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Sept 27 2011 Iraq's non-violent movements persist, even though...

While it is true that violence has been on the decline there is still plenty to go around. Latest incidents are usually associated with targeted assassinations of political, police, and military officers. A resurgence of Sunni/Shia violence has recently been noted between Anbar and Karbala extremists in tit-for-tat killings of innocent civilians.

And yet, there is movement towards more peaceful tomorrows.

Next Month's ICSSI convention will bring together Iraqi peace and justice workers from all over the country. This summer saw the Interfaith Cooperation Project and Al-Sumaria TV launch a film school and exploration of Iraq's long history as a diverse religious community.

More and more we find these expressions of the new Iraq. Just this month The Iraq Foundation (IF) began r a two-year project to improve the quality of life of marginalized widows in disadvantaged areas and equip them to be productive contributing participants in the Iraqi economy and Iraqi society. The project will be implemented in the Baghdad, Ninawah, Maysan, Basra and Dhi Qar governorates of Iraq.

But it's not over yet:

War News for Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Baghdad:
#1: Gunmen using silenced weapons killed Iraqi Army Brigadier General Talal Belasim and his wife in their car near a mosque in the Amil district of southwestern Baghdad, an interior ministry source said. 
#2: A roadside bomb wounded three people in the Jamiaa district of western Baghdad, an interior ministry source said. 
#3: Gunmen using silenced weapons killed Mohammed Ali, office manager of the Minister of Health, in the Yarmouk district of west-central Baghdad, an interior ministry source said. 
The Director of Iraq's Healthy Minister's Office has been assassinated by a group of unknown gunmen in western Baghdad on Monday, a security source reported.
#4: Gunmen in a speeding car opened fire at a police checkpoint, killing a policeman and wounding two others in the Shaab district of northern Baghdad, police said. 

Diwaniya:
#1: Gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on an imam of a mosque in central Diwaniya, 150 km (95 miles) south of Baghdad, seriously wounding him and killing one of his relatives, a police source said. 

Kirkuk:
#1: A roadside bomb killed three people and wounded another in the southwestern outskirts of Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. 

Mosul:
#1: A Kurdish peshmerga soldier was killed and another was wounded in a clash between troops and villagers in a disputed area of Nineveh province northwest of Mosul, which is 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

#2: Gunmen killed an off-duty soldier in the eastern outskirts of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

#2: Gunmen opened fire at a police checkpoint and wounded a policeman in western Mosul, police said

WE SALUTE THE IRAQI PEOPLE, THE VAST MAJORITY OF IRAQIS OF ALL FAITHS, AS THEY CONTINUE TO WORK FOR MORE PEACEFUL TOMORROWS.

 

 

 

Sept 9 2011 It's the Republicans, stupid. Vote 'em out!

You can focus on jobs. It wont do a thing.

You can focus on infrastructure. It wont do anything either.

You can de-frustrate yourself all you want by bashing Obama. That wont help at all.

It's the intransigence of the Republicans that is keeping the U.S. from a more rapid and long-term-meaningful recovery.

In their zealous efforts to cripple Obama's remedies (and enhance their chances to stop him from winning a second term) their values have shifted. Defeating Obama has become more important to them than the well-being of Americans.

Vote 'em out.

[This madly early election advice is brought to you on
September 9, 2011 by Bruce Wallace, 121Contact]

 

 

October 8-9, 2011 3rd Conference of the Iraqi Civil Society Solidarity Initiative

Another Iraq is possible, with peace and human rights!

The ICSSI is hosting the 3rd Conference of the Iraqi Civil Society Solidarity Initiative ans the 1st International Marathon in Iraq for Peace and Nonviolence. October 7-9 will find representatives from each of Iraq's 18 governates as well as scores of international representatives gathering together in support of practical projects that promote human rights and social justice.

They are all committed to inclusive, non-discriminatory, non-corrupt government. Most of all they are staunchly committed to non-violence and change within the rule of law.

These are some of the faces in the driving force that will create a just state from the ashes of years of dictatorship, war, invasion, and occupation. 

