Peace studies educator Arthur Romano stopped by Torp Theatre Tuesday to speak with students and faculty about his hopes for a world where violence is nonexistent and people have a tolerance for all other cultures.
“The state of the world is such that we really do face great challenges,” said Romano at the discussion sponsored by the Mosaic Center and CCSU Lambda Theta Phi fraternity.
Although the turnout of attendees at Torp was a small gathering of people, Romano kept a positive outlook, saying it was like speaking to a family.
Romano opened his lecture with how economics can be a disruptive force in societies.
Romano cited statistics such as 43.6 million people in the United States live in poverty according to a 2009 Census Bureau study, and 22 percent of the world’s plants are endangered according to a study done by Britain’s Botanic Gardens and London’s Natural History Museum.
In the modern day people think they fully understand the system of the world, but the components of what makes up that world are highly unpredictable, says Romano. He continued to say that this ignorance allows the world to be controlled by free markets with consumers who believe they’re helping to create a utopia, but may not be so.
In order to wake up attendees during the mid-afternoon rainy day, a civil rights movement song prominently sung during the 1960s was led by Victoria Christgau, director of the Connecticut Center for Nonviolence who made an appearance to help answer questions about peace studies. The song titled, “Woke Up This Morning With My Mind on Freedom,” was given an enthusiastic rendition with audience members clapping and singing along to Christgau’s voice.
“In the civil rights movement, singing was as important as any action they took,” said Christgau.
Christgau then spoke on Dr. Martin Luther King’s six principles of nonviolence, which are that nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people, to always seek friendship, fight the forces of injustice, accept suffering without retaliation for the sake of achieving a goal, avoid internal violence and that the universe is on the side of justice.
“The existential reality is that we [the world] have six billion people and growing,” said Romano.
Although people may get angry and want to “get rid” of or never see again the people they dislike, they must learn to tolerate others and learn to accept them for who they are, said Romano.
Romano showed a “pyramid of hate” that had the worst possible scenario of violence being genocide listed at the top, and other forms like discrimination and stereotyping down below. Although the pyramid outlines hurtful issues, Romano says it illustrates well how hatred can grow.
The speech ended with Romano looking back on how globalization allows the philosophies of spiritual teachers to travel around the world and reach places no one would imagine possible.
Romano is an international educator of nonviolence who has spoken many times at the United Nations. In 2004, he received the Rotary World Peace Fellowship for his studies with conflict resolutions, according to his website biography.