NFP State Board Member and legendary Civil Rights and peace activist, Lela Shanks, passed away on Monday, October 24 after a long struggle with cancer. Her memorial service will be held at 3:00 p.m. Sunday, October 30 at Saint Paul United Methodist Church, 1144 'M' Street in Lincoln. Reprinted below is the citation Nebraskans for Peace President Emeritus Paul Olson delivered when Lela was honored as NFP's 2008 'Peacemaker of the Year' for her lifetime of achievements in the cause of Peace & Justice.
Essential to the history of Nebraskans for Peace is its motto, “There is no peace without justice."
Lela Knox Shanks like her late husband, Hughes, lived that rule and she now lives it. Beginning in Oklahoma in the 30s, she experienced the most severe kind of segregation. She knew the price that depression and dust bowl poverty exacted from African-American and Caucasian alike in Oklahoma, and she has never forgotten about the wretched of the earth, white or black or brown or red, gay or straight. When she went to college in St. Louis she heard the myths about “the land of the free and the home of the brave” uttered by her professors as she lived in a fully segregated, caste society. She and her husband, Hughes, trained as a lawyer, married in 1947and stayed in St. Louis, hoping to avoid from Oklahoma’s racism. But, in St. Louis, they met with Missouri’s racism and the Missouri mantra, “We do not give employment applications to Negroes.”
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The executive director of the country’s largest Peace & Justice organization will be the featured speaker at the 2011 Annual Peace Conference Saturday, October 15 in Lincoln. Kevin Martin, who has directed the Washington, D.C.-based Peace Action and the Peace Action Education Fund since 2001, will speak on the all-too-timely topic of “Endless War, Endless Costs: The Crying Need to Change America’s Flawed Military & Economic Priorities.”
This year’s conference is again being jointly co-sponsored by the UNO Grace Abbott School of Social Work and Nebraskans for Peace and will be held at Trinity United Methodist Church, 7130 Kentwell Lane in Lincoln, from 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
To register, visit the nebraskansforpeace.org website and email us at nfpstate@nebraskansforpeace.org or contact the NFP State Office at 402-475-4620.
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sponsored by Nebraskans for Peace & UNO School of Social Work
Saturday October 15, 2011
9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Trinity United Methodist Church
7130 Kentwell Lane in Lincoln
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Last week, the NFP Lincoln Chapter trained the spotlight at a dirty little secret right in our own state capital: the growing problem of poverty among the city’s residents. The downturn in the economy, coupled with budget cuts to state and federal social services programs, is not only creating greater hardship for low-income people—it’s actually forcing families to the brink of hunger.
At the Lincoln Chapter’s December 7 program, Beatty Brasch, president of Lincoln’s “Center for People in Need,” discussed the findings of a just-released survey on local poverty. The Lincoln Journal Star article below provides an excellent account of Brasch’s report, plus possible ideas for combating this problem that threatens to become epidemic. North Omaha, for instance, now has the dishonor of being the top-ranking poverty city in the U.S.
Nebraskans for Peace urges other chapters and members throughout the state to host similar forums in their home communities. America’s economic struggles are set to worsen—not improve—in the days ahead, and as always, it’s always the poor of society who suffer the brunt of the pain.
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Membership in NFP is a badge of honor. After 40 years, we have about 1,800 members scattered across the state—which is impressive, when you consider that most Vietnam-era Peace & Justice groups don’t even exist anymore. We, though, need twice as many members if we are to be an effective force. 1,800 is just 1 in every 1,000 citizens in the state.
We have to double that number if we hope to be an influential voice in shaping Nebraska’s political debate on war, peace and justice. One surefire way to boost our member rolls this holiday season is with gift memberships to NFP.
You know other people who think as you do on NFP issues. This past year, for instance, I purchased ten memberships for friends who I believe to be prime ‘candidates’ for membership in‘the country’s oldest statewide Peace & Justice organization.’
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