World Leaders Can Stop Conflicts By Following Guidelines For Children - Julie Penshorn, Children's Book Author And Director Of Smart Tools For Life Issues Statement

Smart Tools for Life specializes in books and music to guide children to peace literacy through social emotional learning and conflict resolution skills during their formative years

The United States and North Korea appear to be on a collision course. The rhetoric escalates day after day, reminiscent of those schoolyard situations that start with name-calling or sand-kicking and often escalate to something worse. This is nothing new. What is new is that these two nations are not threatening to use sticks or stones or fists - the threat includes the use of nuclear weapons.

Julie Penshorn, children's book author and CEO of Smart Tools For Life, is an expert in conflict resolution and anger management skills and techniques for children. She recently issued a statement that demonstrates that the basic skills we teach to small children are essential to adult interactions. These skills can routinely be practiced in every aspect of life: the home, the classroom, the workplace, and on the international level, to create trust, transform conflict, and enhance relationships.

"As we watch with worry the escalating rhetoric between the United States and North Korea, it’s easy to see that the two leaders involved are not working to gain the trust of each other," Penshorn stated. "They are refusing to become conflict 'partners' committed to working out their disagreements in a way that preserves the dignity and safety of each party/nation.

“Neither President Trump nor Kim Jong Un demonstrate that they know how to stop and  breathe, the first step in our simple conflict resolution process, detailed in the new children’s book, 'The Barnyard Buddies STOP for Peace.' Instead, they are putting untold numbers of people at risk,” continue Penshorn.

Writing for CNN last week, Adam Mount, a senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, said, ". . . If the Trump administration can cease its careless threats, the US and its allies could begin a real conversation" about ways to improve the situation.

Penshorn said it doesn’t matter what your politics are; conflict is non-partisan. Life is much more peaceful when people use an effective conflict resolution process.

"We all have experienced the unhappy, frightening, or even dangerous situations resulting from conflicts where one, both, or all parties is clearly dangerous. If we reflect on those times, they usually are very similar: someone won’t stop his or her actions long enough to breathe and honestly examine how emotions like fear and anger are taking control from intelligent thought.

“Harvey Weinstein reportedly was asked many times to ‘Stop!’ Many of the women saying ‘me too’ also asked their accosters to stop,” Penshorn reminds us.

A new NBC News and Wall Street Journal poll shows that 48 percent of currently employed women in the United States say that they have suffered an unwelcome sexual advance or verbal or physical harassment at work.

“These actions are foreign in an atmosphere of caring and mutual respect such as we seek to develop in our classroom communities and our larger world,” said Penshorn. “Social and emotional learning is becoming an accepted part of preschool and elementary schools precisely so that we can learn to interact more successfully with others.

“So, while emotions give us important information and should not be discounted, they should not be acted upon without a period of thoughtful reflection and ‘cooling off,’ or, stopping,” summarized Penshorn.

In Penshorn’s new children’s book, “The Barnyard Buddies STOP for Peace,” the Barnyard Buddies start with the letter S – which stands for STOP and breathe, and then go through a complete conflict resolution process using the letters S-T-O-P.

This process, which works equally well for adults, according to Penshorn, continues to an examination of feelings and concerns of each party, through brainstorming solutions and ends with making a plan. The stated goal is to enhance relationships, develop creativity, and recognize that conflict doesn’t have to be a win/lose or, as in the case of Korea and the US, a lose/lose proposition.

The full statement can be viewed at http://www.smarttoolsforlife.com.

Author Julie Penshorn, MBC, is a co-director of the nonprofit, Growing Communities for Peace and director of its Smart Tools for Life project. Penshorn co-authored an earlier curriculum on conflict resolution, complete with hands-on-learning tools, that is in use in over 13,000 locations. Now, she’s focusing her unique talents on children’s books and music and a blog-based approach to supporting peace literacy and building a culture of peace.

