[Peace-discuss] A New Year’s Call for Peace

[C. G. Estabrook]

FROM: Kathy Kelly, Co-coordinator, Voices for Creative Nonviolence

While the US may be the world's single super power in military terms, it faces 
another super power: the voices of war-weary millions who detest violence and 
killing. In Afghanistan, in the United States, and among the populations of 
countries whose governments have joined the NATO coalition, millions of people 
are calling for an end to war in Afghanistan.

On New Year’s Day, 01/01/11, people around the world are invited to raise their 
voices, through Facebook, Twitter, Free Conference calls, Skype, and blogs at 
several websites in a massive refusal to accept this war any longer. Let your 
New Year’s resolution be to stand for the people and end wars by sending a 
digital or spoken peacemaking message to people in Afghanistan.  By amassing 
millions of messages calling for peace, we can create yet another indication 
that ordinary people within and beyond Afghanistan have had enough of war.

Afghanistan’s people need food not bombs, health care not warfare and courage 
for peace, not war.  In the words of Abdulai, an Afghan teenager whose father 
was killed by the Taliban, the “Dear Afghanistan” campaign offers an alternative 
to the Obama administration’s most recent review of the war. Abdulai’s 
experiences of impoverishment, bereavement, and discrimination highlight 
realities that Afghans face every day. The U.S. government’s December review 
paid no attention to these conditions.

You can let Afghan people know that their lives matter as much as yours.  Assure 
them that the U.S. government’s war is unacceptable to you and that you are 
working to end it.

We can catch courage from one another, sparking a New Year’s momentum to put an 
end to war.

Follow the steps below to communicate the simple yet crucial demand:  Stop the 
Killing in Afghanistan.

On New Year’s Day 2011, from 7.05 pm Eastern Standard Time on the 31st of 
December 2010 to 7.05 pm Eastern Standard Time on the 1st of January 2011, from 
wherever in the world, you can:

·   Call from your Mobile or Home phone by dialing (661) 673-8600 & access code: 
295191#. Please arrange to talk by sending an email to CallAfghanistan at gmail.com

·  SKYPE: Please arrange to call Afghanistan by sending your Skype ID in an 
email to CallAfghanistan at gmail.com

·  Send an email message to DearAfghanistan at gmail.com

·  Text or sms by mobile at +93 7791 84146 or +1 727-248-0308 (001-727-248-0308 
if text messaging from outside U.S.)

·  Facebook: Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers

·  @DearAfghanistan on Twitter


For more information: Visit Dear Afghanistan

A note on timings for the NEW YEAR CALL :

Place                Time                                 Date
London        12.05 am to 12.05 am       1st Jan to 2nd Jan
EST              7.05 pm to 7.05 pm          31st Dec to 1st Jan
Pacific Std     4.05 pm to 4.05 pm          31st Dec to 1st Jan
Jordan          2.05 am to 2.05 am          1st Jan to 2nd Jan
Afghanistan   4.35am  to 4.35 am          1st Jan to 2nd Jan

-- 
Kathy Kelly
Co-coordinator, Voices for Creative Nonviolence
1249 West Argyle Street
Chicago, IL  60640
773-878-3815
www.vcnv.org