[casi] Fwd: Light up the Night for Peace!

["Bert Gedin" <gedinbert@DELETETHIShotmail.com>]

Dear All,

The US Peace Team, in Baghdad, can be contacted through   info@vitw.org
Probably, other internationals, in Baghdad, can also be contacted,
similarly. Please share any contacts with the List.

Greetings,

Bert Gedin,
Birmingham, UK.





>From: Campaign of Conscience <conscience@topica.email-publisher.com>
>Reply-To: <conscience@afsc.org>
>To: gedinbert@hotmail.com
>Subject: Light up the Night for Peace!
>Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2003 08:36:23 -0700
>
>Campaign of Conscience for the Iraqi People
>Campaign Update
>====================================================================
>
>In This Issue:
>
>- Light up the Night for Peace!
>- New York City Passes Resolution Against War
>- Sleepwalking Through History
>- Students 'Break' for Peace
>- Living in Baghdad on the Eve of War
>
>
>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.
>
>Join, plan, register a vigil
>http://click.topica.com/maaaVfRaaWE9Ea3FWHie/
>
>
>
>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.
>
>Next steps for this initiative
>http://click.topica.com/maaaVfRaaWEhba3FWHie/
>
>
>
>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.
>
>Send a letter
>http://click.topica.com/maaaVfRaaWEgma3FWHie/
>
>
>
>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.
>
>Get involved
>http://click.topica.com/maaaVfRaaWEgRa3FWHie/
>
>
>
>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@vitw.org
>
>
>To support the Iraq Peace Team
>http://click.topica.com/maaaVfRaaWE22a3FWHie/
>
>
>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
>  Join the Campaign of Conscience on the web.
>http://click.topica.com/maaaVfRaaWD7Ra3FWHie/
>
>
>====================================================================
>Update your profile here:
>http://topica.email-publisher.com/survey/?a2iYQ8.a3FWHi.Z2VkaW5i
>
>Unsubscribe here:
>http://topica.email-publisher.com/survey/?a2iYQ8.a3FWHi.Z2VkaW5i.u
>
>Delivered by Topica Email Publisher, http://topica.email-publisher.com/


_________________________________________________________________
Stay in touch with absent friends - get MSN Messenger
http://messenger.msn.co.uk


_______________________________________________
Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss
To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk
All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk