The BePeace Workshop, presented by Rita Marie Johnson, will introduce the practice of BePeace, the synergistic combination of HeartMath for “feeling peace” and Nonviolent Communication for “speaking peace”. It will include exercises so that the transformational power of this method can be experienced.
BePeace is highly effective in preventing and resolving conflicts. As Rita Marie explains, “In achieving my goal to be a true peacemaker, I was missing a solid how-to in resolving day to day conflicts. I researched social and emotional learning methods for 10 years, looking for the way to “be peace” in every moment. Now I can progress each day rather than being stuck for years in the same reactive patterns.” BePeace is also being used in counseling, team building, mediation, small group work and creative problem solving.


Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army introduces us to the powerful private army that the U.S. government has made its Praetorian Guard for the “global war on terror.” Blackwater has the world's largest private military base, a fleet of twenty aircraft, and 20,000 contractors at the ready. Run by a multimillionaire Christian conservative who bankrolls President Bush and his allies, its forces are capable of overthrowing governments, and yet most people have never heard of Blackwater. Author Jeremy Scahill is an award-winning investigative journalist. He is a frequent contributor to The Nation magazine and a correspondent for the national radio and television show Democracy Now!
White Metropolis: Race, Ethnicity, and Religion in Dallas, 1841-2001. From the 19th century until today, the powerbrokers of Dallas have portrayed their city as a progressive, pro-business, racially harmonious community that has avoided the racial, ethnic and class strife that roiled other Southern cities. But does this image of Dallas match the historical reality? In this book, Phillips delves deeply into Dallas's racial and religious past and uncovers a complicated history of resistance, collaboration, and assimilation between the city's African-American, Mexican-American, and Jewish communities and its white power elite. The book, developed from an award-winning doctoral dissertation, won the Texas Historical Commission's T.R. Fehrenbach Book Award for best work on Texas history in 2007.