[Peace] Join Sunday's rolling wave of candlelight vigils (fwd)

[patton paul]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: 14 Mar 2003 06:57:03 -0000
From: "Eli, MoveOn.org" <moveon-help at list.moveon.org>
To: Paul Patton <ppatton at uiuc.edu>
Subject: Join Sunday's rolling wave of candlelight vigils

Dear MoveOn supporter,

In the emergency petition we presented to the U.N. Security
Council on Monday, over a million of us joined together to ask
for tough inspections, not war.  It was an amazing and
unprecedented show of global unity that brought folks from
virtually every country together in one voice. (See below for
a more detailed description of how Monday's delivery went.)

Signing the petition is an important first step, but in the
face of an ever-closer and still unjustified war, we need to
escalate our activity.  That's why it's so important that
every person who signed the emergency petition take the next
step: joining the wave of candlelight vigils that will circle
the globe this Sunday.  This is going to be a massive global
event. Already -- just since Tuesday -- 1,605 vigils have been
scheduled in 77 countries. You can see what vigils have been
scheduled in your area, and sign up for one, at:

   http://www.globalvigil.org

The site will show you how many people are signed up to attend
the vigils near you. Spread the word to your friends, have
them sign up on the site, and we can all watch as the numbers
grow.

Beginning in New Zealand, these locally organized candlelight
vigils will circle around the globe.  They'll be beautiful,
powerful, and inspiring.  They'll send an eloquent and clear
message that the world wants peace.  And they'll be supported
by many religious leaders -- including Archbishop Desmond
Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize winner -- who will help to
articulate the moral case against war.

Never before have so many coordinated vigils taken place
around the globe.  We have the opportunity on Sunday to show
just how the world feels about the war on Iraq -- but the
impact depends on your participation.  Please take some time
to join millions in countries around the world in a Global
Vigil for Peace.  Sign up now at:

   http://www.globalvigil.org

If you can't make a vigil, you can still join the global
action on Sunday.  Just put Christmas lights or anything that
shines in your window on Sunday evening.

As for our U.N. petition, we'll still be delivering updates
to the Security Council, so if you have friends or
colleagues who haven't signed, please ask them to go to:

   http://www.moveon.org/emergency/

Together, we can avert this war.

Sincerely,
--Carrie, Diane, Eli, Joan, Peter, Randall, Wes, and Zack
    The MoveOn Team
    March 12, 2003

P.S. Here's a report from Diane Jones, the MoveOn member who
pulled together the petition delivery on Monday:

Dear MoveOn supporters,

In a week's time, you helped us deliver the fastest-growing
petition we've ever seen to each of the 15 U.N. Security
Council member nations.  The meetings with Security Council
members were accompanied by a press conference that helped to
get our message out across the United States and beyond.

To give you a sense of the scale involved, each copy of the
petition was twelve boxes' worth of paper.  These boxes served
as an impressive backdrop for our press conference, where
MoveOn, American Friends Service Committee, and Win Without
War representatives were joined by Ethan Hawke, Jessica Lange,
and Steve Buscemi -- actors who helped to show the popular
appeal of our call.  CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, Time Magazine, New
York Times, L.A. Times, People Magazine, Inside Edition, and a
long list of other media outlets were there to capture the
moment.

After the press conference, over 300 amazing New York City
volunteers helped to deliver the boxes to the U.N. missions of
each Security Council country.  These meetings were nothing
short of inspiring.

The coordinator of the Guinean mission meeting described her
experience this way:

"22 people attended.  I [said to the Guinean representative]
that they, of all people, should vote NO WAR because they knew
in their hearts what war was like and that we only knew it
from our heads.  I mentioned a letter I read from a woman who
had visited Iraq lately and wrote that Iraqis do not speak of
the future because they do not believe they have one.

He responded in English saying that Guinea was a very poor
country but that they liked being free.  He said that they
would rather be poor and free than rich and-- he extended his
hands in front of him crossed at the wrists as if bound."

Even when a few of the missions would not confirm an actual
meeting, our MoveOn delegation arrived to officially present
the petition to the Ambassador's office and to get a
representative to meet with them on the spot.  Cameroon's
mission was one such challenge, as described by the meeting
coordinator:

"Total success at Cameroon mission today! I was blown away by
the preparation and eloquence and French-speaking (some) of
the 16 or so people who showed up to deliver the petition.
After a bit of checking [we were escorted] to a meeting room
upstairs, where we sat around a table and people shared their
prepared comments. Everyone was respectful but that didn't
preclude displays of passion and emotion. . . . [One] woman,
after saying she had never done anything like this before and
was doing it because she was scared of what might happen, said
on a lighter note that the Cameroonian Lions team had given
her a lot of enjoyment over the years, which elicited some
laughs from the reps."

The German contingent also had a great experience:

"We met with Dr. Hans Schumacher, Deputy Permanent
Representative of Germany to the UN.  Dr. Schumacher
interrupted a meeting to meet with us ... and gave us a warm
welcome."  "About 20 people represented MoveOn.org. Lin Wefel
[meeting coordinator] read from a prepared statement about the
petitions that MoveOn.org had collected and our desire for a
peaceful settlement to the Iraq crisis.

Ambassador Schumacher welcomed the MoveOn.org representatives
by saying, 'As far as this mission is concerned, you are
coming in through open doors.' He noted that the German
mission is opposed to war as a means of disarming Iraq.

Ambassador Schumacher said his personal feeling was that the
U.S. and Britain would not be able to get nine votes on the
Security Council to pass another resolution on Iraq. He said
that Germany believes that the existing UN resolutions have
sufficient authority to disarm Iraq through vigorous arms
inspections."

We have received similar, often exuberant reports from the
other meeting coordinators.  It was a powerful experience --
and one you made possible by signing the petition.

THANK YOU

The U.N. Security Council mission meetings and petition
delivery project, and our work for the preceding week was made
possible by the incredibly hard work and generous financial
contributions of members, hundreds of volunteers, and local
and national organizations.  We deeply appreciate the
assistance that we have received -- we couldn't have pulled
this off without lots of lightning-speed help!

Thanks go to the over 300 NYC volunteers who came out on
Monday on extremely short notice to attend the mission
meetings, hold banners, and generally increase our presence
during the events.  Very special thanks goes to the team of
volunteer coordinators, who used their commitment and
ingenuity to pull off outstanding meetings.  They are: Tim
Bailey, David Bogoslaw, Merrily Butler, Susan Chenelle,
Jessica Flagg, Cheryl Guttman, Elinore Klein, Yvonne Lassalle,
Judy Martialay, Carl Pritzkat, Rikki Reich, Sarah Richardson,
David Roth, Kristin Roth-Ey, Michael Rothman, Bethene Trexel,
and Lin Wefel.  Extra special thanks goes to Tim Bailey, who
went the extra "hundred miles" to give his time, skills,
enthusiasm, and unique gifts to make this happen.

Many sincere thanks also to:
Tom Andrews, Ira Arlook, Steve Buscemi, Sarah Clark, David
Fenton, Trevor Fitzgibbon, Ethan Hawke, Jessica Lange, Mary
Lord, Josh Lucas, Brendan McCarthy, Mary Ellen McNish,
the American Friends Service Committee and the Win Without War
coalition.

The last thank you goes to every one of MoveOn's members and
supporters.  We have to say it again -- you are making an
incredible impact around the world.  We are honored and proud
to work with you.

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