9/11 Family Group Commemorates One-Year Anniversary of Turning Grief Into Action for Peace
NEW YORK, NY– September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, a group of family members of September 11th victims seeking alternatives to war, will celebrate its first anniversary with an evening of music and spoken word, the night before it leads the “World Says No to War” march in New York City. The event takes place Friday, February 14, from 8-10pm at Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South, in New York City. The event is free and open to the public; donations are welcomed.
Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) hosts the evening, which features speakers including Dr. Bob Edgar (National Council of Churches), Charley Richardson and Nancy Lessin (Military Families Speak Out), Phyllis Bennis (Institute for Policy Studies), Peter Laarman (Judson Memorial Church), Janet Chisholm (Fellowship of Reconciliation), Masuda Sultan (Women for Afghan Women), Medea Benjamin (Global Exchange), Father Simon Harak (Voices in the Wilderness), Frances Goldin, reading a special message from author Barbara Kingsolver, and Adrienne Leban, who also will create a display of “Peace Mandalas”
Musical guests include Stephan Smith, Joyce Katzberg, Bill Harley and Debbie Block, the Musician’s Alliance for Peace, J.C. Hopkins and Martha Wainwright, Rozz Nash and Imani Uzuri, along with Peaceful Tomorrows members Kristina Olsen and Derrill Bodley.
Other members of Peaceful Tomorrows, all of whom lost loved ones on September 11th, will participate in the event, including those who traveled to Afghanistan and Iraq on behalf of the organization, as well as new members who will meet others in the group for the first time.
Peaceful Tomorrows is a nonpartisan advocacy organization founded by family members of September 11th victims who have united to turn their grief into action for peace. Their mission is to seek effective, nonviolent solutions to terrorism, and to acknowledge their common experience with all people similarly affected by violence throughout the world. By conscientiously exploring peaceful means in their search for justice, they seek to break the endless cycle of violence and retaliation engendered by war.
The February 15 march permit is currently in dispute with the City of New York. For updated information on the rally and march, visit www.unitedforpeace.org.
