Camp Hope – Countdown to Change, January 1-19, 2009

All participants in Camp Hope are expected to share a commitment to nonviolence and nonviolent action. Camp Hope is adopting the following principles for this particular action.

1. Our attitude will be one of openness and respect toward all whom we encounter in our actions.
2. We will use no violence—verbal, physical, or otherwise—toward any person.
3. We will not destroy, damage or otherwise harm property.
4. We will carry no weapons.
5. We agree not to consume alcohol or use illicit drugs while participating in Camp Hope.
6. We will not retaliate if physically challenged or injured.
7. We will seek dialogue with those who may disagree with us and maintain a spirit of openness, friendliness and respect towards all with whom we engage.
8. There will be zero tolerance for discrimination or harassment. We will respect everyone’s right to express their identity.
9. We will honor one another's desire for personal space.
10. We will respect President-elect Obama's right to a personal private life beyond his political life. We will respect his family's right to privacy. Camp Hope is focused upon political change and we will not tolerate personal harassment of President-elect Obama or his family.

Dr. Martin Luther King enunciated the power of nonviolence, summarizing its essential components as:

• Nonviolence is resistance to evil and oppression. It is a human (and humane) way to struggle for justice.
• Nonviolence does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent, but to win his/her friendship and understanding.
• The nonviolent method is an attack on the forces of evil rather than against persons doing the evil. It seeks to defeat the evil and not the persons doing the evil and injustice.
• Nonviolence means willingness to accept suffering without retaliation.
• The nonviolent resister avoids both external physical and internal spiritual violence - not only refusing to shoot or strike, but also to hate, an opponent. The ethic of real love is at the center of nonviolence.
• The nonviolent resister has a deep faith in the future, and believes that the forces in the universe are ultimately on the side of justice. To quote Dr. King, the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.