Purdue Cal opens new King exhibit

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Toni Simpson, left, chats with Purdue University Calumet chancellor Thomas Keon following opening ceremonies for the Building of Culture of Peace for the Children of the World exhibit at the campus in Hammond Monday Jan. 23, 2012. The exhibit is part of PUC's celbration of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.| Andy Lavalley~Sun-Times Media

Updated: February 25, 2012 8:17AM

HAMMOND — World peace is more than just an ideal notion for college students and pacifists, said organizers of a traveling exhibit when they opened Purdue University Calumet’s Martin Luther King Jr. celebration Monday.

“For me, achieving world peace is very realistic, and it’s not going to be easy,” said Toni Simpson, the artistic director for the college’s MLK events. “Each individual can contribute and look at themselves and, as Mahatma Gandhi said, be the change they want to be.”

The traveling exhibit, called “Building a Culture of Peace for the Children of the World,” drew Mayor Keith Soderquist of Lake Station, Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson and John Artis, a representative sent by East Chicago Mayor Anthony Copeland.

The exhibit was created by the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) USA, an international organization of 12 million Nichiren Buddhists.

The SGI exhibit is a logical extension of King’s commitment to non-violence, Simpson said, making it an appropriate way to kick off the weeklong schedule of panel discussions, meetings with 1960s protestors and culminates in a main convocation at the Student Union and Library.

The colorful exhibit, made of multiple panels filled with personal testimonials from peace activists from Ralph Waldo Emerson to Gandhi to Albert Einstein and Frederick Douglass, also offers tips on how each reader can become a peace activist.

The tips included encouraging dialogue and tolerance between different groups, global disarmament and building a sense of community between different populations.

Following a number of speeches by the mayors and PUC Chancellor Thomas Keon, the dignitaries cut a black and gold ribbon with ceremonial scissors to open the exhibit.

Keon said the exhibit is about “inclusivity,” or building “a campus that is open to each and every individual,” one of his main goals when he took the helm at the campus last fall.

The speakers also spoke of taking personal responsibility in responding to adversity or engaging in passive violence, causing harm to others without being overtly physical.

“The relationship between passive violence and physical violence is the same as the relationship between gasoline and fire,” said Martinez Chapman, an SGI student leader. “Passive violence is the fuel that stokes the fire of physical violence.”