As the second anniversary of September 11th approaches, we are compelled by a growing sense of urgency: to stop 9/11 from being used for political gain; to speak out against the chaos and death resulting from the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq; to demand political policies that recognize our interdependence with the rest of the world; and to remember that millions of people around the globe share our goal of working toward peaceful tomorrows. More than ever, we thank you for your continuing support.
Please join us in creating Circles of Hope to commemorate the two-year
anniversary of our loved ones deaths on September 11. We plan to
encircle the World Trade Center site with a candlelight vigil on
the night of September 10, 2003. Gather with us in New York City
or create a Circle of Hope candlelight vigil on September 10 or
11th in your own community and link it to other circles by registering
your event on the Peaceful Tomorrows website. More than 80 Circles
of Hope events are already being planned--we urge you to get involved!
Also view our discussion circle materials including the topics: "9/11,
Was it War?", "Patriotism and Disent," and "Spiritual Responses
to 9/11." Organize
a Peaceful Tomorrows discussion circle in your community. http://www.peacefultomorrows.org/circles/discussion/
Peaceful Tomorrows invites you to a candlelight vigil to encircle
the World Trade Center site on the evening of 9/10. Download the
WTC Vigil Flyer and spread the word! (Acrobat PDF format) http://www.peacefultomorrows.org/PDF/CircleofHope.pdf
PEACEFUL TOMORROWS NEW BOOK: TURNING OUR GRIEF INTO ACTION
FOR PEACE
Spread the message of Peaceful Tomorrows by purchasing our new
book! "September 11th Families For Peaceful Tomorrows: Turning our Grief into Action for Peace" tells
the story of how we came together to form our group, and how we
have struggled to keep our losses from being used as a justification
for further violence and terror. Written by David Potorti, along
with original essays from members of the group including Ryan Amundson,
Myrna Bethke, Derrill Bodley, Kelly Campbell, Colleen Kelly, Rita
Lasar, Kristina Olsen, Andrew Rice, and Terry Rockefeller.
This soft cover book is 250 pages and retails for $14.95. It's
published by RDV Books/Akashic Books and is available through local
bookstores or online through Akashic Books, BookSense, Amazon,
Powell's, or other book outlets. It's available to the trade through
Consortium Book Sales & Distribution and other major wholesalers.
ISBN 0-9719206-4-8.
“Voices of great courage, healing, and wisdom... A beautiful
and
important book.” --
Ron Kovic, author of Born on the Fourth of July
“The members of Peaceful Tomorrows have truly honored the memories
of their loved ones by exploring ways to promote peace, rather
than advance war.” -- U.S.
Congresswoman Barbara Lee
BOOK RELEASE EVENT AND PUBLIC FORUM ON SEPTEMBER 8TH
Join Peaceful Tomorrows members and special
guests including Janeane Garofalo and Amy Goodman in New York
City for a reception, book signing and public forum entitled, "Beyond
September 11th: New Paths to Peaceful Tomorrows." It
takes place between 6:30-9pm at the Puffin Room in Soho, 435 Broome
Street (between Broadway and Crosby).
Author David Potorti and book contributors Myrna Bethke, Kelly
Campbell, Colleen Kelly, Rita Lasar, Andrew Rice, and Terry Rockefeller
will be on hand – plus Catherine Allison, Megan Bartlett,
John Leinung, Bob McIlvaine, Paula Shapiro, Adele Welty, other
Peaceful
tomorrows
members.
And please
contact us with ideas for book events or speaking events in your
own community by contacting speakersbureau@peacefultomorrows.org.
“I have so much admiration for Peaceful Tomorrows— people of
courage and conviction. This book is a powerful reminder that the
cycle of violence and retaliation can and must be broken.” --
Michael Moore
“Peaceful Tomorrows should give us hope in a hopeless time,
and
their courage in a fearful time should give us bravery.” — Grace
Paley, poet and author
“No one can speak with a more powerful voice or with more authority
on the need for peace and justice in our society than Peaceful Tomorrows.” —
U.S. Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich
“A clear-eyed view of the path toward true security... Their tears have not blinded
them to the interdependence of all humanity; nor have unfolding scenes of destruction
and revenge obscured their vision of peace.” — Dr.
