The University of Rochester community is invited to join members of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence in taking a pledge of nonviolence at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 15, at the Field House in the Goergen Athletic Center on the University's River Campus.
The pledge, which was created in observance of the annual A Season for Nonviolence, challenges community members to live a life of nonviolence and peace. Courtney Davis, a staff member at the Institute, says that on Tuesday, the pledge will be taken to honor Jeffrey Bordeaux Jr., who died following a fight on the River Campus on Saturday, Jan. 15.
The pledge reminds community members about the importance of listening, patience, forgiveness, respect, and courage in daily life and offers participants ways they can practice nonviolence or give back to the community, Davis explains. Members of the community who cannot attend Tuesday's event can sign the pledge in Wilson Commons on Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. near the Common Market, Thursday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Hirst Lounge, and on Friday from 9 a.m. to noon in the Hirst Lounge. The pledge also is on the Gandhi Institute's website and can be signed there.
Planned by the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence at the University of Rochester, along with a host of community partners, A Season for Nonviolence is the nationally celebrated 64-day period between the memorial anniversaries of the assassinations of Mohandas K. Gandhi on Jan. 30 and of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4. Launched in 1998 at the United Nations, the Season is a time to reflect upon the nonviolent practices of Gandhi and King. This year, Rochester will be one of almost 400 communities to participate.
For more information about A Season for Nonviolence and the pledge, e-mail Melissa Greco Lopes at mgrecolo@ur.rochester.edu