For 40 years the Mt. Diablo Peace and Justice Center in Walnut Creek has been trying to give peace a chance.

The center is celebrating its 40th anniversary Monday with a gala evening that includes a keynote address by author and peace advocate Marianne Williamson. Also, six local longtime peace activists in the community will be honored.

Williamson is a co-founder of The Peace Alliance, a grass-roots campaign supporting legislation to establish a cabinet-level Department of Peace. Longtime peace advocates to be honored include Barbara and Ed Tonningsen; Arne Westerback, one of the original co-founders of the center; and Louise Clark, who allows property she owns in Lafayette to be used for the crosses war memorial.

The peace center opened March 29,1969. So why the big celebration now? Why not, said Mary Alice O'Connor, executive director of the center.

"Forty seems like a big enough number," she said.

It seemed liked an especially good idea to mark this occasion because co-founder Andy Baltzo died earlier this year, she said.

The center first started as an outcry against the Vietnam War, and many came to the center for draft counseling. After the war, the center focused more on nuclear proliferation and issues of social justice. While those are still a focus, the center has expanded to address raising peaceful children and race awareness. This past year has specifically been dedicated to the root causes of violence,

The center also offers educational programs and works with local social service organizations such as the Monument Crisis Center. "The peace center is moving toward a community mind as well as an international mind," she said. "We have got to clean this place up — we are causing our own suffering."

Ultimately, the center is still about world peace. It has backed and organized nonviolent protests against all conflicts, including the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Walnut Creek's center gives people a way to think of peace as a possibility, said O'Connor. She correlates that with President Barack Obama's recent win of the Nobel Peace Prize. That win came because he has extended a hand of peace around the world — because people may think of America as a friend rather than enemy, she said.

"It's like a sense of direction," she said.

Adding prestige to the anniversary, Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, Wednesday commended the award winners and the peace center in the Congressional Record.

"I applaud the Mt. Diablo Peace and Justice Center for its strong, principled, and ongoing voice on the issues of peace and justice and I am proud to bring this organization to the attention of my colleagues," Miller wrote in the congressional recognition. "Congratulations to past and present members who have kept the center viable and dynamic throughout the decades."

For more information reach the center at 925-933-7850 or go to www.mtdpc.org.

Reach Elisabeth Nardi at 925-952-2617 or enardi@bayareanewsgroup.com.