Bob Edgar, General Secretary, National Council of Churches
“Moving stories, inspiring stories... They remind us that violence need not rule
our minds, our lives, that a different way of thinking is possible.” — Howard
Zinn, author of A People’s
History of the United States
------------------------------------------------------------------------ PEACEFUL TOMORROWS JOINS MILITARY FAMILIES
Peaceful Tomorrows' David Potorti joined veterans and members of
military families in a press conference announcing the launch of
the "Bring Them Home Now" Campaign during at stop in Fayetteville,
North Carolina on August 14. The press conference included Nancy
Lessin and Charley Richardson (Military Families Speak Out), Susan
Schuman, the mother of Justin C. Schuman, a sergeant in the Massachusetts
National Guard stationed in Samarra, north of Baghdad; Michael
T. McPhearson (Veterans for Peace) a field artillery officer during
Desert Shield/Desert Storm; Fernando Suarez del Solar, the father
of Marine Lance Cpl Jesus Suarez, one of the first U.S. servicemen
killed in Iraq; and Stan Goff, a retired Special Forces Master
Sergeant in 1996. Please join us in supporting this important new
voice for peace.
PEACEFUL TOMORROWS SPREADS MESSAGE ON GLOBE-CIRCLING “PEACE
BOAT”
At the beginning of this summer, Peaceful Tomorrows' Ryan Amundson
boarded "The Peace Boat" in Japan and embarked on a nation-to-nation journey to educate and enter into dialogue with people from different cultures about peace and human rights issues. Peaceful Tomorrows' Valerie Lucznikowska joined the program in Portugal, and together they arrived in New York to take part in August 8th commemorations of the bombing of Nagasaki. Peaceful Tomorrows' Beverly Eckert accompanied them in a series of short speeches at Battery Park City alongside Japanese atomic bomb survivors, or Hibakusha, before leading a Peace Boat delegation on a visit to the “Ground Zero” site
in lower Manhattan.
The following day, Peaceful Tomorrows' Dawn Peterson spoke along
with Peace Boat founding member Yoshioka Tatsuya at a "Ceremony for Peace and Disarmament," commemorating
those who were lost after the U.S. bombing of Nagasaki. They were
joined by other speakers including Amano Fumiko (a Japanese Hibakusha),
Cora Weiss (President, Hague Appeal for Peace), and an array of
international musicians and dancers.
“During the last two months, I've become close friends with the other International
Students coming from Palestine, Israel, India, Pakistan, Bosnia, Serbia and Cyprus
as well as passengers and crew from all around the world,” said Ryan Amundson. “We've
traveled together through Okinawa, Vietnam, Singapore, India, Kenya,
Egypt, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal. Throughout my
life I've been told that there can never be peace because people
of different nations are so different. After meeting people from
all over the world, I am certain of one thing: people everywhere
are the same. It may sound naive, but not nearly as naive as believing
the assertion that people are so radically different that we must
accept violence as a way to solve conflict. It is so crucial for
civil society to build bonds and work for peace.”
We rekindled our treasured relationship with the people of Japan
when Terry Rockefeller and Derrill Bodley joined the 2003 World
Conference Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
August 3-9, 2003. Here is Terry's speech delivered at the Nagasaki
conference:
I am honored and humbled to open this International Meeting
of the 2003 World Conference Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs.
I
have come here as a woman whose younger sister my only sibling was
killed in the violent, terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
At 6AM that day my sister, Laura, left her apartment and went
to the World Trade Center to work for just two days helping to
run
a conference on information technology. It was a job she took
to pay her rent. Laura was a singer and an actress and she dreamed
of being a Broadway star. No one in my family imagined that Laura
was anywhere near the World Trade Center when the airplanes struck.