The Smart Tools for Life products include kids’ books and music, conflict resolution cubes to help children express their feelings, and wearables. There is also a free, downloadable coloring page for kids, based on the flagship children's book, 'The Barnyard Buddies Stop For Peace.'

Penshorn is now making this book and music, and other unpublished books available for corporate sponsorships and as fundraising tools for like-minded schools and preschools. She asks that anyone who would like to learn more contact her by email.

Author Julie Penshorn is available for media interviews and can be reached using the information below or by email at julie@smarttoolsforlife.com. More information about the books, music and other products is available on the website at http://www.smarttoolsforlife.com.

About Smart Tools for Life:

Smart Tools for Life is an ongoing project of the nonprofit, Growing Communities for Peace. It serves parents and educators by providing children’s books and children’s music, and makes it easy and engaging to bring state-of-the-art social skills like peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding, to young children, thereby encouraging more harmonious, sustainable relationships with others and the planet.

Their materials are designed to develop peace literacy as they educate, entertain, and empower all those involved to strengthen families, classrooms, and neighborhoods. They also provide other teacher and parent education to support and maintain a culture of peace.

Contact:
Julie Penshorn
julie@smarttoolsforlife.com
http://www.smarttoolsforlife.com
http://www.growingcommunitiesforpeace.org

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US Department Of Peace Could Help Avert Nuclear War With North Korea - Award Winning Author Frances Fuller Issues Statement

Fuller spent many years in the Middle East. She puts a face on the Middle East many Americans have not yet seen. Her award-winning memoir, 'In Borrowed Houses', gives readers a penetrating glimpse of the Middle East from the inside.

In the middle of the war of words threatening nuclear conflict between North Korea and the U.S. comes a sane statement from North Korea’s vice foreign minister suggesting NK’s willingness to negotiate, “if America’s nuclear weapons are also on the table.” Frances Fuller, advocate of a U.S. Department of Peace considers this an opportunity for America to demonstrate real leadership, as well as evidence that a US Department of Peace is needed urgently.

On October 19 on the evening newscast, NBC reported the minister’s subtle proposal.

"Days later,” Fuller says, “the words are still ringing in my ears, in spite of perpetual static on every other topic imaginable: conflict between Trump and a congresswoman about what he said or didn’t say to a dead soldier’s wife, along with Gen. Kelly’s reaction, the EPA’s cancelation of a meeting of its scientists, and one celebrity is pregnant while another is engaged.  And I have heard infinitum about pervasive sexual harassment, but not a sound from anybody about these intriguing words from the vice foreign minister of North Korea.

"And, listening to the broadcast again, I realize that even the NBC reporter, speaking from North Korea, did not headline his statement but put it at the end of the segment, among signs of Pyongyang’s intransigence.

"Excuse me, but didn’t North Korea just lob the ball into our court?"

Indeed they have. Fuller went on to say:

"In the last few weeks, from various directions, including our own Secretary of State, suggestions have surfaced about the possibility of negotiating with North Korea, whose people are suffering economically while convinced of our hatred and evil intentions toward them. And now we learn that in June former president Jimmy Carter volunteered to travel to North Korea for the Trump administration and attempt to lower the tension. This information surfaced in an interview by Maureen Dowd for the Sunday NY Times Review. In answer to a question, the former president revealed that he took advantage of his seat beside Lt. Gen. H.H. McMaster at Zbigniew Brzezinski’s funeral to send a message to the president. So far he has gotten only a negative response.

"Into this situation, the vice foreign minister drops these words for our consideration, 'Negotiation is only possible….if America’s nuclear weapons are also on the table.'

"Is that not perfect logic? (We did invent and use the bomb.)

"Is that not an appeal to fairness? (Many people in the world think so.)

"Does that not mean, 'Negotiation is possible, if………'?" (This is a test of our intentions. Do we prefer to destroy North Korea?)

Frances Fuller, like many others who have signed the petition on her website, believes we urgently need a US Department of Peace whose job is to figure out the situation, to listen and respond in hope of saving the world.

