How can history be in our hands? As was said by the great anthropologist Margaret Mead, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

A small group of thoughtful and committed citizens came together in Ashland in 2012, with a focus to create an outstanding United Nations International Day of Peace on September 21, 2012. The following year, on Peace Day, they filled Westley Hall with 200 people celebrating a Feast For Peace and all in attendance agreed it was time to establish an ongoing, year-round Ashland Culture of Peace Commission.

David Wick and Irene Kai brought the seeds of a Culture of Peace from their years of work with Pathways To Peace, David since 1980. They were joined by Herb Rothschild, Eric Sirotkin, Patricia Sempowich, Kathleen Gamer and Elinor Berman in this quest. They explored, planned, and organized for two years while interacting with the Ashland City Council. A City Council proclamation embracing and encouraging a Culture of Peace community was unanimously approved on March 15, 2015 and the Ashland Culture of Peace Commission, a citizen’s commission, was launched in a community celebration on September 21, 2015.

The United Nations identifies a Culture of Peace as, “… a set of values, attitudes, traditions and modes of behavior and ways of life…” This is a broad anthropological sense of culture, and not a narrow popular sense such as music and art.

Our Mission is to challenge and shift our individual and community attitudes and beliefs from a Culture of War to a Culture of Peace. We believe this will lead to a shift in mindset and behaviors which will lead to systemic change.

We were ready! We found an office space in the center of downtown Ashland. The location has given ACPC increased visibility which has resulted in drop-in inquiries from pedestrian traffic and ease of use.  Through these inquiries, ACPC has grown its membership.

Within its first three months, ACPC developed a structure designed around eight areas of peace: Religion, Law, Habitat, Education, Business, Culture, Science and Environment.  To represent each of these areas, an Ashland citizen, known to have interest and background, was invited to become a Commissioner. Among the Commissioners are the Ashland Police Chief and The Ashland Tidings Editor. 

Cities are the real societal structural level where the Culture of Peace rubber meets the road. The individual person is always the bottom line in Peace and Peacebuilding daily choices, but it is the city that has the reach, authority, responsibility and influence to set the positive tone and direction for so many people. This can be done by beginning to use the Culture of Peace as a compass for guidance and a lens to see and understand differently.

The Ashland Culture of Peace Commission is truly a local-global initiative and grew organically with the strength of years of experience behind it. An initial step was to define what a Culture of Peace is in Ashland, in 2015, and create a vision. That vision became a world that works for all. And the vision of the Culture of Peace emerged as a community-wide movement dedicated to transforming our attitudes, behaviors, and institutions into ones that foster harmonious relationships with each other and the natural world.

With very skilled, inspired and dedicated volunteers, ACPC focused on engaging the community where conflict, disharmony and concern were emerging.  Parallel attention was given to providing community education in some of the fundamentals of communication and community building.

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