The Oregon Campaign for a U.S. Department of Peace and Nonviolence screened the film "Scared Sacred" to an audience of 38 people on Sept. 21, 2007 in Eugene, Oregon as a fundraiser for the Peace Alliance, which is the national coordinating body for the campaign.Everybody who came to the showing received a Dept. of Peace campaign button, a "Give Peace a Voice" greeting card, and two stamped postcards to send to our Senators. We collected $222 in one-time donations, and $50 per month in Peace Partner pledges which will accumulate to $600 in the next 12 months.

In this film,award-winning filmmaker Velcrow Ripper sets out on a unique 5-year pilgrimage in a world teetering on the edge of self-destruction. Visiting the 'Ground Zeros' of the planet, he asks if it's possible to find hope in the darkest moments of human history. He interviews survivors in Hiroshima, Bosnia, New York, Israel-Palestine, Afghanistan, Bhopal, and Cambodia, evoking not only the chilling horror of those places but also the indomitable human impulse to start again, to heal, to create a better world. The film is a very powerful personal statement of hope.

I got many comments of appreciation for the film and about half the audience stayed for the guided Tonglen practice at the conclusion of the evening. Half-way through his filming process, Ripper encountered his own personal despair and took a 6 month break to learn this Tibetan Buddhist practice of breathing in suffering, breathing out compassion.