(from the 2010 conference of the ICSSI)

 You can join the discussion and support these brave Iraqis:   http://icssi08.ning.com/

Bruce Wallace, of 121Contact, will be facilitating the sessions on Iraqi Youth in the New Iraq, focusing on giving voice to the young Iraqis involved in the new movement, and learning from them what support they desire from international organizations and individuals.

So, be warned. We'll be back to you after the conference to let you know what you can do to help Iraq on its long road to more peaceful tomorrows.

September 9, 2011 by Bruce Wallace, 121Contact

If you are able to contribute cash for travel and expenses please contact bruce@121Contact.org

Sept 17 2001 Peace in Hastings-on-the-Hudson

It was a pretty tense day of driving lessons as N has decided to take the wheel. She's really good at it but it is true that there were times my face was pale with fear of eminent doom.

In a gift of relaxation we ended the afternoon at Susan Rutman's beautiful home overlooking the Hudson River, in one of these warm, welcoming gatherings to celebrate and raise a little money for “Sept. 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows” and “Military Families Speak Out.” Peace and Non-violence,  Love and understanding, with lots of activism thrown in for the sake of reality.

We did get a chance to speak (Do we ever miss a chance to tell a tale or two?), but mostly we bathed in the camaraderie of fellow travellers on the long, slow road to more peaceful tomorrows.

Excellent music, dance, sing-alongs, and  food were the ground on which we built new friendships, met folks we knew from other events, and renewed our faith in what for us is 'the American way.'

They were all there. The folk you will find in most of these events. And they were all so very, very nice. I remember coming home from one of these events, it seems like so many years ago, but it was only 10 years in the past, and remarking about the wonderful people I had met. Marilyn said, "So who did you expect to meet at a meeting about Peace and Non-violence?"

From our travels and readings we know that all across the USA there are other small groups of compassionate people, such as the Westchester County Concerned Citizens, that meet regularly, march, write letters to their representatives, and generally include in their lives enough democratic participation to make a difference. Oh, it's slow. we know.

Evolution along the moral/social plane/line is about as fast as land-line-connect-speed, but it is inexorable. The relentless nature of the Peace Movement means we will keep at it, no matter the pace, no matter the nay sayers, no matter the periods of doubt and despair. We will keep coming and our children will follow, and we will reach the inevitable end of a world rich in compassion, poor in violence, and bountiful in its shared treasures.

And if you don't like it you can bury your head in the sand and keep voting Republican.

[More pictures on Facebook]

Sept 17 2011 "I choose not to choose who dies."

A fellow traveller in Peaceful Tomorrows, Rita L., said it and makes a lot of sense to me:

"I choose not to choose who dies."

Sep 14 2011 InterFaith NYC: Faith House Hosts Debbie Almontaser

In yet another showing of the heart of New York City, Faith House hosted an evening of "Discovering the Treasures of Islam in America." Debbie Almontaser's presentation was a personal account of an American woman's awakening to Islam, and how Islam in America holds a special place in the pantheon of religious experience. Readings from the Koran began the event.

No stranger to recent turmoil surrounding American Muslims, Almontaser (founding/former principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy and founding board member of The Dialogue Project) brought wit and warmth to the room, enabling the evening’s primary activities of people of all faiths talking in small groups and then together. We shared tales of our different faiths, paths, and then food!

Faith House, I think, succeeded once again in bringing people together and breaking a little more of the walls that divide us. I spoke with 'progressive Muslims' here, got to talk to a rabbinical student, an atheist, and...well, you know, it is New York City after all.

Sept. 14, 2011 by Bruce Wallace, 121Contact

Sept 13 2011 "Your 9/11 is our 24/7," and other 10 year memorial thoughts...

Oh, it's not original. It's been around for a while, but this year it seemed more pungent somehow, more odious, outrageous, disrespectful, and horribly true.

"Your 9/11 is our 24/7" Facebook saw it posted over and over; multiple "Letters to the Editor" columns, and innumerable blogs (including this one) carried the bleak comparison. Google carried 79,400,000 hits. There must be something to it. After all, it was just yesterday that a busload of familiesm headed out of Iraq to Syriam was intercepted by armed men dressed in military uniforms. All the women and children were forced off and told to march across the desert. The bus was later found a few miles down the road. All the men who remained on board were executed.