It was the profound lesson of how violence and war take the lives
of the truly innocent that my sister’s death taught me, that
lead me to join September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows.
We are an organization of relatives of 9/11 victims who have
joined together to oppose war to avenge our loved ones’ deaths...
PEACEFUL TOMORROWS MEMBERS IN WASHINGTON, DC FOR RELEASE OF 9/11
JOINT INQUIRY REPORT
Peaceful Tomorrows' Bob McIlvaine, who lost his son at the World
Trade Center, and David Potorti, who lost his brother at the World
Trade Center, joined other family members in Washington, DC for
the July 24th release of the “Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After September 11, 2001,” or
JIIC Report.
The 900-page document was welcomed and appreciated as a significant
addition to the body of facts surrounding 9/11, although the scope
of the inquiry was limited by design to the actions of intelligence
agencies in reference to the terrorist attacks. In addition, large
portions of the text were classified, and subsequently deleted
from the text, by President Bush. While he is empowered by law
to be the sole arbiter of these decisions, we support a legislative
remedy creating a balance of power in this regard. “There's a lot of information in here,” said Senator Richard Shelby, Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, “but there's a lot of information that's not in here, but should be.” In
fact, the political wrangling over what would be classified resulted
in a seven-month delay between the report's filing (December, 2002)
and release (July, 2003). We believe that such delays are unacceptable
at a time when America remains a target of Al-Qaeda, whose abilities
to commit terrorism appear undiminished..
And we hope that similar wrangling will not delay the May, 2004
release of the report to be made by the independent commission,
or “National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.”
While members of the House and Senate who spoke that day repeatedly
said that the JIIC report was “not about assigning blame,” we feel
that demanding accountability in all areas of our government is
the only way to prevent the mistakes of the past from being repeated
in the future. Peaceful Tomorrows has on several occasions asked
President Bush to stop using the deaths of our loved ones on September
11th as a reason to undertake military actions which will invariably
cause the deaths of other innocent civilians.
The cynical use of 9/11 as a reason to invade Iraq and unsubstantiated links made between Iraq and Al-Qaeda have been particularly offensive to us. To the extent that this report sheds light on the veracity of those claims, we applaud it; to the extent that the “redacted” or
censored portions create a vacuum into which anything can be suggested
about anyone, we again express our disapproval.
We also support the work of the independent commission, whose report
will be filed in May, 2004, and hope that the broader scope of
its mission will answer questions that remain unanswered by the
JIIC. We remain deeply curious about the response of the Defense
Department to the terrorist attacks, while they were occurring,
on the morning of September 11, 2001. And we encourage a vigorous
investigation into business and financial links among Saudi Arabia,
the hijackers, and other nations, including our own. Only by following
the facts about these and other issues, wherever they might lead,
will we have the opportunity to understand and to prevent future
9/11's. This is one of the chief concerns of September 11th Families
for Peaceful Tomorrows.
The July 24 press conference was also an opportunity for members
of Peaceful Tomorrows to join with other 9/11 family advocates
(see our links page), including Carol Ashley, Kristin Breitweiser,
Beverly Eckert, Mary Fetchet, Mindy Kleinberg, Robin Wiener, and
others, who have so tirelessly focused on the need to investigate
September 11th, and whose efforts have proven instrumental in the
creation of an independent commission. We applaud their work, and
stand in solidarity with all family members in support of our common
goal: to see that no other family in the world will have to suffer
the pain we suffered from the terrorist attacks of September 11th.
Peaceful Tomorrows' Bob McIlvaine and David Potorti were present
in Washington, DC for the release of the "Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001." They expressed their solidarity with other family groups in demanding accountability for failures leading up to, and during, the attacks. They also asked for full cooperation by government agencies to promote a timely release of the ongoing Independent Commission Report, officially called the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, due in May of 2004. Among Peaceful Tomorrows goals are "to
demand a full, fair and open investigation into the September 11th
attacks that took the lives of our loved ones."
