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OUR MISSION

Yes We Can Peacebuilders is dedicated to the education of individuals and communities on the path to nonviolence so as to inspire and engage people to make nonviolent living a part of their everyday lives.

VISION STATEMENT

We envision a culture of peace in a community that fosters respect for all individuals, collaborating to eliminate economic discrimination, poverty, homelessness, racial and sexual discrimination, stereotyping, harassment, bullying, gangs, killing, war, and environmental degradation.

Morro Bay Gets a Peace Proclamation

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Singing in a Sound Bath
By
Ruth Ann Angus

The mists of drifting fog swept up against the bulk of Morro Rock and spread over the top of the dome, finally dissipating in the sunlight. The Rock loomed large through the huge picture window at Let’s Get Tuned Sound Bath & Yoga Studio. I came that day with a request, not knowing I was to encounter a sound bath session open for free to the community. Twenty-plus people entered, shed their shoes, and spread their mats on the floor of the large room where several gong instruments of various sizes hung on supports along the sides of two windows and five sound bowls rested in front of the largest gong. Jon, our guide with sound for that day, welcomed us and led us into a full experience with sound.

 

It was not my first time listening to the lyrical tones of the sound bowls but was my first time hearing the gongs. These instruments are round and come in a variety of sizes and are decorated in lines of muted greens, browns, black, and red colors. Each has its own tune, most in the lower registers. Depending on the player’s pressure on the bands of the gong with the padded baton is the result you hear. But hearing isn’t all that is affected. The different intensities evoke a different feeling in the body. When the largest gong of about four feet in height and width was played, the tone pulsed through the room. I thought to myself how important sound is to our well-being. This sound bath had my soul singing!

 

Song has been missing from the peace movement for a long time now, and greatly missed from protest actions. It was song that led me into peace activities during the explosives 1960s and early 1970s. Folksingers sang songs originally written for and about war and famine and human rights down from history both in the old world and new. New topical songs were written and learned and sung at rallies and demonstrations. Groups singing together experienced a strengthening of unity and purpose and in some cases, singing was the only thing that brought about bravery and removed fear. Why isn’t it used widely now?

 

As I sat in the studio mellowed out and feeling wonderful, I realized the value of certain types of sound. Not just singing songs but experiencing the depth of the tones emanating from the artifacts being played. Buddhist monks use a variety of similar items in their practice and I remembered the sound of the huge Peace Bell in the Japanese Gardens at the United Nations headquarters in New York. This Buddhist Temple Bell was gifted to the UN by Japan in 1954 and is wrung only twice a year, on the first day of spring and on International Peace Day, September 21st every year. This was the reason I had come to Let’s Get Tuned that day.

 

The words let’s get tuned resonate with the need that humanity has for finding the inner spirit. As I listened to the comments of the attendees of the day’s sound bath, I heard that some had traveled from towns far away from Morro Bay to take part in this sound experience, some for the first time. I saw and heard the need people have for reaching into their spirit for sustenance and renewal. I knew right away I found the right place to hold this year’s Celebration of Peace for International Peace Day – Let’s Get Tuned Action for Peace Morro Bay 2024!

 

We will sing!  We will chant.! We will clap! We will listen to the Sound Bowls and the Gong! It is all “song” and we will bring song back to the peace movement – Saturday, September 21, 2024.

 

“All we are saying, is give peace a chance.”

To see the Peace & Planet for Earth Day 2024 event and the establishment of the Morro Bay Peace Garden go to Get Involved and click on Peace Week Actions.

Peace Prevails at the Del Mar Peacekeepers Sunshine Spreaders Thanks to Sponsoring by Morro Bay Rotary Club

BY

Ruth Ann Angus

Ten 4th graders at the Del Mar Elementary School of Morro Bay, CA welcomed me on November 2nd to tell me about their new club the “Sunshine Spreaders.” Wearing lanyards inscribed with the words Del Mar Peacekeepers they told me they have the desire to “change the world.” After seeing the Peace Picket that I brought along with me as a gift to the group, they decided they would like to construct more of them to sell as a Holiday Project. With help from the Rotary Club of Morro I ordered in all the supplies for them to make up 24 Peace Pickets and they got busy!

 

Susan Stephens, their faculty coordinator said the kids had a blast doing this and it is evident from the results of the brightly painted and decorated pickets. Sales have been brisk since they set up a table in the lobby of the school and now plans are to keep this peace project going even after the holiday season. Hopes are to blanket Morro Bay (and maybe other towns too) with a Peace Picket in every yard.

HOW WE HELP

It Starts With the Will to Make a Difference

A Peace Proclamation for Morro Bay, CA

Ruth-Ann-and-group-with-may.jpg

On September 11, 2018,Yes We Can Peacebuilders accepted a proclamation of peace and nonviolence from the mayor and city council of Morro Bay, California establishing Morro Bay as a Nonviolent City. In September 2022 a second peace proclamation from the current mayor and city council was accepted by Peacebuilders strengthening the City of Morro Bay's dedication to peace and nonviolence through the Nonviolent City Project. The Nonviolent City Project is a grassroots movement that organizes strategy for activists to work for the transformation of their community into a peaceful, nonviolent city. This is a shift in consciousness to work holistically with every sector of the city to establish a culture of peace.

International Peace Day
Kids from the Childrens Center at EBUMC around the peace pole.jpg

Every year we join with national and international groups to celebrate the Nonviolent Cities Project of Pace e Bene International Peace Day.  Here youngsters from Children's Center preschool join hands around the peace pole.

WORKSHOPS

Giving a Speech

Workshops and Talk Around the Table discussion groups are offered on the Central Coast of California. Click on the picture to go to the Workshops and Training Page.

Yes We Can Peacebuilders imparts nonviolent principles as related by Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.  Please check out our page SATYA to read our monthly newsletters.

 

For more information on nonviolence study workshops and discussion groups email ruthannangus@yeswecanpeacebuilders.org.

Yes We Can Peacebuilders supports social justice and humanitarian organizations in nonviolence actions.

What's Happening Now.. 

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