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Mother's Day Peace Parade
an article by Colette Morrow
To celebrate Mother's Day in Hammond, Indiana, we held a
Peace Parade. Speakers included mothers of US military stationed in
Iraq and other parts of the Middle East. They read Julia Ward Howe's
Mother's Day Proclamation (1870), which urges women to come together
across national lines to solve world problems through negotiation
rather than violence. The parade concluded in Hessvill Park, where
Scott Berman, a representative of Veterans for Peace, placed a wreath
on the Veterans Memorial in the park in honor of military personnel who
were wounded or died in Iraq. Scott's daughter, Rachel, placed a second
wreath at the memorial in remembrance of civilians who were wounded or
died in Iraq.
Our
new group, Northwest Indiana Against War, is a coalition of ideological
diverse individuals and organizations. It formed in late February after
Professor Raoul Contreras gave a presentation at Indiana University
Northwest about Bush's proposal to invade Iraq. Professor Contreras, a
faculty member at IUN, stressed that a US-led war in Iraq would be
illegal, unjust, and immoral. This inspired the audience to form a
coalition to oppose the war.
NWIAW's first action was a rally at
IUN, followed by a march in Gary, IN on March 15, 2003. It was very
successful, drawing over 300. The City of Gary, which had already
passed an anti-war resolution, endorsed the event. Mayor Scott King
spoke. He expressed his opposition to the war and urged the audience to
support US troops. The troops are simply doing their job, suggested
King, who went on to say that the problem is the US government's
policy, not the country's loyal service members. Spectators along the
march route were extremely encouraging. The vast majority clearly
opposed the war.
The next NWIAW meeting will be at 6:30 PM on Thursday, May 22, 2003 at
Moraine Student Center, Indiana University Northwest, in Gary. The
focus will be planning future activities for: 1) education; 2) direct
political action; and 3) networking. Everyone is welcome.
For more information, telephone: Julia Chary at 219) 938-0913; Email: NWIAgainstWar@aol.com; Website: NWIAgainstWar;
Listserv: To subscribe to the NWIAW listserv, send a blank email to
NWIantiwar-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. You will receive a notice asking
to confirm your subscription to the group.
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DISCUSSION
Question(s) related to this article:
How can we work against war while supporting our military personnel?
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MARCHES AND PROTESTS
LATEST READER COMMENT:
Sujet : The Vigils--All Across America.
Date : 8/18/05 9:46:20 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: moveon-help@list.moveon.org (Tom Matzzie, MoveOn.org Political Action)
To: coordinator@cpnn-usa.org
Dear MoveOn member,
Last
night's Vigils for Cindy Sheehan were the largest event we've ever
organized. With the help of TrueMajority and Democracy for America, we
held 1,627 vigils together in all 50 states and the District of
Columbia. Well over 100,000 of us attended, from Alaska to Florida,
Maine to Mississippi, Oregon to South Carolina and New York to Texas.
Here's
Cindy's report, from her own vigil in Crawford: "Our candlelight vigil
at Camp Casey was beautiful. There were hundreds of people here and we
are hearing that hundreds of people were involved in vigils around the
country. We at Camp Casey are so amazed and gratified that there were
almost 1700 vigils around the country."
You can see pictures from the vigils, read reports, and look at a map of all the vigil locations at:
http://www.political.moveon.org/cindyvigils/pics.html? =&id=5916-1914697-bvaNaOBtT2Y3IR8NuW4utw&t=14
The vigils were covered by hundreds of media outlets across the nation.. . ...more.
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