MOVING VISIONS: DOCUMENTARY FEATURING 9-11 FAMILIES FOR PEACEFUL
TOMORROWS MEMBER TO BE PREVIEWED AT ARLINGTON, VA MUSIC FESTIVAL
Concertgoers attending Arlington, Virginia's
first annual “Coming Together: A World Music Concert,” featuring
Kronos Quartet, Sept.
13, 6 -10 p.m. at the Netherlands Carillon will preview “Moving
Visions,” a
public art oral history film project reflecting on life since 9/11,
created by filmmaker
Liz Canner, and featuring Peaceful Tomorrows Online Coordinator
Barry Amundson. People affected from every walk of life -- a politician,
day laborer, student leader,
historian,
court
dancer,
battalion fire chief, Muslim educator and a peace activist
-- donned “Wear-Cams” (a
small video camera) attached to eyeglasses,
providing a view of life through their eyes, accompanied
by recorded commentary. Segments of the documentary will be played
between each musical act. The
full work will be shown in multiple outdoor public venues September
26 - 29.
WAR RESISTERS LEAGUE ANNUAL DINNER AND PEACE AWARD HONORS SEPTEMBER
11TH FAMILIES FOR PEACEFUL TOMORROWS
Peaceful Tomorrows was humbled to join the ranks of previous honorees
including Jeannette Rankin, Dorothy Day, Daniel Berrigan, Grace
Paley , Plowshares Disarmament Community, Vietnam Veterans Against
the War, Christian Peacemaker Teams and movement musicians including
Odetta, Charlie King, People's Voice Cafe, and Pete Seeger in being
honored with the War Resisters League Peace Award.
We deeply appreciate the support of the War Resisters League, particularly
in helping make our 9/10/02 "Vigil for Peaceful Tomorrows" such
a success, and we honor the long-standing role they have played
in recognizing and furthering the causes of so many like-minded
individuals and organizations.
PEACEFUL TOMORROWS ELECTED TO STEERING COMMITTEE OF UNITED FOR
PEACE AND JUSTICE
Peaceful Tomorrows members Rita Lasar and Kelly Campbell were delegates
to the United for Peace and Justice National Strategy Conference
in Chicago this June, along with more than 550 people representing
more than 325 organizations around the country. Kelly Campbell
of Peaceful Tomorrows was elected by the attendees to serve on
the coalition's national steering committee.
"I am honored and excited to play a role in this dynamic, grassroots-based coalition
of diverse organizations," said Campbell. "Through
UFPJ, Peaceful Tomorrows is linked to hundreds of other organizations
working toward the collective goals of peace and justice."
We're adding Alabama and Arkansas to the states we've visited,
or will visit soon, for the first time! We have now spoken at more
than 220 events in 28 states and eight foreign countries. If you'd
like to bring a Peaceful Tomorrows speaker to your community, or
to organize a speaking event to mark the release of our new book
contact speakersbureau@peacefultomorrows.org.
CONTRIBUTE
Peaceful Tomorrows does not receive funding from 9/11
charities and depends entirely on individual donations and grants
to
continue our work. In tough economic times we depend on you,
more than
ever, to make our pursuit of Peaceful Tomorrows possible. Tax-deductible
donations may be sent to:
Peaceful Tomorrows / Tides Center
PO Box 1818
Peter Stuyvesant
Station
New York, NY 10009
As the military operation in Iraq continues, September 11th
Families for Peaceful Tomorrows continues to hold our troops and
their families,
along with all innocent civilians affected by terrorism and war
in Afghanistan, Iraq and around the world, in our prayers. We reaffirm
our commitment to the Constitutional principles and adherence to
international law that have made America respected throughout the
world, and acknowledge the responsibility we hold in leading our
leaders towards peaceful tomorrows.
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