Mom works for big goal: world peace

By Cathy Free
Deseret Morning News
Published: Thursday, March 9, 2006 9:19 a.m. MST
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Several years ago, when Deb Sawyer was writing letters to Congress to put an end to nuclear testing, her son Jason asked, "Mom, do you really think your little group matters? Do you really think you're going to make any difference?"

Deb thought about the question for a moment, then told her son, "Maybe not. But there are lots of little groups all over. Together, maybe we can make a difference."

Her son, now a teenager and the only "non-hippie" in the house, has learned to live with piles of mail addressed to politicians and dinnertime talk that centers on peace walks, alternatives to violence and the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Now Deb is hoping the rest of us might learn a thing or two from her nonprofit group, the Gandhi Alliance for Peace. For the past eight years, the small Utah club has brought Mahatma Gandhi's teachings to local schools and reached out to people in war-ravaged countries.

Currently, Deb and her friends are raising funds to help villagers in Afghanistan, a country littered with millions of land mines and unexploded ordnance. Through the "Adopt-a-Minefield" program, land is being cleared so war refugees can find a safe place to resettle.

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"When you go to Afghanistan, it's very distressing to see how many people have lost arms and legs to land mines," says Deb, 56. "And now, since the United States bombed the country, there are unexploded cluster bombs everywhere. It's a terrible mess."

A shell from one of those cluster bombs sits on Deb's bookcase — a souvenir from her recent trip to Afghanistan and a reminder that her group has much work to do. Hoping to share the mission of the Gandhi alliance, Deb recently asked me to meet her for a Free Lunch of Middle Eastern appetizers at Mazza, her favorite restaurant.

Her eyes light up when she talks about the legacy of Gandhi, the beloved peacemaker from India who tirelessly sought his country's freedom from British rule.

"I admire his commitment, his openness," she says. "There's a favorite saying that I associate with Gandhi: 'We are all blind men, touching an elephant.' That is so true, isn't it? We all see things differently. But in spite of our differences, we need to keep the conversation going."

Deb, who became involved in the peace movement as a college physics student, now devotes much of her time training teachers how to incorporate Gandhi's philosophies into history and geography lessons.

"Our kids aren't being taught non-violence," she says. "Their images of bravery are of people standing up to violence with more violence. We want to teach them that there's another way."

Deb says children enjoy learning about "that cool little bald guy" who tirelessly spread the message that "an eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind." They sit up and pay attention when she tells how Gandhi endured serious beatings rather than resort to violence, and when Deb recalls her favorite scene from "Gandhi," the movie: "I am Moslem, I am Hindu, I am Christian and I'm a Jew — and so are you," Gandhi tells a Hindu man who is angry at him for supporting Moslems.

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