APRIL 2019
OUR WORK:
Our members travel to Guantánamo on a regular basis. Some of them still are processing the emotionally challenging experience. One of them is Jessica Murphy. Read her poignant article on how she experienced her visit.
“In Taíno, an indigenous language of the Caribbean islands, Guantanámo means “land between the rivers.” It is the name of a province in southeast Cuba and its capital city. It is also the name of the oldest US overseas naval base, established in 1903. Nearly a 100 years later, in January 2002, the base became the site of an infamous detention camp. The word has come to represent a generation of violence against Muslims, of fear-driven reactionary policies, of crimes against humanity in the name of national security, of exceptionalism, and of lawlessness.” Click on image to read more:
PT’s Afghanistan Committee and its members initiated another vital donation in support of the Afghan Peace Volunteers (APV) this year. The APV continue to reach out to peace communities around the world through their Borderfree Center and Global Days of Listening and to create living institutions for peace in the Gandhian tradition of constructive work. Amid ongoing war and occupation, they run a school for street kids, a program sewing and distributing duvets in Kabul’s harsh winters and nascent skilled producers’ cooperatives for the unemployed. In their work they are modeling and bringing to birth another world.
This work and our connection to it are made possible through Kathy Kelly, our longtime ally and co-coordinator at Voices for Creative Nonviolence. Kathy is constantly traveling and has offered to be available for events our members might organize locally. Having just concluded a hunger strike for peace in Yemen, the word “committed” doesn’t begin to describe her peace activism. Kathy is a brilliant organizer, teacher and story teller with, as she says, “the Irish gift,” who transforms her years of witnessing in war zones with such illumination and warmth that she uplifts and replenished those fortunate to hear her for the hard work ahead. Read one of her latest messages ‘Every War Is A War Against Children.’
OUR PARTNERS:
We thank Robyn B. Donati and Gloria Williams for creating our “We Are One” event last month!
From Our Hearts to Yours, We Stand Together: Peaceful Tomorrows responded to the shooting at a New Zealand mosque. “….Our family members were killed by nineteen men with a hateful and twisted ideology. Muslims in the Christchurch attack, worshipping at their place of prayer, were also killed by a man with a hateful and twisted ideology. Violence is never the answer.”…CLICK HERE to read the entire statement.
On March 24, Gloria Williams attended the New York Muslims and Allies to Rally Against Islamophobia and Hate Violence organized, in part, in response to the New Zealand attacks. Muslim groups and allies, including Peaceful Tomorrows, called for action challenging growing Islamophobia, white supremacy, and anti-immigrant bigotry. The event was organized by the
Kathy Kelly
