Daily Nexus
University of California at Santa Barbara
Thursday, April 7, 1983
Bank of America Site as I.V. Peace Center?
By Ed Evans
Nexus Daily Staff Writer
A center to promote world peace has been proposed for
the former Bank of America building site in Isla Vista.
A recently formed group of Isla Vistans, seeking to create
the local peace center are proposing to call their organization
the "Isla Vista Memorial Peace Commission."
The project is currently in the hands of Bill Hess, a long-time
area resident who is acting as the legal and financial advisor
to the group, and David Crockett Williams, who is involved
in planning the activities and goals of the proposed peace
center.
According to Williams and Hess, the idea for a peace center
was conceived by Dr. David Bearman, a long-time community
leader in Isla Vista.
The reasons for selecting the Bank of America building as
the site of the peace center are related to the role of the
bank building in the I.V. riots of 1970, which began as a
protest against the support Bank of America was giving to
various companies involved in the manufacture of arms
and chemicals that were used in Vietnam. After the
original bank was burned by protesters, a temporary
bank was established. During further rioting a young
man named Kevin P. Moran was killed while trying to
prevent additional destruction of the temporary bank.
A memorial plaque for Moran at the building site convinced
Williams of the appropriateness of the bank building as the
site for the center.
"I just looked at it (the building) and I knew that it had
to be done there, with everything that happened," Williams
said.
Both Hess and Williams see the peace center as having a
number of uses for the community, besides its role as a
promoter of peace.
"The purpose of the building would be to hold concerts,
meetings, religious services, movies, classes on various
subjects, and perhaps a kind of whole earth market,"
Hess said. He believes that the Goleta area needs a
conference center, and he feels that the peace center
could fill this need.
"Several real estate developers have shown interest in
the project. Mario Perrell, a developer, is at the
moment trying to raise funds for acquisition of the
building," Hess said.
There is, however, another group aside from the one
in Isla Vista interested in making use of the building
as a peace center. According to Williams a group of
Japanese Buddhist monks, Nipponzan Myohoji, is
trying to build a "peace pagoda" in Santa Barbara,
and it is possible that their efforts would temporarily
be coordinated out of the Isla Vista peace center.
Currently the I.V Memorial Peace Commission is
working toward becoming a non-profit organization.
The group plans to file the necessary paperwork to
become a non-profit organization in Sacramento by April 18.
The April 18 date is significant to the peace center
organizers, because it was on that date 13 years ago
that Moran lost his life working toward peace. It is
also the date of the first blood of the American
Revolution being spilled at Lexington and Concord.
According to both Williams and Hess, the peace
center will hold some activity to honor the April 18 date.
The two men also see this as a chance to raise money
for the center and to gather volunteer help.
"If we could have everyone in I.V. come by on that
day and leave a dollar, or sign up to volunteer even
an hour a month, then we could raise the $13,000
that we need and have 13,000 manhours of staffing,"
Williams said.
The group needs $13,000 to get the lease on the building
from the Bank of America. This amount covers the first
and last months rental on the building. In addition to
the $13,000, the organization will need to raise the
$6,500 for monthly rent on the site.
Williams and Hess both emphasized the role of the center
in the worldwide peace movement. Citing the recent
demonstrations for peace and against nuclear power
in Europe, both men see a growing involvement of
people in the cause for peace. They envision the I.V.
Peace Center as eventually being an important part
in organizing and coordinating this movement.
Williams envisions this peace center as being the first
step not only to world peace, but also the first step
to a new age for man of harmony with nature. He
calls this new age of natural harmony and changed
human thinking the "tetronic age."
Between now and April 18 the peace commission
will have someone available at the bank with
information on the project, petitions in support
of the project, and with the means for people
to make contributions or sign up as volunteers.
--------end transcribed article, made into a flyer
it had a symbol for the Memorial Peace Commission,
ie, a circle with another circle inside, as though
tangent to an equilateral triangle with apexes touching
inside the circle, with an arrow from bottom left to
top right with the point at about 2 o'clock position.
The flyer had the slogan,
"All we are saying is give peace a chant."