Of the many possible responses to the atrocity of bombing the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, bombing Afghanistan is not likely to be the most effective or appropriate. Family members of victims of the attack have joined together to seek peaceful alternatives that will more effectively identify and punish the perpetrators and prevent future attacks.
Speaking at the River Theater in Astoria, Oregon on her way to Chicago to an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Kelly Campbell, representing the September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows said that the present violent response appears to have had the perverse effect of failing to identify the attacker, while simultaneously decreasing world security and increasing the sense of frustration with and even hatred of the U.S. that may have motivated the attacks in the first place.
Campbell said it is evident from the public response to September Eleventh Families that many, if not most, Americans question the effectiveness, not to mention the humanity of the present U.S. "war on terrorism.". The present emphasis of her organization is to provide immediate relief to the men, women, and children who are innocent victims of the American bombing campaign ("war") in Afghanistan. They are pressing for Congressional action as well as raising funds privately through the Afghan Sister Families Fund to provide compensation for those hurt unintentionally by our bombs.
September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows is a group of family members, now numbering over 40, who have joined together to plead with the world to stop the violence being done in their names and in the names of their loved ones who died in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Their organization was formed by a chance group of survivors of the victims of the attack who gathered in the first hours to await news of their relatives. They say they knew from those first moments that a violent response was certain, yet tragically, knew it was just as certain that such a response would fail to provide any sense of justice or closure to the survivors and it would fail to provide any security to the world at large. They took their name from Martin Luther King Jr.'s assertion that "The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows."
September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows was awarded the Pax Christi National Peacemakers Award on May 18. "Most of all," the presenter said, "I was inspired by their radical choice and their courage: their courage in addressing the current political situation in the midst of their own personal tragedy, their courage in voicing unpopular opinions in a time of war, and their courage in opening themselves up to criticism from the public at large, and especially, other people whose loved ones had also been killed on September 11th. They continue their courageous and compassionate activism."
Kelly Campbell's presentation, "The Power of Non-violence: Exploring Alternatives" was the second in a planned series of programs produced by the North Coast Peace Coalition and the Clatsop Community College Arts & Ideas Program to bring an awareness of the logic and utility of a non-violent approach to conflict resolution to the residents of the North Coast. Non-violent conflict resolution does not advocate tolerating evil-- it requires that evil-doers be exposed and punished. But following Mahatma Ghandi (and his illustrious predecessors) it argues that returning violence for violence merely increases the sum total of destruction, not justice.
Join the North Coast Peace Coalition at their Friday afternoon vigil at the Astoria Post Office from 5-6 pm-- or wave as you drive by.
|
e-mail: 
http://www.peacefultomorrows.org/
