance Peace
In an effort to avoid tragedies like today’s school shooting in Illinois, state senators adopted Senate Bill 2902 yesterday.
The bill requires the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace at University of Hawai`i-Manoa to expand its staff, research and operations.
“We live in an era that will be remembered for the war in Iraq and violence in our schools and neighborhoods, as in the case of the Virginia Polytechnic and State University killings,” Senate Education Committee Chair Norman Sakamoto said in a report dated Feb. 12. “The legislature continues in its dedication to promoting peace and peace education in Hawai`i through supporting peace education programs.”
This afternoon, a gunman killed five students, wounded 16 others and then killed himself at Northern Illinois University. The incident was the fourth shooting at a U.S. school within one week.
“We are living in unsettled times and it is essential that our students learn how to recognize and address conflict before it leads to tragic consequences,” Matsunaga Institute for Peace’s Interim Director Carole Petersen said today.
Petersen said that the institute’s graduates will go on to be professional mediators or will apply their conflict resolution skills to careers in education, social services, government or business.
Senate Bill 2902 also provides $10,000 for Hawai`i case studies in peacemaking in the 2008-2009 school year and for planning an international conflict resolution conference in the Asia Pacific Region.