Peaceful tomorrows for 9/11 Patriot Day 2008

PEACEFUL TOMORROWS FOR 9/11 PATRIOT DAY 2008
In search of a nonviolent response to 9/11.
Patriot Day commemorates the victims of the 9-11 attacks on the WTC, but it was also used to justify the illegal invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and to subvert our Constitution in the Patriot Act and other anti-democratic laws. In contrast, the Indonesian response to the Bali bombings was to search, find, and prosecute the criminals. India endures almost daily political or religious violence, recently even an entire train burned and the passengers murdered, but without accusing and attacking Pakistan or some country the other side of the planet, and without dismantling India’s democratic institutions and protections. In contrast to the Bush Administration's invasions and permanent world "war against terrorism," September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows was created by families opposed to the vengeance of the Afghanistan invasion and the self-maiming of the Patriot Act. They mourned the death of innocent victims here and everywhere, including those who died at the hands of our military and militaries allied with the US. (CD)
OMNI’s National DAYS project is one more series of actions building a CULTURE OF PEACE in NWA. Because a public and their leaders are formed in numerous ways, including by institutions, we must change them too. OMNI’s Culture of Peace program (derived from the UN, and shared with Peaceful Tomorrows, the AFSC and FCNL, and many other peace organizations) offers an alternative, and a plan. It is long-range, and it is multifarious, but it is nonetheless clear, composed as it is of specific alternatives to the pervasive warfare state. And of course if we do nothing the totalitarians will win. So we are affirming DAYS that support nonviolent peace, social and economic justice, human rights, and the environment, and offering alternatives to Days that do not. Join OMNI and choose a DAY or DAYS for peaceful tomorrows.
Dick Bennett

Friday, September 5th 2008

9/11 Families and the Military Commission Trials by John Leinung
Whoever Says by Siena Faughnan
Speech at Westchester Hispanic Coalition Press Conference by Valerie Lucznikowska
Papers Please: What the Real ID Act Means for American Values by Valerie Lucznikowska
Global Peace Day by John Titus
Shaping the Legacy of 9/11
]eligious Faith, Torture, and Our National Soul9/11 - Evangelicals for Human Rights, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, and Mercer University, host a 2-day national summit on torture in Atlanta, GA, featuring the nation's top thinkers and leaders in the anti-torture community. Al Filipov Peace & Justice Forum9/20 - (Time TBD)Each September, the forum sponsors a nationally known speaker on topics of peace and justice in the Christian-Judeo tradition. The forum is a tribute to Al Filipov who was killed on 9-11-01, when Flight 11 crashed into the World Trade Center. Al believed that an individual, ac! ting on principles, can make a profound difference in the world.

Anniversary of the Bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima
Remembering the London Bombings
PT Member attends Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan by Terry Rockefeller
Peaceful Tomorrows members visit Groton Middle School and contribute to The Worlds Largest B! ook on Peace by Terry Greene & Anthony Aversano
In Remembrance of April 19, 1995 - Oklahoma City
International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda

PT member appears on WBAI's "Heart of Mind" to speak about PT's work with LAONF
U.S. to televise Guantanamo trials to 9-11 families by Jane Sutton
Stonewalk, Korea
PT Members appear in "Finding Our Voices"
Terry Kay Rockefeller on PRI's "The World"
Democracy Now: Protesters in Berlin For German troops Out of Afghanistan
Anniversary of the Bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima

A Letter to the Hibakusha on the 63rd Anniversary of the Bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima

August 6th and 9th mark the passing of 63 years since the atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima by the United States of America. There remain many men and women in Japan, the Hibakusha, who are themselves survivors or are the subsequent generations who bear the scars of that horror, who long for peace in the world and the banning of nuclear weapons by all the world's powers. Yet still they wait...

LaOnf 2008: A Project for Promoting Nonviolent Solutions in Iraq

The Iraqi civil-society organization LaOnf (which means no violence in Arabic) is a network of Iraqi activists building a nonviolence movement to resist occupation, terrorism and corruption in Iraq.

Peaceful Tomorrows is launching a Solidarity Campaign in support of LaOnf. You can get involved by screening of a documentary on LaOnf in your home or community!

Click Here for More Info and to Search for a Screening in Your Area

Click Here to Sign Up to Host a Screening

Click Here to Go to the Host Campaign Resources Webpage

Read More ;


"N" was a schoolteacher in Iraq, and was instrumental in setting up 121 Contact, a program in which American and Iraqi children exchanged emails, to give a face to those living in war as well as allowing the students the opportunity to see how their similarities far outweighed their differences. "N" is currently residing in the U.S.

First Anniversary
a poem by "N," the Baghdad schoolteacher in NYC

Away from Iraq for the first time.
Away from my room,
its corners that I adore
where I left my small dreams on my pillow.
Where I left my sleep and my peace on my bed... maybe forever.

9/11 Family Members Sign Letter Decrying Politicization of Guantanamo Military Commissions(More...)


Peaceful Tomorrows supports the John Adams Project: Standing up for Justice in the Military Commissions Proceedings. (More...)

International Network for Peace
Iraqi Civilians
Peaceful Tomorrows Brochure [pdf]
"What's Next?" Resources for Action [pdf]
Afghan Portraits of Grief [pdf]
Steps to PeaceStreaming Video [15 mins]
! Steps to Peace Song, by Derrill Bodley [mp3]
Art of Being Kind by Kristina Olsen Tynes[mp3]

OMNI SEEKS A WORLD FREE OF WAR AND THE THREAT OF WAR, A SOCIETY WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL, A COMMUNITY WHERE EVERY PERSONS POTENTIAL MAY BE FULFILLED, AN EARTH RESTORED. GRASSROOTS NONVIOLENCE, WORLD PEACE, HUMAN RIGHTS, SOCIAL and ECONOMIC JUSTICE, ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP PROTECTING SPECIES AND THE EARTH. These are OMNI's ideals. Read our brochure and our newsletters, attend our Steering Committee, become an active member of one or more of our committees, participate in our dozens of activities to see how these broad goals are realized in action. There is nothing vague about Building a Culture of Peace.
Dick Bennett
jbennet@uark.edu
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