Three women activists take peace prizes
Leymah Gbowee, a Liberian activist who helped bring her country out of a brutal civil war and one of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winners, says the best way to achieve global peace is to start in local communities.
"It is time for us to do justice in our communities. . . . One day the world's problems will meet you at your doorstep," she said October 7 at the Interchurch Center in New York. Coincidentally, she was there at a long-planned event organized by the National Council of Churches when the prize winners were announced.
Gbowee, citing the examples of peace and justice campaigners such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, said she does not believe it is possible to practice nonviolent action without some connection to a higher power. "My faith has really helped me," said Gbowee, a member of the Lutheran Church in Liberia.
