[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Light up the Night for Peace!

Fri Mar 14 14:30:55 CST 2003

>To: mitten at life.uiuc.edu
>From: Campaign of Conscience <conscience at topica.email-publisher.com>
>Subject: Light up the Night for Peace!
>Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2003 08:36:23 -0700
>Reply-To: <conscience at afsc.org>
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>
>Campaign Update
>  In This Issue: 14 MARCH 2003
>•   Light up the Night for Peace!
>•   Students 'Break' for Peace
>•   New York City Passes Resolution Against War
>•   Living in Baghdad on the Eve of War
>•   Sleepwalking Through History
>  Light up the Night for Peace!
>Join people worldwide this Sunday in "A Global Candlelight Vigil for 
>Peace" called by Bishop Desmond Tutu and sponsored by the American Friends 
>Service Committee, MoveOn.org, and the Win Without War coalition.
>
>Our goal is to create a moving curtain of light that will cross the globe, 
>beginning in New Zealand. Most vigils will start at 7 p.m. or dusk. As 
>this is being written, there are more than 3,000 vigils scheduled in 100 
>countries, with numbers increasing by the hour.
>
>Please join us and help show there are TWO superpowers in the world: the 
>U.S. government and WORLD PUBLIC OPINION. In the last several months, vast 
>numbers of people have petitioned local leaders and the UN. We have 
>rallied, passed city council resolutions against the war, lobbied for 
>legislation to reverse the October vote for war, and engaged in nonviolent 
>civil disobedience.
>
>The candlelight vigil will be a solemn witness of prayer and hope for 
>world peace. We strongly encourage vigil participants to use signs that 
>focus on those messages.
>
>At www.afsc.org and www.globalvigil.org, find out how to participate in a 
>candlelight vigil, organize one, register one you are planning, or locate 
>a vigil in your area.
>
>If you will be holding a vigil in connection with a Friends meeting, 
>church, or organization, please identify it as an "AFSC/Quaker Vigil" and 
>register it at our web site.
>
>It is important for vigils to be held in member countries of the UN 
>Security Council: Angola, Bulgaria, Cameroon, China, Chile, France, 
>Germany, Guinea, Mexico, Pakistan, the Russian Federation, Spain, the 
>Syrian Arab Republic, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
>
>At www.afsc.org, you will find resources about the conflict with Iraq, in 
>addition to information about the Global Vigil for Peace. Most may be 
>downloaded and used.
>
><http://click.topica.com/maaaVfRaaWE9Fa3FWSZe/>Join, plan, register a vigil
>  New York City Passes Resolution Against War
>On Wednesday, New York City become the 141st city in the United States to 
>pass a city council resolution against a preemptive/unilateral war against 
>Iraq.
>
>New York City, 12 March 2003
>"We of all cities must uphold the preciousness and sanctity of human 
>life," said Councilman Alan Gerson, a Democrat who voted for the 
>resolution and whose district includes the World Trade Center site, where 
>2,792 people were killed in the attacks.
>
>On February 15, the people of the world said no to war. This powerful 
>opposition forced world leaders to step back from the brink of attack. An 
>estimated 10 million people in 60 countries and more than 300 cities 
>gathered to protest. These protests supplemented powerful anti-war 
>resolutions that have now been passed in cities as diverse as Atlanta, Des 
>Moines, Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles. Almost every major church 
>body has passed a resolution rejecting this war. Labor unions, student 
>bodies, teachers’ federations, and state governments have all registered 
>opposition.
>
><http://click.topica.com/maaaVfRaaWEhca3FWSZe/>Next steps for this initiative
>  Sleepwalking Through History
>Support Friends Committee on National Legislation
>
>In the coming week, the UN Security Council is expected to vote on a new 
>resolution related to Iraq's disarmament. As the international community 
>works feverishly at the UN to continue weapons inspections and restrain 
>the U.S. from its pursuit of war, Congress appears to be "sleepwalking 
>through history."
>
>The United States stands on the brink of launching a war that will bring 
>devastating and long-lasting consequences to the people of Iraq, U.S. 
