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WASHINGTON
- September 21 - Thousands of American citizens are organizing in opposition to military
retaliation in response to the WTC and Pentagon attacks. “While the
President, congress and much of the media are calling for war,” said Kevin
Martin, Peace Action’s Executive Director. “many American citizens are
calling for an end to the cycle of violence. People from across the nation
are voicing opposition to the murder of innocent civilians inside and
outside of US borders.”
Peace Action chapters across the country, along with local peace groups,
have organized vigils, demonstrations and educational events that have drawn
crowds of thousands. Large crowds have gathered at peace vigils in New York,
New Jersey, Missouri, Maine, Oregon, and California. Thousands more have
attended educational events such as those at the University of North
Carolina, North Carolina State University, and Goshen College.
In addition to voicing a call for restraint, the actions have denounced
attacks on Muslims and Arab-Americans. In New Hampshire an emergency
response network is being formed to respond to anti-Arab racism.
The Student Peace Action Network(SPAN), in association with local campus
organizations, held actions at 105 colleges throughout the nation yesterday.
SPAN has chapters on 42 college campuses and a presence on 80 more.
Dozens of local actions are planned across the country in the next few days.
Vigils and teach-ins are planned in many states, including California, New
Jersey, New York, Illinois, North Carolina, Maine and Wisconsin. Many other
locales are gearing up for events in the following weeks. Peace groups
around the nation are being flooded with calls and emails from concerned
citizens who want to get involved.
“Resorting to indiscriminate violence not only brings us to the level of the
terrorists, but it plays right into their hands,” said Martin, “such
violence will produce the fear and hatred in the terrorists’ homelands that
they need to prosper – it enables them to bring ever more violence against
those they see as their enemy.”
“People want justice, not vengeance.” said Martin, “The perpetrators of
these heinous crimes should be punished in the courts. Military strikes
will take thousands of more innocent lives. A great nation does not punish
the innocent to assuage its anguish.”
Peace Action is the nation’s largest grassroots peace and disarmament
organization with 85,000 members nationwide. Peace Action, formerly
Sane/Freeze, organizes for the abolition of nuclear weapons, an end to the
international arms trade, an end to excessive Pentagon spending, and
peaceful resolution of violent conflicts.
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