FUSsa-talk Mailing List: Fwd: Letter to the Nobel Committee

[Robert Tapp (tappx001]

I didn't see any UU signers here!

Bob

Begin forwarded message:

> From: UFPJ Alerts <listmaster [at] unitedforpeace.org>
> Date: December 10, 2009 5:51:19 PM CST
> 
> Subject: Letter to the Nobel Committee
> Reply-To: ufpj [at] mail.democracyinaction.org
> 
> 
> December 9, 2009
>  
> An Open Letter to The Norwegian Nobel Committee.
>  
> On December 10, you will award the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize to President Barack 
> Obama, citing "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international 
> diplomacy and cooperation between people." We the undersigned are distressed 
> that President Obama, so close upon his receipt of this honor, has opted to 
> escalate the U.S. war in Afghanistan with the deployment of 30,000 additional 
> troops. We regret that he could not be guided by the example of a previous 
> Nobel Peace Laureate, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who identified his 
> peace prize as "profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the 
> crucial political and moral question of our time -- the need for man [sic] to 
> overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and 
> oppression."
>  
> President Obama has insisted that his troop escalation is a necessary 
> response to dangerous instability in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but we reject 
> the notion that military action will advance the region's stability, or our 
> own national security. In his peace prize acceptance speech, Dr. King 
> observed that "Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts…man [sic] 
> must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression 
> and retaliation." As people committed to end the occupation of Iraq and 
> Afghanistan, we are filled with remorse by this new decision of our 
> president, for it will not bring peace.
>  
> Declaring his opposition to the Vietnam War, Dr. King insisted that "no one 
> who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore 
> the present war…We must continue to raise our voices and our lives if our 
> nation persists in its perverse ways… We are at the moment when our lives 
> must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly. Every 
> man [sic] of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits 
> his convictions, but we must all protest."
>  
> We pledge ourselves to mobilize our constituencies in the spirit of Dr. 
> King's nonviolent and committed example. His prophetic words will guide us as 
> we assemble in the halls of Congress, in local offices of elected 
> representatives, and in the streets of our cities and towns, protesting every 
> proposal that will continue funding war. We will actively and publicly oppose 
> the war funding which President Obama will soon seek from Congress and 
> re-commit ourselves to the protracted struggle against U.S. war-making in 
> Iraq and Afghanistan.
>  
> We assume that the Nobel Committee chose to award President Obama the peace 
> prize in full awareness of the vision offered by Dr. King's acceptance 
> speech. We also understand that the Nobel committee may now regret that 
> decision in light of recent developments, as we believe that the committee 
> should be reluctant to present an Orwellian message equating peace with war. 
> When introducing the President, the Committee should, at the very least, 
> exhibit a level of compassion and humility by drawing attention to this 
> distressing ambiguity.
>  
> We will do all we can to ensure that popular pressure will soon bring 
> President Obama to an acceptance of the duties which this prize, and even 
> more his electoral mandate to be a figure of change, impose upon him.  He 
> must end the catastrophic policies of occupation and war that have caused so 
> much destruction, so many deaths and displacements, and so much injury to our 
> own democratic traditions.
>  
> This prize is not a meaningless honor.  We pledge, ourselves obeying its call 
> to nonviolent action, to make our President worthy of it.
>  
> Sincerely,
>  
> 
> 
> Jack Amoureux - Board of Directors
> Military Families Speak Out
>  
> Medea Benjamin - Co-Founder,
> Global Exchange
>  
> Frida Berrigan - Witness Against Torture
>  
> Elaine Brower - World Can't Wait
>  
> Leslie Cagan - Co-Founder
> United for Peace and Justice
>  
> Bob Cooke - Regional Coordinator
> Pax Christi USA, Pax Christi Metro, DC and Baltimore
>  
> Tom Cornell - Catholic Peace Fellowship
>  
> Matt Daloisio - War Resisters League
>  
> Marie Dennis - Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
>  
> Laurie Dobson - Director,
> End US Wars
>  
> Mike Ferner - National President
> Veterans For Peace
>  
> Joy First- Convener
> National Campaign for Non-Violent Resistance
>  
> Sara Flounders - International Action Center
>  
> Diana Gibson - Christian Peace Witness
>  
> Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb - Shomer Shalom Network for Jewish Nonviolence
>  
> David Hartsough - Peaceworkers, San Francisco
>  
> Mike Hearington - Georgia Peace & Justice Coalition
>  
> Kimber J. Heinz - Organizing Coordinator
> War Resisters League
>  
> Mark Johnson - Director
> Fellowship of Reconciliation
>  
> Kathy Kelly - Co-coordinator
> Voices for Creative Non-Violence
>  
> Leslie Kielson - Co-Chair
> United for Peace and Justice
>  
> Malachy Kilbride - National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance
>  
> Kevin Martin - Executive Director
> Peace Action and Peace Action Education Fund
>  
> Linda LeTendre - Saratoga [New York] Peace Alliance
>  
> Michael T. McPhearson - National Executive Director,
> Veterans For Peace
>  
> Gael Murphy - Co-Founder,
> Code Pink
>  
> Sheila Musaji - The American Muslim
>  
> Michael Nagler - Founder
> Metta Center for Nonviolence
>  
> Max Obuszewski - Pledge of Resistance Baltimore and Baltimore Nonviolence 
> Center
>  
> Pete Perry - Peace of the Action
>  
> Dave Robinson, Executive Director
> Pax Christi
>  
> David Swanson - AfterDowningStreet.org
>  
> Terry Rockefeller - Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
>  
> Samina Sundas - Founding Executive Director
> The American Muslim Voice
>  
> Nancy Tsou - Coordinator,
> Rockland Coalition for Peace and Justice
>  
> Diane Turco - Cape Codders for Peace and Justice
>  
> Marge Van Cleef - Womens International League for Peace and Freedom
>  
> Jose Vasquez - Executive Director
> Iraq Veterans Against the War
>  
> Craig Wiesner
> Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice
>  
> Scott Wright - Pax Christi Metro DC - Baltimore
>  
> Kevin Zeese - Executive Director
> Voters for Peace
> 
> 
>  
> Along with delivering this open letter to the Nobel Peace Committee, 
> activists will present it at a rally in Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C. on 
> Saturday, December 12th, 11 a.m. - 4 p.m., www.enduswar.org
> 
> 
>  
>  
> 
> Help us continue to do this critical work: Make a donation to UFPJ today.
> 
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