March 21, 2006

Dear Friends and Family,

I am writing to explain my most recent activity, designed to speed the end of the war on Iraq.  On March 20, the third anniversary of the invasion, I joined with others who yearn for peace and an end to the ongoing destruction of Iraq in a march to the Pentagon, an event called "From Mourning to Resistance."  Our signs said "Mourn the Dead, Heal the Wounded, Stop the War."  We carried coffins to symbolize the carnage unleashed in Iraq. 

The National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance organized the Pentagon protest, and I and two others participated as members of PeaceAction Montgomery.

We read names of just a few of the people who have died in the war, and we said, "Remember.  Mourn.  Resist."  But there was not enough time to name them all, for that would have taken so many hours, and there are so many whose names we do not know.  Over 2,300 Americans have died, and some estimates suggest that more than 100,000 Iraqis have been killed. 

We remembered the wounded, as well, those whose lives have been shattered. U.S. casualties now include some 17,000 injured.    For myself, I can't forget the story of the four-year-old little Iraqi boy whose whole family was killed by one of our missiles, and although he survived, he lost both his arms.  He reportedly kept asking, "When will I get my arms back?"  This story stays with me so vividly because my grandson, Nico, is just that age. 

So perhaps you can begin to understand why, at age 60, I found myself-somewhat to my surprise-facing a phalanx of police and climbing over a fence-a five-foot temporary barrier placed by police to prevent access to the Pentagon parking lot.  After I climbed over the fence, I was handcuffed and arrested.  Fifty others were also arrested.  Why would I do that?  Because I've concluded that nonviolent resistance by ordinary people like me is the only way it is possible for this government to begin to hear what we, the citizens, have to say. 

A majority of Americans have now determined that the war is wrong.  We understand that the longer the U.S. stays in Iraq, the greater the destruction and the more deaths and horrible injuries.  But our government continues on the same path.  Just last week, the House of Representatives voted another $67 billion for the war-a "supplemental appropriation" over and above what had already been allocated in this fiscal year.  The Senate will vote on the supplemental in late April or early May and is expected to pass it without even a murmur of dissent.  Imagine what $67 billion could do for health care, or education, or cancer research, in our own country. 

A Zogby poll in January found that a large majority of Iraqis want the U.S. to leave immediately; so the latest rationale for the U.S. to be in Iraq-- to protect the Iraqis from each other, from civil war--seems specious:  they don't want our "protection."  We're certainly not there to protect the U.S. from weapons of mass destruction, and based on the information that has now become public from myriad sources, we never were.  The argument that we are preventing Iraq from being a haven for terrorists is laughable; Iraq has become a recruiting ground for terrorists because of the U.S. presence.  It certainly wasn't before the invasion.  By leaving Iraq, we would decrease the incentive for people to join anti-U.S. groups; that is, we would decrease the likelihood of terrorism.

I have to admit that I'm relieved that none of us were injured in the Pentagon protest.  And I doubt that I'll have to go to jail, something I'm also relieved about.  My courage is quite limited.  But I am finding that each time I confront the government about this terrible war, I feel the strength grow a little bit inside me. 

My hope is that more and more of us will seek to do all that we possibly can to work for peace-and then just a little bit more.  I have found that strength and courage flow from action and that taking one small step makes it possible to take the next.  Since those of us who believe that the war must end are in the majority now, we have power on our side.  No one in Congress or in the Administration will stop the tragedy of this war, however-until we force them to.  We must demand an end to the war and an accounting for the lies and deceptions that took us there-if we would do that, surely we would prevail. 

Martin Luther King, Jr. said,

In peace and with love,

Jean