Some day together we may reap the harvest

Some day, together, we may reap the harvest in a world that thinks of violence only as the last resort, not the first option, . . . or the best.

Violence is a rapidly escalating epidemic, with disability and death rates surpassing cancer, heart disease, AIDS, and many other diseases. Violence is a public health problem, as well as a criminal justice problem, demanding a solution involving the entire community. - Dr. Louis Sullivan U. S. Secretary of Health & Human Services

It should be a parent’s role to teach a child how to manage anger and conflict -- not a school’s. But many children are growing up in violent homes where the parents don’t have these skills either. . And you can’t pummel peace into a child. . And you can’t scream about respecting other people.

In our current social models, power is usually defined as how to control other people rather than how to control oneself and empower other people. - Cordelia Anderson, consultant Sensibilities, Inc. .

Violent heroes are more harmful than even violent villains. Children imitate more often the characters whom they like and find most appealing. - Dr. Joseph Strayhorn, child psychiatrist Medical College of Pennsylvania.

“Now back on the street and my records are clean I creeped on my bitch with my UZI machine Went to the house and kicked down the door Unloaded like hell, cold smoked the ho’. ” - from rap song “Eazy Duz It, ” by Eazy E

“Ice Cube will swarm on any M---F---er in a blue uniform A young nigger on the warpath And when I finish it’s gonna be a blood-bath. ” from rap song “F--- the Police, ” by N. W. A. (Niggers With Attitude)

“Urging young black males to challenge the authority of the police in their communities is, to my way of thinking, a way of encouraging black suicide. . We in the black community who oppose violence need to provide counter-messages. We need to support the artistic and musical efforts of those who turn away from violence, and we need to convince record companies who have grown rich on rap music that they have a responsibility to develop a broad spectrum of black talent with varying points of view. - Deborah Prothrow-Stith, MD in her book, Deadly Consequences.

The average television program contains 5 acts of violence per hour, the average children’s program shows 25 acts of violence per hour. - Center for Media & Public Affairs

All television is educational. The question is, what is it teaching? ”

If television can sell products, and indeed billions of dollars are spent each year in belief that television does influence human behavior, then it can sell images and values. - Noel Holston, television critic Minneapolis Star Tribune

Children who have witnessed domestic abuse have lower verbal, cognitive, and motor skills than children who have not. - Children of Battered Women, Bonnie Westra and Harold Martin, Maternal-Child Nursing Journal, 1984.

The average child is likely to have watched 8, 000 screen murders and more than 100, 000 acts of violence by the end of elementary school. By the end of the teenage years, that figure will double. - Media & Values, Summer, 1993

“You stupid bitch! You just lost nine bills on that trick you blew off!” - “Walker, Texas Ranger” television show

“Of course, some children watch less television than the average, and others, most often those growing up in poverty watch much more. Young males growing up in poverty, in homes that lack nonviolent male role models, are the most vulnerable to television’s violencepromoting message. Boys like this may never get to see an adult man restrain his anger or control his own violent impulses. They may never experience nonviolent discipline. They may never have the chance to see an adult man or woman resolve disputes effectively and assertively, using nonviolent strategies. Boys living in these circumstances are the ones most susceptible to television’s message that heroes use violence to serve their purposes. ” - Deborah Prothrow-Stith, MD Assistant Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health

The argument that violence on TV merely reflects violence in society is rebutted by the fact that since 1955, TV characters have been murdered at a rate of 1, 000 times higher than real world victims. - “Attacking Violence” by Britt Robson Mpls / St. . Paul Magazine, November 1992

The violence on television is clean. The protracted hospitalization, suffering, rehabilitation, and long-term physical and emotional consequences are rarely shown. Televised violence therefore appears to offer an acceptable and rapid means of conflict resolution without negative consequences. The American Academy of Pediatrics contends that violent television serves sponsors, not the children of this country. Violent television is not in the public interest. - Dr. Lillian M Beard, speaking on behalf of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Medical Association in testimony to the US Senate.

Abused children are six times more likely than nonabused children to become abusive parents themselves. - Current Trends in Child Abuse Reporting and Fatalities: The Results of the 1993 Annual Fifty State Survey, National Committee for the Prevention of Child abuse, Chicago, IL, 1993.

• 14 kids die each day as a result of a violent act. Our nation’s young people. . . babies to teenagers … are dying as a result of accidental shootings, child abuse, gang fights, drug deals, drunk driving, and suicide.

• More than 2, 000 students are physically attacked on school grounds each hour. • One-half of all violent crimes against teenagers occurs in school buildings, on school property.

• In 1990, the nation experienced a record juvenile violent crime arrest rate. Between 1980 and 1990 murder increased 85% and aggravated assault by 64%. And here in Minneapolis in 1995 we had a recordbreaking 98 homicides.

Today’s program is dedicated to the victims of violence all over the world.

Our Seven Guiding Principles

1. We will keep the campaign very SIMPLE. We want to educate people about: a) The negative influence of the media on attitudes about the acceptability of violence; b) Legal, safe, and positive ways of resolving conflict.

2. Turn Off the Violence operates as a COALITION. The coalition offers the strengths of shared knowledge, shared resources and shared purpose.

3. Turn Off the Violence ADDRESSES ALL FORMS OF VIOLENCE. As a coalition, Turn Off the Violence asks people to turn off violence in all its ugly forms -- physical violence, sexual violence, verbal violence, violence in entertainment, family violence, gang violence, hate crimes, and playground violence.

4. Turn Off the Violence is INCLUSIVE OF MANY GROUPS. Because no fragment of society has been left untouched by violence, we believe it is important to involve as many groups and populations as possible.

5. Turn Off the Violence is a GRASSROOTS campaign. We encourage active participation by members and interested individuals in all phases of planning and implementation.

6. Turn Off the Violence is NOT A CENSORSHIP project. “A book whose sale’s forbidden, all men rush to see… and censorship turns one reader into three!” ~ old Italian proverb

7. Turn Off the Violence is A FIRST STEP.

Violence is a learned behavior. It can be unlearned.

Grup Scolar “Constantin Cantacuzino” Baicoi-Romania Zakladna Skola Pavla Marceliho, Bratislava- Slovacia