On June 18-20 the Peace Studies Program at the University of Maine presented an unusual peace conference that transcended the usual boundaries of such conferences. Eighty presenters on 24 panels and six keynote speakers addressed themselves to peace issues in front of 150 participants while about 100 pieces of art filled lobbies, corridors and rooms giving an additional esthetic dimension to the conference.

Themes of peace were explored in a rich variety of ways, from spirituality to art, storytelling, dance, native rights, veterans’ rights, compassionate living, hospice work, homelessness, restorative justice and reconciliation, Jewish-Islamic issues, cooperative movements and global activism. The conference included not only the works of twenty artists from all over Maine but also evening performances in storytelling, jazz and Native American music.

Although we were grateful to see a brief article on the Bangor Daily News religion page prior to the conference we saw no reporters attend nor were there any stories written in local papers during or after the conference. It is perplexing that this first international peace conference to be held in Maine gained so little media attention.

Thomas Turay, one of the keynote speakers, who is from Sierra Leone and teaches in Canada, told me that this was “the most powerful peace conference he had ever attended.” He commented on the many diverse views being expressed on non-violence. Thomas was one of six experts on peace who spoke eloquently on the violence confronting our communities and the world at large. Another speaker, Afaf Stevens, who is originally from Iraq, spoke with power and conviction of the need to work on east-west initiatives to reduce misunderstandings between America and Middle Eastern nations.

Sulak Sivaraksa, from Thailand, who has been twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, spoke with quiet intensity and insight about ways and means to resolve community and international conflict. Doug Allen addressed the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi for the 21st century.

Wayne Newell, who works on Native Studies curriculum in Maine, spoke in the Passamaquoddy language and translated a story from long ago concerning tribal conflicts and their resolution. Jonathan Wilson, from Hope magazine, presented examples of accountability between victims and perpetrators of crime. It is of considerable importance that voices such as these are heard, not just in conferences but in ways and means that reach the general public.

Perhaps I am remiss in not keeping up with daily newspaper and TV coverage of events, but it seems to me that there a general ignoring of peace issues. Although the media often do a wonderful job of informing the public of community events the general impression is that the media is so driven by ratings and sensationalism that a peace conference is not considered worthy of attention. This is too bad since numerous people who have since heard about the conference have e-mailed or called to express their eagerness to purchase videotapes or DVDs now in the process of being edited. These videotapes are being whittled down from more than 100 hours of discussion and talks to a two-hour educational video for on-line courses and for schools, libraries and others who are interested.

A few decades ago Marshall McLuhan gave us the famous phrase, “the media is the message.” More recently commentators who have examined violence in the media posed the question, “why is it that even adjusting for population differences the United States has 10 times the violent crimes involving guns that other developed nations have.”

Media scholars have noted that while violent crime has actually gone down over the past decade, the media has increased their coverage. The “media is the message” would suggest that TV and newspapers are not as objective as they pretend to be. They are actors in our communal dramas and may in fact exacerbate the very behavior they choose to cover. Rather than counteracting the violence being portrayed in film and television dramas media coverage actually accelerates the problems by skewing news programs to a segment of the public fascinated with violence as entertainment.

The speakers at our peace conference are determined to counteract violence. They are leading thinkers and activists in the field of non-violence and they presented guidelines that, if followed, would help create a culture of peace for our communities. It is our hope that when future events of this significance take place in the Bangor area the media will assume a more important role in re-presenting these peace events to the public.

Hugh Curran teaches in Peace Studies at the University of Maine and was the director, in association with Dr. Phyllis Brazee, of the International Peace Conference.