What? Sure, the body counts are inversely proportional to the asymmetry of the warfare, as are the vastly more unbalanced  count of injured. Sure, also, the number of people deeply affected by long term trauma are also weighed heavily on the side of 'the enemy'; 'the other'; the 'not with us, therefore against us'...the very people we claimed to be helping.

It is ten years since the term 'ground zero' got applied to the ruins of the World Trade Center in New York City, U.S.A. It's first use in print was in a 1946 New York Times article: "The intense heat of the blast started fires as far as 3,500 feet from 'ground zero' (the point on the ground directly under the bomb's explosion in the air)." It was a catchy 2001 phrase and caught on quickly as the media frenzy began to take hold. "Collateral damage" came in second, I think, as Americans began to understand the reality behind that phrase. But only a few Americans.

It was the proximity factor that did us in; prevented us from attaining the moral high ground; interfered with our grasping the simplest of truths: This was not a time for revenge, but a time to dig deep and find the peaceful paths to victory.Unfortunately, fear carried the day and made it easy for the Bushmen to manipulate public opinion.

If you lost a loved one, a friend, an acquaintance, then you knew the pain of collateral damage. If you were witness to the attack or a rescue/recovery worker, on the scene as we were, then the meaning of collateral damage was clear. It was in the air. It was in the stinking smell of death that permeated your clothes, your pillow, and stubbornly refused to leave  your nostrils. It was the stench that had you double over with vomit spewing from your mouth and nose.

But if you were a TV witness, then all was probably transformed for you. That media wall protected you from a deeper, sadder understanding of the phrase. Collateral damage. Collateral damage. Many Americans were already filled with compassion, but the curtain of distance kept the majority of us from a visceral, emotional understanding of the events and their consequences. Not, however, from a stirring of our basest emotional triggers that spawned a taste for revenge.

Repeated film clips of the bodies falling (note: not referred to as people jumping to their deaths), the towers collapsing, the smoke and debris rushing toward the camera...all stirring flight/fight responses that were unanswerable from the living room. This left us with untapped energies that the administration could manipulate to its own ends.

And now, the now of 9/11, the now of Bush's decisions, we were to inflict collateral damage on Afghanistan, and then Iraq. To win the "war on terror?" I think not. To take revenge, send a message, appear strong in a modern warfare way? I think so.

And then came what no one was able to predict in scale. Many had opined that using violence would only lead to more violence. Many had stood and tried to stop the carnage they knew would only create more enemies than it killed. But few, if any, knew the extent of the horror we would unleash in Iraq.

We aren't any safer. We don't understand much more about the mind of the terrorist or how to steer young people away from paths of destruction. We haven't brought the world's nations any closer. What did we gain? A lot of money for the war-suppliers, a lot of weapons know-how, and a lot of enemies.

"Your 9/11 is our 24/7" became an ironic truth. One bumper sticker said, "Be nice to America or we'll bring Democracy to your nation." We were still able to joke about it,  but to this day, and forward many generations, there are Iraqis who will be hard pressed to find the humor in the pain we unleashed upon their nation, their people, their generations of young Iraqis growing up traumatized by what surrounded them day after day for so many years.

It's never too late to learn. It's not too late to admint the errors of our foreign policies. It's not too late to teach young ones about compassion and the folly of using violence to solve problems.

"Your 9/11 is our 24/7." It's not a joke.

What if we made September the International Month of Peace Studies? What if we made the eleventh of September a day of rememberance for all those lost to political violence in all countries in all times? What if we began to steer this world toward more peaceful tomorrows?

September 13, 2001 by Bruce Wallace, 121Contact

 

Sept 11, 2011

9/11 is not about how many died. It is about _each_ one who died. There is true mourning within the media spectacle of 9/11 and we must remember without comparing,  the mourning in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Israel...so many places, so many lives...how long will it take to learn? But we will evolve, and we will know more peaceful tomorrows. Inshallah.