WE ARE NOT ALONE

    Like Bronx Action for Justice and Peace, there are dozens of neighborhood peace groups throughout the country that formed in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11. We thought it might be nice to connect with some of those groups to find out what they're up to and share experiences. Here are just a couple who responded to our e-mail.
-Compiled by Jordan Moss

North Texas Coalition for a Just Peace

    The North Texas Coalition for a Just Peace is a group of North Texans who have been meeting since September 11. Our objectives are to promote peaceful solutions through justice, not war; to defend against racist attacks; and to protect our civil liberties. We strive to achieve these goals by calling public demonstrations, sponsoring educational forums and debates, and participating in activities that promote peace.

    Our main focus over the last 11 months has been sponsoring public forums to learn about and discuss issues related to the war on terrorism, and to call demonstrations to oppose the war and promote non-violent alternatives to stopping terrorism. Some of the forums we've sponsored include a September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows speaker, civil liberties, MLK event, links of global terrorism and the global economy, media coverage of the Middle East, and a Colombian peace and labor activist. (For details about any of these, go to www.northtexaspeace.org and click on Past Activities.)

    Some of the demonstrations we've held include a peace rallies in Dallas in October and March, a peace rally in Crawford,TX (where Pres. Bush's ranch is) in April, leafleting the post office on tax day, and a few other street activities. We also sent several dozen to the April 20 Peace march in DC. We are planning to go back to Crawford at the end of this month to voice our dissent for the planned war in Iraq. I expect this to be a big event.

    For September 11, we are planning an all-night vigil that will close with an interfaith prayer service on the morning of Sept. 11. As you can imagine, Texas is full of people who strongly support any military action. Texans benefit from war from the weapons sales and from the protection of American oil companies overseas. We tend to see the same 200 or so people at our events, but we are growing slowly. Media coverage at our events has been poor. We recently had 1000 "no war in Iraq" stickers printed up and are encouraging people to put them in public restrooms, Coke machines, etc.

    Good luck with your efforts. We are not alone, and we are growing!
-Julie Ryan
North Texas Coalition for a Just Peace

Neighbors for Peace

    Neighbors for Peace, which meets in Evanston, a suburb just north of Chicago, grew out of an informal meeting held at someone's home that first Friday after 9/11/01. Friends and neighbors gathered to talk and support each other, both in the aftermath of 9/11, and in anticipation of the horrible retribution that was soon to be unleashed upon Afghanistan. We've been meeting on Thursdays ever since, and engaging in a range of activities promoting peace & justice.

    Our Web site is www.neighborsforpeace.org.

    A few events we sponsored include: 1) Town Hall Meeting with U.S. Representative Jan Shakowsky, on Dec. 9. 500 people attended. 2) We co-hosted a community forum on Palestine in April 2002 with the group Voices In the Wilderness with 300 people in attendance. 3) We marched in the annual Evanston 4th of July Parade with a peace train. 50 activists pushed and marched alongside a rolling peace train that we decorated with pictures and quotes of our peace heroes, people like Dr. King, Emma Goldman and Helen Keller. We got a positive response from about 1/4 to 1/3 of the red, white and blue audience, which many of us felt was very encouraging. This was perhaps our boldest and most rewarding work to date.

    Regarding the anniversary of 9/11, we are planning several events, including a peace vigil on Friday, 9/13 in downtown Evanston, and a "One Year Later, Where Do We Stand" community forum on 9/8 that will include several small discussion groups on current topics like the so-called "war on terror", the state of our civil liberties, and others.

    Good luck with your efforts and send us a copy of your newsletter when it's ready!
Peace.
-Scott Gilbert
Neighbors for Peace

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