>troops, and to national and global security. Yet, our Congress remains 
>shamefully quiet. Last month, in an impassioned speech on the floor of the 
>Senate, Sen. Robert Byrd (WV) chastised his colleagues for inaction in the 
>face of an impending war: "We stand passively mute...paralyzed by our own 
>uncertainty, seemingly stunned by the sheer turmoil of events. We are 
>truly 'sleepwalking through history.'"
>
>Rather than providing the necessary checks and balances against the 
>Administration's dangerous and misguided use of power, Congress appears to 
>be abdicating its responsibility as the only body authorized to declare 
>war under the U.S. Constitution.
>
><http://click.topica.com/maaaVfRaaWEgna3FWSZe/>Send a letter
>  Students 'Break' for Peace
>MARCH 17 – 21
>ALTERNATIVE SPRING BREAK FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
>A Week of Nonviolent Direct Action and Lobbying
>
>On March 5, 2003, students from California to Maine participated in 
>strikes, walkouts, and boycotts of class to resist the Bush 
>administration’s threatened war in Iraq. Students also called for the 
>administration to shift its prioities from exporting war abroad to 
>increasing domestic education funding.
>
>High school and college students walked out at planned times and converged 
>at points either on campus or in central city-wide spots. Many walkouts 
>and rallies had large turnouts. Students left school to demonstrate the 
>immediate danger posed by the Bush administration’s unilateral, preemptive 
>strike policy toward Iraq. Such a strike will lessen U.S. security, 
>endanger Iraqi civilians, erode U.S. international legitimacy, and divert 
>spending from such things as education. The event was called and 
>coordinated by the National Youth and Student Peace Coalition (NYSPC), an 
>association of 15 national student and youth organizations.
>
><http://click.topica.com/maaaVfRaaWEgSa3FWSZe/>Get involved
>  Living in Baghdad on the Eve of War
>This Present Moment
>Living in Baghdad on the Eve of War
>by Ramzi Kysia
>
>'The present moment is the only moment available to us, and it is the door 
>to all moments.' - Thich Nhat Hanh
>
>I am in Baghdad with the Iraq Peace Team, and we will stay here throughout 
>any war. We will share the risks of the millions who live here, and do our 
>best to be a voice for them to the world. Our risks are uncertain. 
>Thousands here will surely die. But most Iraqis will survive, and so too, 
>I hope, will I.
>
>A banner the government put up a few blocks from where we stay reads 
>simply, “Baghdad: Where the World Comes for Peace.”
>
>It’s meant as propaganda, I’m sure. But without knowing it, it states a 
>simple truth: that the world must be present for peace. We must be present 
>in Baghdad as in America - in Kashmir or Chechnya, the Great Lakes, 
>Palestine and Colombia--where there is war, and rumors of war, we must be 
>present to build peace.
>
>We are present.
>
>My country may arrest me as a traitor, or kill me during saturation 
>bombing, or shoot me during an invasion. The Iraqis may arrest me as a 
>spy, or cause or use my death for propaganda. Civil unrest and mob 
>violence may claim me. I may be maimed. I may be killed.
>
>I am nervous. I am scared. I am hopeful. I am joyous, and I joyously 
>delight in the wonder that is my life.
>
>I love being alive. I love the splendor of our world, the beauty of our 
>bodies, and the miracle of our minds. I bless the world for making me, and 
>I bless the world for taking me. I feed myself on the fellowship we 
>inspirit, in standing one with another in this, this present moment, each 
>moment unfolding to its own best time.
>
>Different things move different members of our team, but all of us are 
>here out of deep concern for the suffering of our brothers and sisters in 
>Iraq. 20 years of almost constant war, and 12 years of brutal sanctions, 
>have killed hundreds of thousands of innocents in Iraq.
>
>We are here, today, because most of the world refused to be present, then. 
>What more right do I as an American have to leave then all the people I’ve 
>come to love in Iraq? An accident of birth that gives me a free pass 
>throughout the world?
>
>All of us are here out of a deep commitment to nonviolence. Peace is not 
>an abstract value that we should just quietly express a hope for. It takes 
>work. It takes courage. It takes joy.
>
>Peace takes risks.
