Celebrate peace in September

     September is the celebration of the International Day of Peace. Sept. 21 was declared by the United Nations as a day devoted to

strengthening the ideals of peace, both within and among all nations and peoples, a cessation of hostilities during the day and to otherwise commemorate the day through education and public awareness on issues related to peace. The International Day of Peace offers an opportunity for the world to pause, reflect and consider how best to break the vicious cycle of violence that conflict creates.

     Many people have written about the effectiveness of active nonviolence as a response to violence. Nonviolence is a creative power for justice and the well-being of all that uses neither passivity nor violence. Perfect examples of the use of nonviolence include the actions of Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr. and most recently Malala Yousafzai. Nonviolent actions are acts of civil resistance that have helped subvert violence in the form of sit-ins, boycotts, peaceful demonstrations, and walks, to name just a few.

     Erica Chenoweth, an associate professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver and an associate senior researcher at the Peace Research Institute of Oslo. In her recent book Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict (New York: Columbia University Press, August 2011), she and co-author Maria J. Stephan state that nonviolence resistance defies consensus. Between 1900 and 2006, campaigns of nonviolent resistance were more than twice as effective as their violent counterparts. Attracting impressive support from citizens that helps separate regimes from their main sources of power, these campaigns have produced remarkable results, even in the contexts of Iran, the Palestinian Territories, the Philippines, and Burma.

     Learn more about what you can do to promote peace and nonviolence in your own life. Visit www.ClintonFranciscans.com.

       Lori Freudenberg

Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month

    I would like to share some information with your readers as September has been declared Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. I am a Johnson County resident.

     President Obama, whose mother died from the disease, has proclaimed September as National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. This month, window clings and awareness cards from the NormaLeah Ovarian Cancer Foundation are being displayed around our town by local businesses to bring awareness of ovarian cancer symptoms to women in our community.

     Ovarian cancer is a deadly and insidious disease — hard to detect, difficult to treat, and with no reliable screening test. Sadly, more than 80 percent of women are diagnosed after the disease has spread beyond the ovaries when the survival rate is less than 25 percent. Ovarian cancer is the most deadly of all gynecologic cancers, affecting 1 in 70 women. If detected in its early stages there is a 92 percent chance for a cure; but there are no early detection tests. In 2015 an estimated 22,000 women in the United States will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer and more than 14,000 women will die from it. Breast cancer survivors are at higher risk because of the BRCA genetic mutation.

     A Pap test does not detect ovarian cancer. Women without ovaries can develop the disease. Ovarian cancer can and does have symptoms. The symptoms are: Bloating, Eating less/feeling fuller, Abdominal/back pain, and Trouble with your bladder and bowels. Until reliable screening tests and better treatment methods are discovered, we must educate and empower women to be vigilant self-advocates for their own health.

     Our community is full of beautiful women. They are our mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts, grandmothers, and children. Thank you for helping us educate women about the symptoms of ovarian cancer.For more information about the NormaLeah Ovarian Cancer Foundation, visit their website at www.normaleah.org

Gina Kline