war

As plans are underway for an international conference in New York City on Nuclear disarmament, peace walks are planned (and in many cases are underway).  Various Buddhist communities have organized walks and invited others to join them either in the walk or by providing hospitality.   Walkers include Buddhist monks and nuns.  All are welcome.  One sponsoring community writes: "Please join us by walking for an hour, a day, or for the entirety. You can support us by organizing a community potluck, a sharing circle, a visit to your mayor, a place for our walkers to sleep, or coverage by the local media. Also please keep this walk in your thought and prayer."

Information on four walks has been shared with the Fellowship of Reconciliation.  All four walks culminate in New York City for the Rally and March on Sunday, May 2nd. The May 2nd Rally is an international call for an end to nuclear weapons in the US and around the world. 

Registration has opened for the International Conference, which will focus on eliminating nuclear weapons and addressing related nuclear issues.  The conference will be held in New York City on April 30 and May 1st to coincide with the official report to the United Nations monitoring the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT).   

The conference at Riverside Church features speakers from around the world and opportunities for workshops in four areas: nuclear weapons abolition, peace, environmental sustainability, and economic justice. 

The registration fee is $30 per person (students with ID, $20). Early registration is encouraged.  See the attached registration form available as a downloadable form.  Space is limited to 800 to 1000 attendees.

In January, during his State of the Union message to a joint session of Congress, President Obama said his administration would make a treaty with Russia a priority.   The President noted that the country is "confronting perhaps the greatest danger to the American people – the threat of nuclear weapons."

The President has noted before that limiting nuclear weapons is not enough.   His State of the Union message renewed previous statements by Mr. Obama that nuclear weapons must be eliminated.   He acknowledged that his vision is in line with "the vision of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan" envisioning a "world without them [nuclear weapons]."

Ever think about those killed in the war in Iraq?  You know the collateral damage of war - the people who didn't sign up for a war.

Conservative estimates peg the war dead at around 100,000. Other scientific estimates, which take into account unreported deaths, range up into the 1.4 million range. It's an impressive toll for 8 years of war.

The Iraq Memorial to Life - a project of the Fellowship of Reconciliation - is a memorial to Iraqis who have been killed as a result of the war.

It is an attempt to keep us from forgetting these Iraqis.

Make your plans today to be there to call for a peaceful, nuclear free, secure, and just world for us all!

Advocates for peace will be meeting in New York City on April 30-May 1st.   Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR-USA) is one of more than 200 sponsors of the International Conference.   The conference coincides with the five year review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).  Every five years a report is delivered to the United Nations which reviews not only the compliance of nations with the treaty's provisions but also recommends additional steps toward the elimination of nuclear weapons.

FOR-USA invites and encourages its members and friends to attend the international conference (April 30 - May 1) as well as a Rally and March planned for Sunday, May 2nd near Times Square.

At the beginning of the screening of Rethink Afghanistan at the Fellowship of Reconciliation, I challenged the mostly "anti-war" audience to really look at the film critically and to examine the extent to which it would be genuinely persuasive to someone that did not already agree with the premise that the U.S. military role in Afghanistan was a bad thing. The film, produced and directed by Robert Greenwald and the Brave New Foundation can be seen at their website,  in segments that are added to as the war continues to go on. Since our screening on 2/14/10, more segments have been made available that challenge the rationale of Obama's declaration to add another 30,000 troops.

This past week, during the holiday period after Christmas and over the new year, a group of young Iraqis gathered at the headquarters of the Fellowship of Reconciliation in Upper Nyack, New York. They were all university students attending U.S. colleges, whose schooling was organized by the Iraqi Student Project -- an initiative modeled on FOR's Bosnian Student Project from the 1990s. An article in today's Journal News, the newspaper of New York's Rockland & Westchester Counties, profiles the hope of these young people as they seek a better future than that seen amidst the war they left behind.

President Obama,

I fiercely supported your campaign for president and believe you are the best president for our country and our world.

I believe in your brilliance and compassion and your political savvy. I believe in your vision for change. I believe you are a change maker.

You inherited a huge mess and are trying to make your way through some unbelievable burdens not of your doing. I think you are steering us toward a better tomorrow on almost every front.

That said, I feel compelled to write to say I do not support your decision to increase troops in Afghanistan. I say that having family members who are in harm's way, right now, serving there. I know there is a belief that more troops will make them safer and will make the outcome of the war better. I disagree. They will be safer if they come home. We can address issues of instability in that region without this escalation. If anyone can figure out how, I believe it can be you.

A few days ago, I received an invitation to the White House.

I was one of twenty briefed by the President's staff and advisors on Afghanistan and Pakistan. I was heard by administration officials, as I presented on behalf of FOR the case for change in the current Afghanistan and Pakistan strategy: End military engagement and pursue diplomatic efforts. For over an hour I met with six members of the executive branch. I listened. They listened.

News outlets today are filled with reports of the President's decision to send more troops to the region.

As you can see, our work is great. Who will continue to speak on behalf of peace? Who will continue to hold nonviolent ways of settling disputes before our nation?

The Fellowship of Reconciliation today joined with 33 other national peace and anti-war groups to issue an open letter to President Obama that strongly opposes his anticipated decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan with the commitment of tens of thousands of additional U.S. troops.

The document calls increased war spending, in light of the ongoing U.S. economic crisis, an “utter folly” and names the war “a war against ordinary people, both here in the United States and in Afghanistan,” which “if continued, will result in the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of U.S. troops and untold thousands of Afghans” and “cause other people in other lands to despise the U.S.” as “the world’s richest nation making war on one of the world’s very poorest.”