>
>War is catastrophe. It is terrorism on a truly, massive scale. It is the 
>physical, political and spiritual devastation of entire peoples. War is 
>the imposition of such massive, deadly violence so as to force the 
>political solutions of one nation upon another. War is the antithesis of 
>democracy and freedom. War is the most bloody, undemocratic, and violently 
>repressive of all human institutions.
>
>War is catastrophe. Why choose catastrophe?
>
>Even the threat of war is devastating. On March 11th, when we visited a 
>maternity hospital run by the Dominican sisters here in Baghdad, we found 
>that eight, new mothers that day had demanded to have their babies by 
>Caesarean section - they didn’t want to give
>birth during the war. Six others spontaneously aborted the same day. Is 
>this spirit of liberation?
>
>Don’t ask me where I find the courage to be present in Iraq on the eve of 
>war. 5 million people call Baghdad home. 24 million human beings live in 
>Iraq. Instead, ask the politicians - on every side - where they find the 
>nerve to put so many human beings at such terrible risk.
>
>We’re here for these people, as we’re here for the American people. The 
>violence George Bush starts in Iraq will not stop in Iraq. The senseless 
>brutality of this war signals future crimes of still greater inhumanity. 
>If we risk nothing to prevent this, it will happen. If we would have 
>peace, we must work as hard, and risk as much, as the warmakers do for 
>destruction.
>
>Pacifism isn’t passive. It’s a radical challenge to all aspects of worldly 
>power. Nonviolence can prevent catastrophe. Nonviolence multiplies 
>opportunities a thousand-fold, until seemingly insignificant events 
>converge to tumble the tyranny of fears that violence plants within our 
>hearts. Where violence denies freedom, destroys community, restricts 
>choices - we must be present: cultivating our love, our active love, for 
>our entire family of humanity.
>
>We are daily visiting with families here in Iraq. We are daily visiting 
>hospitals here in Iraq, and doing arts and crafts with the children. We 
>are visiting elementary schools, and high schools. We are fostering 
>community. We are furthering connections. We are creating space for peace.
>
>We are not “human shields.” We are not here simply in opposition to war. 
>We are a dynamic, living presence - our own, small affirmation of the joy 
>of being alive. Slowly stumbling, joyous and triumphant, full of all the 
>doubts and failings all people hold in common - our presence here is a 
>thundering, gentle call, to Americans as to Iraqis, of the affirmation of life.
>
>We must not concede war to the killers. War is not liberation. It is not 
>peace. War is devastation and death.
>
>Thuraya, a brilliant, young girl whom I’ve come to love, recently wrote in 
>her diary:
>
>“We don’t know what is going to happen. We might die, and maybe we are 
>living our last days in life. I hope that everyone who reads my diary 
>remember me and know that there was an Iraqi girl who had many dreams in 
>her life...”
>
>Dream with us of a world where we do not let violence rule our lives. Work 
>with us for a world where violence does not rule our lives. Peace is not 
>an abstract concept. We are a concrete, tangible reality. We the peoples 
>of our common world, through the relationships we build with each other, 
>and the risks we take for one another - we are peace.
>
>Our team here doesn’t know what is going to happen any more than does 
>Thuraya. We too may die. But in her name, in this moment, at the 
>intersection of all our lives, we send you this simple message: We are 
>peace, and we are present.
>
>-----
>Ramzi Kysia is a Arab American peace activist and
>writer. He is currently in Iraq with the Voices in the Wilderness’ 
>(www.vitw.org) Iraq Peace Team (www.iraqpeaceteam.org), a project to keep 
>international peaceworkers to Iraq prior to, during, and after any future 
>U.S. attack, in order to be a voice for the Iraqi people. The Iraq Peace 
>Team can be reached through info at vitw.org
>
><http://click.topica.com/maaaVfRaaWE23a3FWSZe/>To support the Iraq Peace Team
>Campaign Updates are edited by Peter Lems and Melissa Elliott
>AFSC Iraq Peace Building Program
>1501 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102
>phone: 215-241-7170; fax: 215-241-7177
>  <http://click.topica.com/maaaVfRaaWD7Pa3FWSZe/>Join the Campaign of 
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