The full text of the statement is available at http://www.inborrowedhouseslebanon.com.

Frances Fuller puts a face on the Middle East many Americans have not yet seen. Her award-winning memoir, 'In Borrowed Houses', gives readers a penetrating glimpse of the Middle East from the inside.

The Syrian occupation of Lebanon during that country’s long civil war is part of Fuller’s experience in the Middle East, related in her memoir. Told in short episodes, Fuller’s book reveals the alienation, confusion and courage of civilians in the Lebanese civil war, introducing to the reader a variety of real people with whom the author interacts: editors, salesmen, neighbors, refugees, soldiers, missionaries, lawyers, shepherds, artists, students. With these people she works, studies, plays games, prays, laughs and cries, all to the accompaniment of gunfire. Together these small stories tell what war is like for civilians caught on a battlefield, and they create the impression of the Lebanese as a fun-loving, witty, patient and resilient people. Fuller's stories compose not a political history, but a historical document of a time and a place.

'In Borrowed Houses' has taken three industry awards. Frances Fuller was the Grand Prize winner in the 2015 '50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading' Book Awards. It received the bronze medal for memoir in the Illumination Book Awards in 2014. Northern California Publishers and Authors annually gives awards for literature produced by residents of the area. In 2015 'In Borrowed Houses' received two prizes: Best Non-fiction and Best Cover.

Critics have praised ‘In Borrowed Houses.’ A judge in the 22nd Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards called 'In Borrowed Houses' “ . . a well written book full of compassion . . . a captivating story . . . ”. Another reviewer described the book as “Wise, honest, sensitive, funny, heart-wrenching . . .”. Colin Chapman, lecturer in Islamic Studies at the Near East School of Theology in Beirut said, “ . . . western Christians and Middle Eastern Christians need to read this story…full of remarkable perceptiveness and genuine hope.”

Frances Fuller is available for media interviews and can be reached using the information below or by email at frances0516@att.net. The full text of her latest article is available at her website. Fuller's book is available at Amazon and other book retailers. A free ebook sample from 'In Borrowed Houses' is available at http://www.payhip.com/francesfuller. Frances Fuller also blogs on other issues relating to the Middle East on her website at http://www.inborrowedhouseslebanon.com.

About Frances Fuller:

Frances Fuller spent thirty years in the violent Middle East and for twenty-four of those years was the director of a Christian publishing program with offices in Lebanon. While leading the development of spiritual books in the Arabic language, she survived long years of civil war and invasions.

Contact:

Frances Fuller
frances0516@att.net
http://www.inborrowedhouseslebanon.com

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Donald Trump UN Speech Reinforces Need For US Department Of Peace - Author Frances Fuller Issues Statement

Fuller spent many years in the Middle East. She puts a face on the Middle East many Americans have not yet seen. Her award-winning memoir, 'In Borrowed Houses', gives readers a penetrating glimpse of the Middle East from the inside.

In his speech at the United Nations, President Trump stated that the United States could totally destroy North Korea. The ongoing game of political one-upmanship could put the United States and North Korea on a path to nuclear war. While most astute world leaders understand the perils of any type of nuclear conflict, it has become apparent that calm, level-headed thinking and strategizing is not employed by some of those world leaders. Frances Fuller, award winning author of 'In Borrowed Houses' spent many years living in the Middle East. She is an ardent supporter of the concept of a US Department of Peace. She recently issued a statement that clearly defines how such a body could help create peace rather than war, promote justice and reduce conflict.

"Donald Trump’s belligerent words in the United Nations have made plain our desperate need for a Department of Peace," Fuller stated.

"For months Trump and Kim Jong-un have been exchanging taunts like school-yard bullies over North Korea’s testing of nuclear weapons. And now the president in his first appearance before the United Nations, has told the world, that if the United States needed to defend ourselves or our allies, we would ‘totally destroy North Korea.’

"It is possible that many Americans, accustomed to Trump’s exaggerations, don’t take this literally. But my guess is that the people of North Korea do, because they know that during the 1950s war on the Korean peninsula most of the cities of North Korea were obliterated by American bombing. That is the kind of thing that people don’t forget, and Trump’s statement will only remind them. 

"And Kim Jong-un, obsessed with his own security, believes it. Did America not recently destroy two regimes, in Iraq and Libya? Could she have done this, would she have done this, if Iraq and Libya had had nuclear weapons?

"And vital to us is the question, does Trump believe what he says?

"And how shall we protect the world from lone individuals in places of power?"

Frances Fuller proposes A Department of Peace, authorized to lead our government in the pursuit of peace. In a survey box on her website, she says:

“Building armies to defeat whatever enemies come is a reasonable response to tensions in the world. Making friends instead of enemies is even better. Solving problems before people lose hope is better. Promoting justice, acting justly, erasing oppression, listening, apologizing, respecting, opening doors, sharing essential commodities, resolving neighborhood conflicts, all of these are preferable to war. All of these are deterrents to war. And cheaper. And doable.

“The catch is that they mostly have to be done before a crisis occurs, and nobody does them unless they are someone’s job.

“Peace, like war, is a responsibility that has to be assigned.

“That’s why we need a Department of Peace with a place in the President’s Cabinet.”

The full statement and a survey regarding the US Department of Peace, is available at Fuller's website at http://www.inborrowedhouseslebanon.com.

Frances Fuller puts a face on the Middle East many Americans have not yet seen. Her award-winning memoir, 'In Borrowed Houses', gives readers a penetrating glimpse of the Middle East from the inside.

The Syrian occupation of Lebanon during that country’s long civil war is part of Fuller’s experience in the Middle East, related in her memoir. Told in short episodes, Fuller’s book reveals the alienation, confusion and courage of civilians in the Lebanese civil war, introducing to the reader a variety of real people with whom the author interacts: editors, salesmen, neighbors, refugees, soldiers, missionaries, lawyers, shepherds, artists, students. With these people she works, studies, plays games, prays, laughs and cries, all to the accompaniment of gunfire. Together these small stories tell what war is like for civilians caught on a battlefield, and they create the impression of the Lebanese as a fun-loving, witty, patient and resilient people. Fuller's stories compose not a political history, but a historical document of a time and a place.

'In Borrowed Houses' has taken three industry awards. Frances Fuller was the Grand Prize winner in the 2015 '50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading' Book Awards. It received the bronze medal for memoir in the Illumination Book Awards in 2014. Northern California Publishers and Authors annually gives awards for literature produced by residents of the area. In 2015 'In Borrowed Houses' received two prizes: Best Non-fiction and Best Cover.

Critics have praised ‘In Borrowed Houses.’ A judge in the 22nd Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards called 'In Borrowed Houses' “ . . a well written book full of compassion . . . a captivating story . . . ”. Another reviewer described the book as “Wise, honest, sensitive, funny, heart-wrenching . . .”. Colin Chapman, lecturer in Islamic Studies at the Near East School of Theology in Beirut said, “ . . . western Christians and Middle Eastern Christians need to read this story…full of remarkable perceptiveness and genuine hope.”

Frances Fuller is available for media interviews and can be reached using the information below or by email at frances0516@att.net. The full text of her latest article is available at her website. Fuller's book is available at Amazon and other book retailers. A free ebook sample from 'In Borrowed Houses' is available at http://www.payhip.com/francesfuller. Frances Fuller also blogs on other issues relating to the Middle East on her website at http://www.inborrowedhouseslebanon.com.

About Frances Fuller:
Frances Fuller spent thirty years in the violent Middle East and for twenty-four of those years was the director of a Christian publishing program with offices in Lebanon. While leading the development of spiritual books in the Arabic language, she survived long years of civil war and invasions.

Contact:

Frances Fuller
frances0516@att.net
http://www.inborrowedhouseslebanon.com

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