Peace Trainer

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Detroit native Marshall Rosenberg helps the world communicate without violence.

riots. They [the government] brought troops back
[from Europe] from the war to stop these. My
family couldn't go outside of the house for four
days."
t was 8-year-old Marshall Rosenberg's first
The riots, along with the anti-Semitism he expe-
day of school at Longfellow Elementery in
rienced both in school and later at the University
Detroit. He heard the teacher read his name
of Michigan (he was refused admission to a frater-
aloud, and then a boy nearby turned to him and
nity because, he was told ; "we can't let Jews in
said, 'Are you a kike?"
here,"), are still as sharp and as fresh for Marshall
"I didn't even know what that word meant,"
Rosenberg as the moment they
Rosenberg says.
happened.
After school, the boy caught up
He knew little of what it
with Rosenberg and taunted him yet
meant to be a Jew because his
again. And then again and again and
family didn't practice Judaism,
again.
he says. What he did know was
"That's just what it was like,"
that if some people found out
Rosenberg says today. "It was built
you were Jewish, they hated you.
into the neighborhood."
Prejudice, Rosenberg believes,
Sixty-two years later, Marshall
has simply become part of
Rosenberg still hears anti-Semitism
human nature. "This kind of
and racism and sexism and every kind
thinking has been built into
of hatred out there. But now he
us." The examples of hatred
knows how to fight back — with
that many like to think is tidily
non-violence.
confined to the past — blatent
Rosenberg is the founder of and
anti-Semitism and racism
director of educational services for
"still happen all the time.
the Center for Nonviolent
But, like philosopher Tielhard
Communication (CNVC). Based in
de Chardin, Rosenberg is confident
California, the nonprofit organization Marshall Rosenberg:
"See another's humanness." that prejudical violence is "but a
has branches throughout the world.
small snag in our development."
Rosenberg, whose books include
After attending college for a year
Nonviolent Communication: A
in Michigan, Rosenberg studied at the University
Language of Life and Speaking Peace, has traveled
as far as Malaysia, India, Austria and France, help- of Wisconsin, from which he holds a Ph.D. in
clinical psychology. He then became active in the
ing others learn how to peacefully resolve conflicts.
civil rights movement, when he began implement-
A key to the future: children.
ing his ideas for resolving all kinds of conflicts,
"My passion is schools," he says, which need to
and specifically addressing issues of segregation,
be "radically transformed. We need to work with
without using violence.
teachers, parents and students to change the struc-
ture from one of competitiveness to one of inter-
dependence."
After living in West Virginia and Ohio, Marshall Stay Connected To Values
One of the most important steps in Rosenberg's
Rosenberg moved with his mother and father, an
approach to nonviolence is "keeping connected to
itinerant worker, to Detroit. Marshall's mother's
your own values." No matter how long or how
family lived in the city and said that thanks to the
hard you are taunted, you cannot give in. This is
war effort, plenty of work could be found. But
as true for the terrorist who insists the "only way"
this was 1943, and the city was steaming with
he can be heard is through a gun as for the parent
hatred within. Race riots would erupt soon after
who is so tired and frustrated the only way he can
the Rosenbergs came here.
"We were living at 12th and Wilson, right in the deal with his child, he says, is to smack him.
If you remain determined not to be violent,
heart of a rough area," Rosenberg says. "Thirty.
people were killed in my neighborhood during the Rosenberg says, you won't find excuses to "give in."

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
AppleTree Editor

I

"

Jim

5/26

2005

34

Rosenberg, who has three children, recalls when
his son, Rick, went to school only to be greeted by
a teacher: "My, my, look at the little girl." (Rick
had long hair.)
"So, what did you do?" Rosenberg asked his boy.
Rick had not given in. Instead of screaming, or
retorting with some smart answer, or socking the
teacher in the mouth, Rick paused. He told his
father: "Actually, I felt sorry for him. The guy was
bald, so he probably had a problem with hair."
To be nonviolent, you need to understand lan-
guage, Rosenberg says. This has nothing to do
with whether you speak Spanish, but instead deal-
ing with words and silences and what is not spo-
ken.
"You have to be able to see another's human-
ness," Rosenberg says. "No matter how people act ;
try to hear how they're feeling, and what they
need."
Rosenberg spends much of his time working in
the most troubled regions of the world, like
Ireland, Bosnia, Serbia and Israel, where he has
been teaching nonviolence for the past 16 years.
He especially likes working with teachers at
schools "in Palestine," he says. "I'm never treated
with greater respect and love than when I'm in
Palestine."
He's optimistic peace will eventually come to the
area; "the question is, how many will die before
that happens?"
When Rosenberg was a boy, when other school
children called him a kike, he would go home and
talk to his family, many of whom had escaped
Russia under the czar. "Just be glad you're not liv-
ing in Germany," they said to him, "or else you
would be put in an oven."
As an adult, Rosenberg travels to Germany,
where he is "more excited about our training than
in any other country." He likes being there,
because it reminds him how different things are
now than when he was little.
He went to Germany, "and it really hit me," he
says. "I had a wonderful feeling, because I never
imagined that I could go there safely when I was a
child."
That's just the kind of hope, the kind of change,
that sustains Marshall Rosenberg in a world filled
with so much darkness.
"I get great energy from seeing the real people,"
he says. "It keeps my spirit up. I know there does-
n't have to be violence. ❑