PAT 2011: Lighting the Torches

by Kaeley Pruitt-Hamm:

It was the 1st day of the 2nd week of the Peace Activist Trainee (PAT) program, their 5th day knowing each other, and their 1st time stepping foot into a City Council meeting. But they stood their ground firmly as they presented a  message (equipped with a pie chart of survey results they had gathered) asserting their own call for peace and public rights as “the future generation of taxpayers.” Seven high school students arrived with passion and energy at the July 11th Seattle City Council meeting supporting Councilman Nick Licata’s resolution to reduce and redirect U.S. war spending. The tone was set for this year’s PATs: they were going to be active activists. The PAT program, funded largely by the Abe Keller Peace Education Fund, aims to equip the next generation of peace workers with the tools of the trade – from nonviolence training to racial justice education to public speaking.

     The program has evolved over its 11 years, and each year adds its own unique activities. This year included the regular staples of the program – from giving public speeches on a soapbox near Pike Place to conducting a survey at Westlake Center – but there were exciting new flairs, including the presentation at the City Council meeting. Several main themes made this year special: the PAT program’s relationship with the Bring Our  Billions Home (BOBH) campaign, the group’s self- constructed project, and the use of international communications technology. This year’s group project focused on water rights. The PAT’s public event included a film screening and discussion of the movie FLOW, as well as a collaborative art activity, in which people helped create a “Who Deserves Water?” banner. The PATs also walked in front of the Greenwood neighborhood parade with their banner and gathered signatures on a petition to make water a human right.

The PATs were able to have an online video conversation via Skype with Ivan Marovic, one of the leaders of Otpor (the student group that helped overthrow Milosevic from power in Serbia in 2000), and who helped trained leaders of Egypt’s January 25th [2011] revolution in Tahrir Square. Ivan spoke directly to the students, giving them advice on how to frame their message about water rights and chuckling about the “dilemma actions” (a.k.a. pranks) that Otpor had carried out to stump the police and administration.

The 2011 PATs had the amazing opportunity that I was given to learn from mentors such as seasoned activists Mike and Ruth Yarrow and Ellen Finkelstein; they were able to hear from younger activists such as Ivan; and they were also able to feel like global citizens who are part of movements happening now. As an “older” young person attempting to learn with the fellow peace activists around me, I am glad that this year’s PATs and I decided that this program, and intergenerational work in general, is not about the older generation passing the torch to the younger batch. It is about the current flames lighting the others’ torches and keeping the passion for peace burning strong in all of us.