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CPNN Administrator
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Posted: June 24 2003,06:58 |
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(continuation of report) Around the world that day Palestinians marched with Israelis. 1,000,000 people marched in Spain. London saw the largest protest in its history. All told over 10, 000,000 people gathered world wide that February 15th day, the largest advocacy for peace of any time in history. When we organized the local candlelight vigil in March we expected about 20 people to show but 150 came. 80% of passing motorist showed their support for us. All over the world 7,000 communities participated. So responding to this threat of imminent Peace George Bush declared war.
As participants in local groups would recognize the initial enthusiasm that any project brings is followed by the decline into the reality of 1or 2 people doing all the work. 5 months later Planning for peace still sees 20 people attending our biweekly meetings. Thru emails we realized that this was true for other Massachusetts communities. The peace activist were still strong. In conjunction with other groups we organized a unity meeting. Participants from Nashua, Concord, Lowell, Westford and other areas came. We found that we shared a belief that the actions of the current administration was not the answer to the reality of global terrorism.and that war is not the answer to every problem. A woman who represented United for Justice and Peace came to present that while keeping our separate identities there was much to be said for joining under a national parent group so we spoke with a voice of millions. Move on.org, a progressive Internet advocacy web server, grew from a membership of 80,000 to over 1,400,000 at last count with the rise of the peace movement. They organized the virtual march on Washington where for one day the congressional offices were overwhelmed as hundreds of thousand of phone calls, faxs and e-mails flooded the offices of Senators and Congressmen over opposition to the war. The recent FCC ruling that sold out your right to a diverse media was lobbied with over 1,200,000 responses. They achieved this by joining a coalition with Common Cause and the NRA (Yes that is the National Rifle Association). From the flood of response, Congress brought the commission before them and blasted an appointed groups that would so ignore public input ( Well actually it was the 3 Republicans who meet over 70 times with Lobbiest from the Telecommunications Industry but only held one Public Hearing in Virginia which the Republican members were too busy to attend that got the Bipartisan roasting).
Planing for Peace has affiliated itself with United for Justice and Peace and 2 of or members went to the recent national convention. Still active in grass root efforts we along with the Nashua peace group held a recent discussion forum on the realities of terrorism as it affects our relationship with people of Muslim faith. Planning for Peace organized a lecture by Ellen Barfield of Voices in the Wilderness at the First Parish in Groton. This is a group that tries to get the human stories from Iraq out into the mainstream. One of the compelling things she talked about was the group of 9/11 victims families who advocate for peace and understanding. Another was as a member of the Board for Veterans for Peace (She herself served ) they have seen their membership grow by the thousands.
The Global Peace movement remains a diverse and committed grass roots efforts to change the course of our nations responsibility in the world. One recent commentator noted that George W Bush was very good at advocating two wars but is failing in the diplomacy department. He is assaulting our personal freedoms to rescript our nation with his own christian fundamentalist version of reality. Diplomacy is how you prevent wars. An open and free media is how we see the reality of that progress without spin. If there has been the sacrifice of many to protect our freedoms then it makes no sense that by somehow using those freedoms to promote a world free of the need for the ultimate sacrifice that we have undermined that sacrifice. By advocating for Peace we have Honor it. The continuing strength of our grass roots efforts demonstrate we are a voice that is being heard.
[Coodinator's note] This article was originally published in a local paper. Patrick Hughes is a local Construction superintendent, environmental advocate and a member of Planning for Peace. You can reach him at pdmhughes27@earthlink.net.
Edited by CPNN Administrator on June 24 2003,07:20
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