Chico Peace and Justice Center

October 20, 2008

As part of the year long Book In Common program, the Chico Peace and Justice Center was happy to co-sponsor with the CSCU Peace Institute speaker and author Azim Khamisa. Khamisa's talk, RESTORATIVE JUSTICE: A NEW PARADIGM FOR SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION, explores nonviolent responses to violent and costly, anti-social behavior. In 1995, months before he was to be married, Khamisa's only son was murdered by a 14 year old gang member in Southern California.

Khamisa's restorative justice theme connects with the experiences Greg Mortenson recounts in his book Three Cups of Tea - Mortenson's project of building schools in rural Afghanistan and Pakistan offers a path to a better future and a way of reconstructing meaning in lives ground down by poverty and hopelessness. Khamisa's message is similar. By responding to violence with understanding, and by choosing nonviolence, social transformation can result, even from tragedies like the murder of one's child.